1 Corinthians - Talk 5

Do not be deceived, but flee sexual immorality because you belong to the Lord.
Intro
The crowning objective of Western civilization is liberty or freedom. For instance the American declaration of Independence which was written on the 4th July 1776 says,
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

So let me ask you this would you describe yourself as being free?
Lets have a show of hands who says ‘yes’, who says ‘no’.

See what you answered to that question really depends on how you define freedom doesn’t it?

In the context of the American declaration, the freedom was a freedom from slavery, so in that sense the answer is ‘yes’ in Australia today we are free. But in our society today the definition of freedom is getting broader and broader.

And yet in spite of this great quest for individual freedoms, we as a society still recognize the need to restrict personal freedoms for the good of all, and indeed in many cases for the good of the individual.

So as an example I am free to drive on the road because I have a licence, but I am not free to do it on the right-hand side of the Road in this country! I mean in a sense of being physically able, you are free to do it, but I guarantee it won’t end well.

But If there is one area in particular that society today champions of the rights of the individual to freedom, it is in the area of their sexuality. A maxim of today’s society is that, ‘this is my body and I have a right to do with it as I please.’
But there is a fundamental problem with this view, and Paul is going to demonstrate that today. Paul is going to point out that God has created his world, and he has made it so that our freedoms with sexuality and our body have particular limits. Limits that are pleasing to him and are for our good.

And Paul will remind the Christians in Corinth, that the world doesn’t know everything in the area of sexuality, because they don’t know the most important rule of the game. They don’t know God the creator. So Paul starts our passage today with a warning:
Don’t be deceived and swindled out of your inheritance, you are no longer like that!
9 Do you not know that
the wicked (Unrighteous)
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.

The apostle Paul gives to the Corinthians three commands in the passage today on the first of these is;
Number one, don’t be deceived. Paul says don’t Be deceived and swindled out of your inheritance, your inheritance of the Kingdom of God.

Now what is Paul mean about deception? Well deception is something that has been around throughout the history of God’s people. Back to the time of Genesis, this temptation through deception, is so old that in fact it has been around literally since Adam was a boy!

Even back in the Garden of Eden as you may remember God’s people were deceived into giving away their inheritance. This deception came through the snake, who will ask the question, “did God really say?”. And you know what, that deception hasn’t changed through the whole of the history of God’s people. The deception that God’s people have always been susceptible to, is the question, ‘did God really say?’.

And this is the deception, that the Corinthians were susceptible to as well. Only the challenge for them didn’t come from the words of a snake in the Garden, but from the words of the wisdom of their age. The words of wisdom from their age about sexual liberation, and in their freedom in their ability to do whatever they chose.

The question their society posed to the Corinthians believers seems to have been, ‘Did God really say you can’t do these things with your body?’
‘Did God really say you can’t just have sex with any person you desired?
Surely you understand it doesn’t really matter what we do only in the body,
surely we’re enlightened spiritual people that know that what we do in the body does not effect what happens with the spirit?’
But in contrast Paul says that for the Christian the spiritual and physical go together in the one-person, so what you do in your body counts.

So we can see from the Corinthian situation, even though its 2000 years ago, some things never change. God’s people Today are still challenged through this Age old deception, as old as life itself, the question “did God really say?”.

Did God really say a husband and wife only? But what about people who are in a really committed relationship?
Did God really say not two men, nor two women? But we live in an age of tolerance and love?
Did God really say drink but not drunk? But we’re Australians for crying out Loud!

Now what are we supposed to make of this list of sins that Paul outlines for us versus 9 and 10? Why are these particular things listed as sins?

Firstly, God is showing us that these Sins in themselves are clear outward signs or symptoms, of a person who is in their inner inclinations, hostile towards God and his rule, and most importantly his son. They are a clear sign from God that they are unrighteous people and the ones who will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Secondly, these actions are wrong because they are out of step with the creation that God has made.

And God as our creator, knows what he made the world for, and he knows how he intended to work. And yet these people in their actions, that God expressly prohibits, are saying that they know better than God.

This is an absurd situation isn’t it?
You can’t get a manufacture good, And then decide after the fact what you think it’s supposed to be used for can you?
Have a go at slipping a piece of bread inside the VCR and then see if you can get a toast out of it?
It doesn’t make any sense does it?
You can’t ignore reality!

These actions are wrong not just because they are sinful but also because they are out a step with the reality of what God has made. These things actually aren’t good for us. These things by definition can’t end in fulfillment, but frustration. You cannot constantly go up against God and his creation (which is another way of saying reality) and expect to find fulfillment. All you can expect is frustration and a frustration that ends in losing your inheritance of the kingdom of God.

