Paul’s fourth question, “Do you not know that your bodies
are members of Christ?” (v 15). Paul’s argument in verses
15-17 rests on the incompatibility of two unions, (1) the
Corinthians’ union with Christ, and (2) their union through
sexual intercourse with a prostitute.
When we trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our
sins and for eternal life, we are united with Christ.
However, there is another union, which is incompatible with
our union with Christ, the union referred to in verse 16.
Paul supports his argument by citing Genesis 2:24, there in
relationship to the holy union of a man with his wife. To
have sex with someone other than one’s wife, even a
prostitute, is no casual matter, Paul reminds us. To have
sex with a prostitute is to become one with her. How can one
joined with Christ now join with a prostitute, only by
“taking away the members of Christ” (v 15).
In verse 17, Paul contradicts the belief that what one does
in the body has no relationship to what one is and does in
the spirit. The one who joins himself to Christ becomes one
in spirit with Christ (v 17). The one who joins himself to a
prostitute becomes one flesh with her. Paul insists that one
cannot be one in spirit with the Savior and one in the flesh
with a prostitute. What is done spiritually directly relate
to what is done in the body. We dare not think of ourselves
as spiritual when what we are doing in our bodies is
immoral.
We have just seen that Paul links our spiritual identity in
Christ with our conduct in our physical bodies. Paul
establishes yet another link between the spiritual and the
physical in verses 18-20. Body and Spirit are directly
related to each other because the Christian’s body and God’s
Spirit are inseparably linked at the time of our salvation.
The union of the Christian and the Person of Christ occurs
at the time of salvation, and the Holy Spirit brings it
about “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were
all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
The Spirit not only accomplishes the union of the new
believer with Christ, the Spirit actually indwells the
Christian from the moment of his salvation. According to
Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12:19, our body is the temple
of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 3, Paul indicated that the
Holy Spirit indwells the church, the corporate body of
Christ, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys
the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of
God is holy, and that is what you are (1 Corinthians
3:16-17).
Now, Paul speaks of the individual believer as the temple of
the Holy Spirit. Both, of course, are true without any
contradiction. To use one’s body as an instrument of sin by
having a sexual union with a prostitute is a despicable sin.
It is a uniquely defiling and wretched sin, as Paul
indicates by the words of verse 18, “Flee immorality. Every
other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the
immoral man sins against his own body.”
How is sexual sin uniquely a sin against the body, while
other sins are just sins we commit in the body? God (Psalm
139) has created our bodies. God created our bodies to be
the temple of the Holy Spirit, and instruments by which we
serve and glorify God, “therefore glorify God in your body”
(v 20).
Some may wish to restrict the application of Paul’s teaching
in our text just to the prohibition of sex with a
prostitute. Paul addresses sexual immorality with a
prostitute because this is a very common sin in Corinth,
even among the members of the Corinthian church; a sin the
church does not take seriously enough. Paul takes the most
“casual” sin, in the minds of the Corinthians and shows it
to be utterly sinful.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul does not describe in intimate detail
the nature and practice of immorality. To do so might become
a temptation for us. Paul does not seek to prevent sexual
immorality among Christians by frightening them with the
physical adverse consequences, like pregnancy, AIDS, and
other sexually transmitted diseases. Paul, as always, goes
back to the gospel. Paul’s argument for sexual morality is
rooted in sound doctrine, specifically the doctrines which
pertain to salvation.
Paul could deal with the Corinthians’ immorality by simply
referring to the rules. Not only is sexual immorality
forbidden by the Old Testament law, it is forbidden by our
Lord and by the Jerusalem Council. In Acts 15, sexual
immorality was one of the four things specifically forbidden
to the Gentiles (Acts 15:19-21, 28-29). Immorality was
“against the rules,” but Paul wants the Corinthians not just
to keep the rules, but also to consciously serve God by
doing what is consistent with our calling, with the gospel,
and with sound doctrine. It is necessary to keep the rules,
but let us do so for the right reasons.
