Paul's Favorite Question: Part 4

Continuing through Paul’s inspired writings and addressing his “Do ye not know” passages, we come to First Corinthians 6 where the question is found six times. The church of God in Corinth was far from perfect. Nearly every one of the sixteen chapters introduces to us a new issue that Paul had to address. Immorality was clearly a problem within the congregation and that is what will be tackled first.

“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith He, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body” (1 Cor. 6:15-18). Imagine writing to a congregation of God’s people and having to deal with this specific sin that was apparently rather common! The sad reality is that sexual sin is extremely prevalent in both the world and the church still! While Christians understand that such behavior will be in the world (1 Cor. 5:9-10), it is hard to believe that children of God participate in such - yet they do. In recent years The Barna Group has reported that 75% of Christian men and 40% of Christian women report consuming sexually explicit material. Also, 22% of “practicing Christians” view pornography weekly, while 7% view it daily. Just as sad, congregations everywhere are impacted regularly by fornication, adultery, and divorce and remarriage among its members.

The Christian’s body is to be offered as a “living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Rom. 12:1-2). Paul also wrote, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that we should abstain from fornication. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the lust of concupiscence (passion of lust - NKJ), even as the Gentiles which know not God” (1 Thes. 4:3-5). Christians should be able to control their bodies! That is why Paul asked the Corinthians twice - “Know ye not?” The body is for the Lord (1 Cor. 6:13), not fornication. Paul asked them a very pointed question - “Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot” (1 Cor. 6:15)? The sexual union between a man and woman is reserved strictly for marriage. “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but fornicators and adulterers God will judge” (Heb. 13:4). Paul appealed all the way back to creation itself and the institution of the home (1 Cor. 6:16). His question to Corinth - “Don’t you know that?!” The Corinthians had heard the gospel, believed it, and been baptized into Christ (Acts 18:8). As such, they were members of His body (1 Cor. 12). In the sin of fornication, a person takes what God has designed for a very specific purpose and uses it for his own temporary pleasure. The phrase “Flee fornication” should take our minds back to Genesis 39 and what happened to Joseph. His master’s wife was lusting after him and did everything within her power to get him to lie with her (Gen. 39:6-10). She did this every day to a young, powerful, attractive man! What was his response? When she grabbed his coat, “he left his garment in her hand, and fled outside” (Gen. 39:12). Joseph literally had to “flee fornication!”

Within the same context, Paul asks a third time: “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). I’ll begin this section by saying this - this will not be a discussion of the “indwelling of the Holy Spirit” in the sense of how. Paul simply states what is the case and that is what is to be addressed here. The point Paul is making is - “ye are not your own.” One commentator wrote, “They belonged to the Lord. Therefore, they did not have the liberty to do what they wanted to do with their bodies. Instead, they were obligated to do what the Lord who owned them commanded.”1

The New Testament speaks repeatedly about what Christ purchased with His sacrifice. He purchased the church “with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Peter wrote, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19). Jesus purchased eternal redemption for us with His blood (Heb. 9:11-14). In view of those truths, our bodies are to be used to glorify God in all we do. Paul also wrote, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

Think about what Paul wrote of the Corinthians in chapter six. “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). That is a pretty specific list of sins! The Bible says that all unrighteousness is sin (1 Jn. 5:17). The Corinthians had lived lives of absolute debauchery! Yet, Paul also wrote, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). That is a major contrast in realities! They had been washed, like Paul himself, in baptism (Acts 22:16). To be sanctified is to be made holy or consecrated to God (2 Cor. 6:17). To be justified is to be acknowledged as righteous before God. As John wrote, “He that does righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous” (1 Jn. 3:7).

In First Corinthians 6, Paul asked his favorite question six times! There are some things that Christians should just know!

Endnotes:

1. Mike Willis, “A Commentary to Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians,” (Monroe County Press, Tompkinsville, KY, 1979), pg. 204.