Great Bodily Injury
1 Corinthians 6:9-20
The second least popular teaching of the
church concerns sex. The teaching is at once simple and
profound, and we should deal with it directly:
(1 Cor 6:9-20 NIV) Do you not know that the
wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor
male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders {10} nor thieves nor
the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will
inherit the kingdom of God. {11} And that is what some of you
were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit
of our God. {12} "Everything is permissible for me"--but not
everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for
me"--but I will not be mastered by anything. {13} "Food for the
stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them
both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the
Lord, and the Lord for the body. {14} By his power God raised
the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. {15} Do you
not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I
then take the members of Christ and unite them with a
prostitute? Never! {16} Do you not know that he who unites
himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is
said, "The two will become one flesh." {17} But he who unites
himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. {18} Flee from
sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his
body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. {19}
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your
own; {20} you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with
your body.
Before and After
It is instructive to see just exactly what
Paul lists as being wicked – for we shall see that our own sense
of wickedness has declined even from this time.
·
Sexually immoral –
the root word is the one from which we take our word
“pornography” – it means those whose attitude and
actions toward sex is just like ours – leering lust.
·
Idolaters – a common
thing in Paul’s day; one who worshiped at the shrine of
another God. Today it is fashionable again – we call it
New Age thinking.
·
Adulterers – the word
means exactly what it says: those who have sex outside
of their marriage.
·
Male prostitutes –
perhaps the reason Paul mentions these explicitly is
that Corinth had over a thousand female prostitutes as
priestesses in the Temple of Aphrodite. This may just be
equal opportunity.
·
Homosexual offenders
– just in case you’ve been told that the Bible never
says anything about homosexuality, here it is.
·
Thieves – even we
have our limits. Theft is still considered a sin –
unless you do it from poverty, revenge or the theft is
small enough.
·
Greedy – this is no
longer a sin for us; it is now called being an
entrepreneur. It is now considered a Republican virtue.
·
Drunkards – even this
has lost its sense of sin, and is now an illness.
·
Slanderers – we now
refer to these as political commentators.
·
Swindlers – still a
sin in our time, if you do it on a petty scale. If you
swindle billions, however, you can still be admired.
A pretty collection, that. But remember that
the only qualification for becoming a Christian is this: you
have to be a sinner first.
We’ve lost the sense of that. We ask people
to “join the church.” To do that, you must be, in some sense,
“good enough.” You should be able to fit in with our crowd – and
we go to great lengths to see that you will have a smooth fit.
Our worship services are remodeled; no longer based on the rock,
but rock and roll. If people will not join, perhaps it is
because they no longer see any point in it.
Paul would have had a different appeal: good
news. His call would have been based upon Christ and the good
news of the Gospel. But is it good news? Only to those who know
themselves to be sinners. It is the purpose of the Holy Spirit
to convict the world of sin and judgment to come. We do the
world no service – and, I think, deny our Lord – when we tell
the world, “There, there – it’s all right. It’s just your
hormones acting up.” That’s why this list of sins is here: to
remind you there is a right and a wrong – and that we all are
sinners.
But look at us now – washed!
The word in the Greek means “to wash
completely.” It carries with it a sense of complete cleansing.
There is no sense of “good enough to get by;” it is a thorough
cleansing. It is the process of getting rid of the filth. But do
remember: if you do this, you must have needed it.
But look at us now – sanctified!
The word is also the root of the Greek word
for “holy.” It means consecrated, purified, set apart for the
service of God. This brings two challenges to the typical
Christian:
·
Do you feel that you really
are “different” from the rest of the people in this
world? That you really don’t belong here; the world is
not my home, I’m just passing through? Or do you
desperately want to fit in with this world?
·
Do you know that God has a
purpose for you. The word means “set apart” – but why?
God sets things apart not to sit on the shelf, but to be
used for his purposes. One reason our youth spends its
time being “against” this and that (mostly their
parents) is that we have never given them anything to be
“for.”
But look at us now – justified!
The word means to be regarded as innocent, to
be regarded as pure.
I once sat in a courtroom, waiting for a
friend’s trial. As we sat, the judge went through a stack of
folders, each one representing a drunk driving arrest. He would
review the record, and if the person had finished the required
measures he would announce to him, “Mr. Smith, you may now say
that you have never been convicted for drunk driving.”
At first I thought this absurd. Then I
remembered how difficult it would be to get a job if you had
been arrested for drunk driving – something no respectable firm
would want. But the real impact came when I remembered: my Lord
did the same thing for me, at the Cross. I am justified, by His
blood.
