Flee Sexual Immorality: 1 Corinthians 6:12–20✞
This is a passage that might seem archaic to modern readers, for whom the concept of “sexual immorality” is a foreign one – or, if we do think there’s such a thing as “sexual immorality,” it’s something really extreme, like child abuse. (I’m not the kind of person who goes on and on about the decay in moral values, but in this particular case, where I live, I can say that, no, we don’t think in terms of “sexual immorality.”) But that’s exactly what we’re looking at in this passage: sexual immorality.
This is a short enough passage that we can read it in its entirety, before going through bit by bit:
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Let’s to through that piece by piece.
First, Paul addresses what I assume are either thoughts from the Corinthians (from a previous letter), or just general thinking of the day, starting with this:
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
It’s striking to me that I was just having this conversation the day before I wrote this post with someone else, but there’s a very real difference between saying, “you can’t lose your salvation, no matter what you do – nothing is beyond the power of what Christ has done,” which is true, and saying, “you can do whatever you want and it doesn’t matter,” which is not true. It’s true in the very narrow sense of the first saying, in that it doesn’t matter to the point that you’ll lose your salvation, but to say it doesn’t matter at all is just plain false.
As Paul says here, regardless of whether something is “lawful,” will it be helpful? Will it dominate me? To extend that further, will it make me more like Christ?
He continues with another of these sayings:
13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
In the modern world we think similar to how the Corinthians thought: “we’re just animals,” we say, “so we should feed our animalistic needs and desires.” Often, when we say this, we’re talking about sex, which is what Paul is talking about here (even though he’s using the food metaphor).
Except… we’re not just animals! We’re more than animals; we’re made in the image of God – and our bodies are made for Him. There is wisdom in taking care of our physical needs; we need to eat properly, and get enough sleep, and exercise. But we shouldn’t reduce ourselves to the point that we think we’re “just” animals, especially those of us who are Christians, but all humans are more than just animals.
He continues with a slightly more specific example:
14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
I’ve heard people saying that this doesn’t mean any prostitutes, because prostitution didn’t exist in that time the say way it exists now, this was temple prostitution, which is different, so Paul is talking about something specific: worshipping other gods. I’ve also heard people go in the opposite direction: the only way you could really commit adultery at the time was with a prostitute, so what Paul is really talking about here is any adultery, it just so happened that the way one would typically commit adultery was through prostitution. But if you happened to sleep with your neighbour, that would also fall into this category.
Given the overall context of the passage, I think it’s much closer to the latter than the former; Paul is talking about sexual immorality. Forget the details about who you’re having sex with and under what circumstances; focus on verse 15: if I’m a Christian, and I’m having sex with someone, I’m essentially joining Christ with that person. Should I be ashamed of what I’m doing? If I’m with my wife, no; sex within a marriage is to be enjoyed and cherished. Under any other circumstances, though…
If this feels very restrictive, it’s because it is. For most cultures, throughout most of history, it didn’t seem that restrictive, but for us, in today’s world, it does. But, as stated above, we’re not just animals. We’re human beings. We have self control – especially if we’re Christians (which is Paul’s audience), because we have the Holy Spirit.
Paul concludes the chapter not by telling us to refrain from sexual immorality, but to flee from it – we should be running away in fear!
18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
I think that last point is, maybe, the most important: we should stop thinking of sexual immorality in terms of what we’re “not allowed to do” and instead think in terms of what will glorify God.
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