Moving from the problem of litigation Paul warns the
Corinthians against moral laxity. He opens the warning with
the question, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not
inherit the kingdom of God?” The unrighteous include those
who commit sexual sin outside of marriage, fornicators,
those who serve other gods of various kinds, idolaters,
those who commit sexual sins against their partner in
marriage, adulterers, effeminates, those who allow
themselves to be used in unnatural sexual activity,
homosexuals. Those also excluded from heaven are thieves,
those who lust for what others possess, the covetous,
alcoholics, drunkards, those who speak against others,
revilers, and con artists, swindlers. This is a sampling of
those whom no one expects to find in heaven, and rightly so.
Heaven is a holy place, because God dwells there.
Consequently, unholy people will not be there.
The Corinthians no longer see it this way, which is the
reason they become proud of conduct which shocks even pagans
(1 Corinthians 5:1-2). They have twisted spirituality to
such a degree that their version of spirituality is the
basis for immorality, rather than the basis for holiness.
This is the same problem in many churches today.
The immorality Paul deals with is sexual immorality.
Specifically, Paul addresses sexual immorality with
prostitution. It seems the Corinthians considered
prostitution as normal and moral, as well as legal. We
should remember that pagans consider prostitution a part of
the worship of pagan gods and goddesses. The temple of
Aphrodite, the goddess of love had over a 1,000 cult
prostitutes, both male and female, was located in Corinth.
In the name of religion, men could indulge their fleshly
appetites.
In verses 12-14, Paul focuses on a statement of the
Corinthians’ doctrinal basis for their immorality. This is
either a false or a distorted premise held by the
Corinthians, which Paul proceeds to correct. In verses
15-20, Paul deals with the problem of immorality from the
perspective of the ignorance of the Corinthians, what they
do not know. Thus, three times in verses15-20, we find the
question, “Do you not know?”
The premise on which the Corinthians seem to base their
immorality is that whatever is legal is also moral. All
things, they claim, are lawful for them, which seem to mean
in practice that they are free to do anything that is not
against the law. Do you see why there is an all out effort
to change the laws in the United States dealing with sex
crimes and behavior?
Without debating, the issues of what things are permissible
Paul points them to a higher standard. Whatever the
“permissible” things may be, not all permissible things are
advisable. A Christian must therefore determine his conduct
on some higher, more selective standard. The standard stated
by Paul: “Not all things are profitable” (verse 12). The
question might be asked, how does one know what conduct is
profitable or unprofitable? Paul clarifies the matter by his
second statement: “I will not be mastered by anything”
(verse 12).
Paul is telling the Corinthians the same thing he told the
Christians in Rome (Romans 6). The Christian is not free to
“live in sin,” because he or she has “died to sin” when
joined by faith to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Baptism symbolizes the act of dying. By going under the
water, we proclaim in a symbolic way that we died in Christ,
and were buried. By coming forth from the water, we proclaim
that we have risen from the dead and enter into an entirely
new life. To continue to live in sin is to deny everything
we believed when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and
Lord and everything we symbolically proclaim when we were
baptized.
Through Jesus Christ, we have been freed from our bondage to
sin therefore we are to put away the old sinful practices
that once enslaved us and to live a life of righteousness,
through the power of God that is in us. Our aim as
unbelievers was to indulge in our own fleshly lusts, and
enslaved to sin and to Satan. Freed from our bondage we must
not return to our former lifestyle. Any practices that
enable the flesh to gain mastery over us we must avoid.
Paul further explains, “Not all things are profitable” with
the additional statement, “I will not be mastered by
anything.”
The Corinthians believed a sexual act with a prostitute was
a casual thing, something with no long-term commitments,
like an affair. How can such a casual relationship hurt?
Paul’s response reveals a very different perspective of
sexual immorality. Immorality is a moral surrender that
leads to bondage. It is not the man who masters the
prostitute, but the prostitute and the sin the prostitute
promotes that masters the man.
Think about Samson in the Old Testament for a moment. Who
better than he illustrates the mastery of the prostitute
over the man? Samson was the strongest man on the earth at
that time. He could easily snap the bonds placed around him.
He could kill a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey
(Judges 15:14-16). However, Samson was not in control; it
was the woman of his life. Therefore, not once, but several
times, he gives in to the seductions of a woman. Samson was
in bondage.