Legalism and License
Truth is always stuck between two lies.
Christian liberty lies between legalism on the right and license
on the left. It’s interesting to compare the view of the
Corinthians with our own:
·
Their view was this: God’s
grace has set us free from the Law. Therefore, we might
as well go ahead and have sex with whomever, wherever.
God’s grace will abound even more; we’re covered. The
Law no longer applies.
·
Our view is this: what sin?
How could anything so beautiful as sex be a sin?
Both of these are moral stupidity; theirs
does seem a bit more sophisticated, however.
Paul asks these people freed of the law two
simple questions.
Is it beneficial?
The King James uses the word, “expedient.”
The original Greek word carries the sense of something which
“comes together.” In other words, just from the point of view of
this world, is this a very bright idea?
·
We speak as if adultery were
a victimless crime. Perhaps I have been incredibly lucky
in this, but I have never seen it so. His adultery
shatters her; hers destroys him. Children suffer in
either case. Adultery causes years of pain for a few
minutes of stolen pleasure.
·
If that were not enough, we
have the specter of venereal disease. Hard enough to
bring this on yourself; even more so to inflict it upon
your wife. And if you and your wife both die of AIDS,
what have you done to your children?
·
Even with the greatest of
repentance and forgiveness, the sense of trust which
rests so innocently in marriage is destroyed. Trust is
very difficult to rebuild.
Is it slavery?
Slavery? Anything which masters you makes you
its slave. The word used here is one which connotes “authority.”
Any passion which masters you has authority over you – and that
is a denial of Christ.
You think not? Have you ever seen a man
addicted to pornography? I have struggled with this myself, and
it is not until you admit its mastery – and appeal to your
Master to take his right place – that it can be conquered.
The classic example of this is in Alcoholics
Anonymous – everything depends upon God, not upon your own
efforts. If your own efforts were sufficient, you’d not be in
the mess to start with.
Doctrine of the Body
This brings us, then, to the root of the
matter: the human body. It often surprises Christians to learn
that there is actually a doctrine of the body, and that it is
not completely concerned with sex. But, in its rudiments, we
need to understand it.
To be human is to have a body
That which distinguishes the angels from man
is the body. We are hybrids; we are spirits in an animal body.
·
Which is why our Lord came
in the flesh. Any argument – and there have been many –
which says that our Lord is not fully human is false.
For if He is not fully human, then he is not acceptable
as the Atonement. Therefore, our Lord has a body just
like ours. Moreover, as He lives forever, the body MUST
be resurrected from the grave – as it indeed was.
·
Therefore, our resurrection
from the grave is also required. We are to live forever
with Him; we are human, and therefore must have a body.
Therefore we must be raised from the dead, just as
Christ was. His resurrection is the first; and the
promise of ours.
Sex unites one human body with another
Note that it is sex – not marriage. In a very
real sense, food is temporary; we will not need it at the
resurrection. But sex is permanent. How do we know this? Because
Christ describes the church as his Bride. From the earliest days
of faith, it is known that “the two become one flesh.” The
entire doctrine of how a husband should treat his wife comes
from this thought.
But – by the same reasoning – sex with
someone not your spouse is a sin against your own body – for the
two of you are one flesh. It is worse than that, however.
We are united in Christ
We, the church, are called the Body of
Christ. We are united spiritually with Him, just as I am united
physically with my wife. How did this happen? It is simple: I
was bought with a price, the price of Christ’s blood. Note that
this too is from the body.
Chrysostom gives us an example that would
have been practical in his time; stretch your mind to accept it,
for it is instructive. Suppose, woman, that your father tired of
feeding you and (in a fit of madness, says Chrysostom) sells you
to the local whorehouse. There you are required to be a
prostitute, selling your body to any man who comes along, for
the benefit of the pimp who owns the place.
But then suppose that the son of the King
comes by. He redeems you; he buys you out of that slavery in the
whorehouse. He takes you to his palace and makes you his bride.
Can your father now return you to prostitution? No, he has his
money.
Then consider, woman, how ungrateful, how
horrible it would be if you decided, on your own, to go back to
the whorehouse after marriage to the King’s son. What an insult
to your husband! What an insult to his Father, the King! Should
you not expect the most severe of punishment for such a thing?
You and I are like that woman. We are bought
with a price, redeemed from the whorehouse of Satan. He no
longer has authority over us; why, then, should we surrender
ourselves back into his slavery?
