Glorify God in Your Body

Glorify God in Your Body

2018-01-14 – Year B – Epiphany 2 – The Rev. Christopher Klukas

1 Samuel 3:1-20; Psalm 63:1-8; 1 Corinthians 6:9-20; John 1:43-51

Such Were Some of You

• Paul doesn’t pull any punches in our Epistle reading this morning. He is blunt.
• 1 Cor 6:9-10: none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
• This teaching is directed towards the church in Corinth, to believers.
• All of us should feel convicted as we read through this list, that is the point.
• Paul reminds these believers that “such were some of you.” But then he also reminds them of what Jesus has done for them. 1 Cor 6:11.
• When we come into a saving relationship with Jesus, we are called to leave our old life of sin behind. Does this mean sin goes away completely when we become Christians?
  • No, we inevitably continue to sin, even as we strive for holiness. But this passage is a call to continual repentance.
• The law and grace
  • 1 Cor 6:12 “All things are lawful [“permissible,” NIV] for me.” This is probably something that the Corinthians were saying to justify their sin. It may even be derived from Paul’s own teaching about legalism.
    • “I’ll sin knowing that God will forgive me”
    • If people knew they wouldn’t get stopped for speeding there would be a lot more breaking of the speed limit.
  • “You are not your own, you were bought with a price” (19b-20a). The price is the blood of Jesus. When we accept Jesus into our lives, we leave slavery to sin and we become slaves of Christ. This answers the question posed in v. 12 about “all things being lawful.”
  • Sin is not good for us, it is not helpful for us, and it drives us farther away from the one to whom we are supposed to be united, Jesus Christ.

Sexual Immorality

• So why does Paul single out sexual sin and go into such great detail about it?
  • 1 Cor 6:18 “the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
  • Peter Jensen, Gafcon: Why shouldn’t we just stop talking about sex and focus on Jesus? “it undervalues the power of sexual transgression to damage us as human beings and to damage our relationship with God. Our sexual instincts are so powerful and so central to our lives that they are integral to our personal identity. When we misuse our body by abandoning God’s instructions, it helps corrupt our self-understanding. It is actually cruel.”
• We were made to be in relationship with God. The deepest longing of our hearts, whether we realize it or not, is to be united with Christ.
  • God uses marriage throughout the scriptures as a metaphor for his relationship with his people.
  • It is not surprising that this would be an area that the enemy chooses to attack.
  • Broken down marriages are a symptom of this, but so is widespread sexual sin.
• Sexual sin was rampant in the Corinthian church. 1 Cor 5:1
  • Corinth was known for its “temple of Aphrodite, goddess of love, whose service gave rise to the city’s proverbial immorality…”
• Sexual immorality is rampant today in our own culture.
  • This is not to point the finger at those outside the church, but inside the church, we must hold ourselves to the biblical standards of sexual morality.
• The scriptures make us uncomfortable when they challenge our behavior, but this is an invitation to become free from the sins to which we are enslaved.
  • Remember, you are not your own, you were bought with a price.
• So what exactly is the “sexual immorality” that Paul speaks of?
  • The greek word is “porneia” Chiefly it refers to all sexual intercourse outside of marriage, including fornication (and cohabitation), adultery, homosexual behavior, and all other unnatural intercourse. By extension, this also includes all forms of lust as well (Matthew 5:28).
• Pornography, a plague on our culture and a plague on the Church as well.
  • In our culture, the viewing of pornographic materials is widespread and accepted.
  • In the church
    • 41% of males aged 13-24 and 13% of females aged 13-24 regularly view
    • 23% of males age 25+ and 5% of females age 25+ regularly view
  • This is a silent danger, hidden behind closed doors, but deeply damaging to marriages and relationships, and deeply damaging to the individuals who are seduced by it. It changes brain chemistry and can be powerfully addictive. Many are enslaved by it, and many who wish they could stop can’t.
  • If this describes you, please come and talk to me. Help is available. Don’t go it alone.

Glorify God in Your Body

• As Christians we are called to flee from all sin, including sexual sin, but this fleeing is not the end, in and of itself.
• We are called to flee from sin so that we can be “temples of the Holy Spirit” and “Glorify God in our bodies” (v. 20). God can’t inhabit a place that is not holy.
• Loving, serving, praising God, working with our hands, creating beauty, tending God’s creation, sharing the Gospel, encouraging others. All of these are ways that we can glorify God in our bodies.