Living the way God instructs and intends it is good for us here in this world but it is especially good for us because it ensures that we will not forfeit our inheritance of the kingdom of God.

Paul commands us, don’t be deceived and swindled out of your inheritance!


Now in a group this large there is no doubt Christian people who do struggle with some of the issues that were just mentioned. This is a real issue for Christian people otherwise why would Paul need to warn Christians to turn away from the things?
But the point Paul wants to make here is that if we find ourselves struggling with these things we do need to turn away from them, we need to repent from them. And Paul goes on to say that we need to remember what we have been made.


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.


Once they were Ungodly and inclined to do these things. But now they have been made new. They have been made new by God. And in fact it’s not just any god but the Christian God who undertakes this work.

As you may have noticed, Paul uses profoundly Trinitarian language in describing the work of God in our salvation. God the Father has acted in the Lord Jesus Christ to win the salvation for all his people for all who would believe in his name. And this profound work of the Lord Jesus is applied to individual believers, both powerfully and personally, through the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

The Christian God is the Trinitarian God. The God who is Father, and Son and Holy Spirit, The three persons who are the one God, each of whom is actively and personally involved in winning our salvation and in applying it to our lives, and this includes making our inheritance sure. God’s faithfulness in action and personal love towards us in Jesus Christ are the grounds of the certainty of our inheritance.

And Paul explains for us, that the Lord Jesus Christ, has done three clear and important things for our salvation, which we learn from verse 11. Christ’s obedience in life and his faithful and sacrificial death on the cross, has taken the penalty we deserved and washed away our sin.

This is of course the image of Christ’s blood being shed and his life being poured out on the cross. His blood is what has washed away the stain of sin upon your and my life.

The concrete application of this truth is that we have been justified, we have been made right with God. We are no longer the wicked or the unrighteous, but we have been made righteous, we are justified in God’s sight.

Christ’s death has achieved these things for us. And the Holy Spirit has taken the riches that are Christ’s and applied them to our lives. We have been washed and we have been justified, but more than that the Holy Spirit now sanctifies us.

Sanctification is a great Biblical word, it reveals the truth that the holy spirit now works with in us, in our very person, to regenerate us, to regenerate our hearts and our minds, he changes us from the inside out to make us holy.

This is the truth is that Paul wants us to know, God has made you new in Jesus Christ, so act like you have been made. You have been made sons of the Kingdom of God, you will inherit the kingdom of God, so act like sons of the kingdom, and leave the old ways behind.

Don’t be deceived and swindled out of your inheritance you are no longer like that.

3 proverbs; tell us that God has authority over our bodies, for death and resurrection.
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.

Paul in the section seems to put forward three Proverbs for his readers in Corinth. The first two seem to be known them, and Paul quotes these two Proverbs but in the same breath modifies them significantly, to undercut their meaning and to correct a wrong attitude in the Corinthian believers.

The first proverb is everything is permissible for me, and Paul corrects it by saying not everything is good. The Corinthians in their overly spiritual mindset, feel free to do whatever they please. And there is some sense of truth in that, because we share in Christ’s rule over his world. But again they haven’t understood what they have ‘now’ and what belongs to the ‘not yet’.

Paul says not everything you can do in this world is good. And as he goes on, he implies by his retort ‘I will not be mastered by anything’. He is reminding us that even Christians in this world can fall under the rule of wrong things, so what we do in the body counts. And given the context of verse 13 at Paul is talking particularly about acts of a sexual nature.

Sex is permissible for us in this world, in the right relationship context, it is after all a gift given by God. But it is a gift very quickly becomes our master if it is wrongly used.

In the second proverb in verse 13 the Corinthians seem to be saying with, food for the stomach and the stomach food, they seem to be making an appeal to a natural logic. This proverb seems to be in a more metaphorical sense of the grounding for their sexual behaviour. Well I have A and she has B, why not join the dots?

And Paul explains the flaw in the logic which is the problem, that although we can observe the things, we don’t always know what they’re good for, but God does. And he has told us. So we really do need to listen and obey when God speaks clearly as the creator. God is maker of these things, and he knows what they are good for. The Corinthians are focusing on these base level things of the body, and Paul wants to correct them and show that the body was meant far more than just this.

But it seems in our day and age our view of sexuality isn’t much different. What do you think the proverb of our age would be in regard to our sexuality and use of our body?
Probably, ‘if it feels good, do it!’

We live in A society and age just like the Corinthian and thinks it has the wisdom and the freedom to choose its own reality when it comes to its body. A society that holds that sexual freedom is to live in a society where we have the freedom to sleep with who we want, or even to be the gender we want.