Instead of bondage, the popular word today used even in
Christian circles is the psychological word, “addiction.”
The word “addition” is used to define every sin committed by
men and women. Paul refuses to engage in any practice which
will prove to be “addictive,” any practice which will come
to master him. We need to follow Paul’s example.
One area we can encounter a problem, if certain practices
are permissible, these are liberties, which the Christian
might enjoy, but need not enjoy. Following Paul’s example,
we should never practice those liberties that might enslave
us. We should not practice those liberties that might
encourage a weaker brother to follow our example, and thus
become enslaved through his weakness. Some people tend to go
beyond Paul’s example. They claim that if we enjoy the
things that God intended for our enjoyment, something is
wrong in our Christian life.
Paul refers to these people in 1 Timothy 4:1-5. Paul tells
us what they claim does not come from the Holy Spirit, but
from the deceptive doctrines of demons. They seek to
prohibit Christians from enjoying the things God has given
us to enjoy, depriving of the pleasures from God. The
solution to the problem of being mastered by the flesh is
not the avoidance of all pleasures in the flesh. The
solution is to avoid those fleshly pleasures God identifies
as sin, and those we know to be enslaving and gratefully
enjoy the blessings of God with thanksgiving, seeing life’s
pleasures as a gift from God. “For everything created by God
is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received
with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of
God and prayer (1 Timothy 4:4-5).
The Corinthian position is not hard to understand. It is a
completely “this worldly” view of life leading to a
lifestyle of sexual immorality. The Corinthians apply the
same logic to the body and its sexual design and appetites
to their illicit acts with prostitutes. They used the same
excuse we hear today, “I am only human.” “God made me the
way I am,” when I am involved in illicit sex I am simply
meeting my physical needs, just as I eat when I am hungry.
And what difference does it make what I do in this body
anyway, since God is going to do away with it?”
Paul exposes the error that God will simply do away with
fleshly things like the body, with no future or eternal
consequences. In addition, Paul sets down a very different
standard regarding our physical body and its appetites. In
Paul’s words, the “body is not for immorality” the body is
“for the Lord” and “the Lord is for the body,” God did not
create the body with its sexual capabilities and drives to
satisfy these desires indiscriminately. God made man’s
physical body for His purposes, ultimately to bring glory to
Himself. This is Paul’s bottom line in verse 20, “Therefore
glorify God in your body.” We are not to use our bodies to
serve ourselves, but to serve God. We are to exercise the
sexual dimension of our makeup only within the bonds of
marriage. In our marital relationship, including the sexual
union that is holy within marriage we symbolically represent
the union of Christ and His church.
Paul has yet another thing to say, something which some find
difficult to understand. Paul writes, “the Lord is for the
body.” We cannot live without eating, the important lesson
here that we see throughout the Bible. Life does not really
come from food. Life comes from God, from knowing Him and
from obeying His commandments. When our Lord was tempted for
40 days and nights in the wilderness, He did not eat for
that period. One of Satan’s temptations was for our Lord to
make stones into bread. It is as though Satan were saying,
“If you are the Messiah, then you must live to fulfill your
mission. You cannot let yourself starve out here in the
wilderness, so create bread from these stones, even if it
means disobeying God.” Our Lord’s answer, rooted in the
eighth chapter of Deuteronomy and in the experience of
Israel in the wilderness, was that “man does not live on
bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the
mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
God is the ultimate source of life, not bread. God preserved
the Israelites in the wilderness with bread from heaven.
Jesus told the Jews whom wanted mere physical bread that He
was the bread of God, come down from heaven to give them
life. He was “the bread of life” (John 6:32-35). He was the
“water” which would give the woman at the well everlasting
life (John 4:13-14). When His disciples urged Jesus to eat,
Jesus responded that His food was to do the will of the
Father, who sent Him (John 4:31-34). Our life is but a
vapor, and the life that we experience moment by moment
comes from God. Our bodies need God more than they need
food. He is the source of life; both physical and eternal.
No wonder Paul can live out his life in a way that does not
indulge his bodily desires, but denies them. No wonder he
lives so dangerously and suffers physically in his ministry.
No wonder he can say that to live is Christ, and to die is
gain (Philippians 1:21). No wonder the false teachers cater
to the desires of the flesh, while Jesus and His apostles
call upon men to take up their cross, and to crucify the
flesh and its desires.
