Our Bodies Belong To God

Sermon on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Text: “I have the right to do anything,” you say — but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, 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 whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies.

As you drive through a neighborhood, it is not uncommon to see “For sale” signs. If you pass by that same piece of property over a number of days, you watch to see if anyone will buy it. If it is on the market for a while, you wonder if there is something wrong with the house or if it is overpriced or something that you haven’t even thought of. It is nice when you see that it has been sold. If you are a neighbor to that house, you wonder who will be moving in. Will they be a good neighbor? What will they be like? This morning, as we study God’s Word, we are going to talk about a piece of property, and that is our bodies. The Apostle Paul reminds us today that OUR BODIES BELONG TO GOD. 1. The Savior Has Purchased Them. 2. The Holy Spirit Lives In Them. 3. The Father Will Glorify Them.

Just previous to our text this morning, Paul was teaching the Corinthians about Christian liberty. By this, we mean those things that we have the freedom to choose whether or not we do them. God has neither commanded nor forbidden them. We have the freedom, for example, in the way that we worship God. We can use a variety of services or instruments. We are to worship God, but how we do it is up to us. Of course, we want to be careful even in this regard that we do not insist on our way to the point where it hurts other’s worship life.

However, some were saying that they had the freedom to do whatever they wanted, because the law has been fulfilled by Christ. In this section, in particular, Paul is addressing sexual immorality. The thought that was being promoted was that sexual sins were not really sins, because it is just part of a natural hunger that human beings are born with. It is no different from eating something because your stomach was empty. Who is to say that it is wrong, when it’s just part of whom we are? We still hear that sort of thought in our world today. “If it feels good, do it” is the theme of the day. It is OK to live together before marriage because what difference does a piece of paper make anyway? The entertainment that is brought before us is rife with sexual sins. It is easy for us to become calloused to these sorts of things and think, as the Corinthians did, it is just a hunger that has to be filled. It is an itch that needs to be scratched.

Paul reminds us, first and foremost, why we do not have the freedom to do whatever we want. He says in verses 19 and 20, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” If you purchase something, to whom does it belong? Does it belong to your neighbor? No, it belongs to you. What if someone takes something that belongs to you and wrecks it? You would be upset, because it belongs to you and not to them.

Paul reminds us that we have been “bought at a price.” You and I have been purchased by Christ. He paid for you and for me. The price that he paid was steep. He paid for you and for me by, first of all, living in our place. He spent a great deal of time teaching about being pure before God. Not only did he teach it, but he also lived it. Jesus, then, paid the ultimate price for us when he went to the cross. As Peter reminds us in his First Epistle, “It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (1:18,19) He poured out his life’s blood to pay for every single time that we have sinned, even if it was only a lustful thought that we had. We should have been condemned to hell for our sins, even our sins of thought. Yet, Jesus has purchased us with his innocent suffering and death. His resurrection shows us that his Father accepted the payment price for us. We are not our own. We have been bought at a price, a very steep price. We belong to Jesus. How dare we take his possession and dirty it up?

This thought is emphasized in verse 15, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?” When you and I are brought to faith, we become a part of Christ’s body. He is our head. We are his members. Paul continues with this picture by writing, “Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 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.’” Paul goes back to the first marriage in Genesis and reminds us of the fact that in marriage, there is a unity that is expressed in this most intimate of ways. It is unthinkable that we would take the body of Christ and drag it through the filth of sins against the Sixth Commandment. We are not our own. We are not free to live however we wish. We belong to God because Christ paid this very dear price for us.

Paul reminds us of another reason that we belong to God. He writes in verse 19, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” You and I have lovely homes in which we live. We take care of them and have pride in them. How would we feel if, when we got home from church this morning, we came home to a mess? Someone had broken into our house and vandalized it. They threw the stinkiest garbage all over the place. They ground it into the carpeting. They spray painted the foulest things on the walls. We would be so very upset if someone ruined our homes in that way.

When you and I are brought to faith, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our hearts. He dwells within us to strengthen us in our daily walk. He is there to help us pray when we don’t know what to pray. He takes our groans and presents them before the Father. More than just being his dwelling place, our bodies are called the “temples of the Holy Spirit.” We have become places that are dedicated to the worship of God and set aside for his use.

Why would we trash up this place where the Holy Spirit lives? Why would we bring garbage into a place that has been set aside for worship of God? Why would we allow the filth that the world calls entertainment to come into this temple? Why would we allow language that is not good to fill our ears or our mouths? It is vandalizing the temple of the Holy Spirit. May the Holy Spirit help us to daily go through and look for places where the garbage has started to collect and may he help us to get rid of it. Our bodies belong to God, and that is seen from the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells within us.

When someone buys a house, sometimes it is referred to as a “fixer-upper.” It is not perfect, but it has some potential to be a nice place. That is a way to look at the ownership that God has of our bodies. They are not perfect here and now. There are some problems that each of us have. There are aches and pains. Not everything works just the way that we would like it to. However, God has glorious plans for them. Paul reminds us in verse 14, “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.” Just as God raised Jesus from the dead and gave him a glorified body, he will do the same for us. At the end of time, our bodies will be transformed and be made perfect. All of the effects of sin will be gone forever. We will live in glory with him in heaven.

Since that is the glorious purpose that God has in mind for these bodies, why would we want to use them in shameful ways while we are here on the earth? Paul sharply distinguishes things that are only temporary, which God will one day eliminate and the body which he intends to transform and glorify for all eternity. He writes, “You say, ‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.’ The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” The body which is destined for glorious immortality should not be used for degrading immorality. Our bodies are not our own. They belong to God, who has glorious plans for them.

It seems that we, as human beings, have a particular tendency to the breaking of the Sixth Commandment. As a matter of fact, Jesus, in his teaching, spends more time teaching about this and greed, than any other subject. We must confess that we have continued to break this commandment time and again. As we come to this realization, we also come to God and ask for his forgiveness. We know that Jesus has paid for these sins, as well as all of the other sins that we commit. We, then, ask for his help to do it better from here on out. We pray that God would help us, as Paul says, to “Flee from sexual immorality.” “Flee” means to run away from. It might literally mean that for us. There is no reason to sit and play with temptation. May God help us to see it for the evil that it is and, out of love for him, stay away from it.

When you drive through a town, you will find some houses that are unoccupied. No one owns them. No one lives in them. The same is not true for our bodies. Some bodies are occupied by the devil and used for his purposes. By God’s grace, we are owned and occupied by God, himself. We pray that he would help us to keep it clean and set apart for his usage and his glory. We belong to him. Amen.