And Paul is pointing out to all here that this kind of attitude, where we attempt to deny reality as it is and has been made by God, can only end in frustration. Is it any wonder at the height of sexual liberation in the 60s, Jagger penned the words, ‘I can’t get no satisfaction!’

You cannot go up against God and his word, and expect to win in the end, you can’t cheat reality.

Paul’s final proverb is a stark corrective to the view of the Corinthians about their freedom, their current view of freedom was resulting in them being slaves to their sexual desires, and in contrast Paul says that the body is not made to be a slave to our sexual desires but to serve the Lord.

This is the heart of the issue I think in this passage, ‘the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body’, And that is in total contrast to what the Corinthians are doing now. What Paul means is the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for serving God.

An in verse 14 Paul explains the rationale to his confidence about this claim, the Christian will be bodily raised just as Christ was. The spiritual and the physical go together in the one person in Christianity. The body will be raised, so what we do with it matters.

But if this a difficult area for you, well be encouraged because the power of God that raised Christ from the dead, is also the power that has washed and justified you, and is now at work in you and me to renew and change us.

God has the authority over our bodies in both death and resurrection so serve the Lord with your body now because that is what it was made to do.
You are one with the Lord in Spirit, so flee sexual immorality!
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.


Paul in versus 15-18, gives us the second of his three commands for today, where he says in verse 18, ‘ flee from sexual immorality’. Literally he says get up and run from sexual immorality. What he means is you don’t think yourself wise by putting yourself in Temptations way, instead flee from these situations, flee from temptation and the opportunity to sin sexually.

If there are things that you look at, or the are places you go, or there are people, or even a person, whom you hang around with, which are tempting you, or in fact worse than that enabling you to sin. Then Paul says, get on your bike. Do the Harold.

In contrast to last week where we were to remove the immoral brother, this time we are to express our freedom in Christ, by removing ourselves from this situation. It is your responsibility and freedom as a Christian to leave. Sexual freedom is the not the capacity to do the most perverse thing (like our society seems to think), but it is in fact the freedom to have Self-control, and not be a victim to our impulses.
What you do in your body counts, you are one with the Lord in spirit, so flee sexual immorality.

Now if you have been paying attention you’ll probably notice two issues coming from the section of text; firstly, what does it mean ‘the two will become one flesh’, what’s going on there?

And secondly, what is the meaning of the expression, ‘all other sins a man commits outside his body but sexual sins against his own body’?

Well I’m sorry, we are not going to have time to address these issues today, but next week, we will have a chance to think about them as we see how chapter 7 contributes to our framework of a biblical understanding of marriage and sexual relations.


But just in case you aren’t around next week, in short, I think Paul is getting at the fact that the physical act of sex, involves in reality a union that is much more profound than being just skin deep. The Implications of this are when you use sex improperly, you profoundly injure yourself, and in the process shame Christ.

Anyway Paul’s main point here is clear, you are one with the Lord in spirit, so flee sexual immorality.
Honour God with your body! You are the Temple of God and were bought at a price
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.
Paul in this final section of chapter 6, gives his third and final command in the passage to the Corinthian believers, where he tells them to, honour God with your body because you are the temple of God and were bought at a price.

Now many of you may have heard of that book, ‘why men don’t want to go to church’, and in it there are some good and interesting reasons why they believe men don’t come to church, but there are some other reasons that are quite frankly juvenile and concerning.

Now it doesn’t suggest what I am about to, but hypothetically, can you imagine if the evangelistic strategy (out of this sort of thinking to reach more men), proposed a solution of having prostitution as part of the church service. It is quite patently ridiculous suggestion, isn’t it!
An idea that is so incongruous the Christian life and gospel that it defies description, it beggars belief doesn’t it!

Sexual immorality, and in this particular case prostitution, has no place in Christ’s temple does it?
And guess what, you are that temple!
So honour God with your body, and flee from sexual immorality.

God’s holy spirit in-dwells us, we are his temple here in this world, wherever we find ourselves, and his spirit is renewing our bodily person. So have no part of sexual immorality, how can any of these things be fitting for Christ.

God paid a heavy price in the death of his son Jesus to give you real freedom. Real freedom is not what the world thinks it is, Christian freedom is the freedom to serve and honour the Lord. Is the freedom to no longer give in to sin, but instead to serve the Lord by doing the good we were created to do, in the physical world he created for us to do it in.

True Christianity is not just mental, it isn’t just knowledge, nor is it just spiritual either, but it is also profoundly physical. What we do in the body counts before God. True Christianity is about the cross, Christ bought us at heavy price and because of that he is our Saviour, and hand in hand with that, the cross reminds us that he is our Lord. We serve and honour our Lord, by what we do with our bodies. Flee sexual immorality.