1 Corinthians 6:12-7:40, “What’s Your Price?”

1 Corinthians 6:12-7:40, “What’s Your Price?”

1st Corinthians chapter 6 starting verse 12 all the way into chapter 7 here the word of the Lord All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.

Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food and God will destroy both one in the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body and God Raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute. Never or do you not know that He who was joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her for as it is written the two shall become one flesh.

But he who was joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body but the sexually immoral person Sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? Whom you have from God you are not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Now concerning the matters about which you wrote it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality Each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband for the wife does not have Authority over her own body, but the husband does likewise.

The husband does not have authority over his own body. But the wife does do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a limited time. That you may devote yourselves to prayer. But then come come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Now as a concession not a command. I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am but each has his own gift from God. One of one kind and one of another to the unmarried and the widows. I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am.

But if they cannot exercise self-control They should marry for it is better to marry than to burn with passion to the married. I give this chart not I but the Lord. The wife should not separate from her husband.

But if she does she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest. I say I not the Lord that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever And she consents to live with him.

He should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her. She should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband.

Otherwise your children would be unclean but as it is they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner separates let it be so in such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

For how do you know wife whether you will save your husband or how do you know husband whether you will save your wife? Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him.

This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised. Let him not seek circumcision for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision but keeping the commandments of God.

Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a slave when called do not be concerned about it. But if you can gain your freedom avail yourself of the opportunity. For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed man in of the Lord.

Likewise he who was Free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price do not become slaves of men for brothers in whatever condition each was called There let him remain with God. Now concerning the betrothed.

I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife do not seek to be free?

Are you free? From a wife do not seek a wife. But if you do marry you have not sinned and if a betrothed woman marries She has not sinned yet. Those who marry will have worldly troubles and I would spare you that.

This is what I mean brothers. The appointed time has grown very short from now on let those who have wives Live as though they had none and those who mourn as though they were not mourning and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing and those who buy as though they had no goods and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with It for the present form of this world is passing away.

I Want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord how to please the Lord but the married man is anxious about worldly things how to please his wife and his interests are divided and The unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord how to be holy and body and spirit.

But the married woman is anxious about worldly things how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit not to lay any restraint upon you. But to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord if anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed if His passions are strong and it has to be let him do as he wishes.

Let them marry it is no sin. But whoever is firmly established in his heart being under no necessity But having his desire under control and has determined this in his heart to keep her as his betrothed He will do well so then he who marries his betrothed does well and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.

A Wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies she is free to be married to whom she wishes only in the Lord. Yet in my judgment, she is happier. She remains as she is and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. Well, the following sermon is rated pg -13 Children and Baptists are strongly cautioned.

Sex.

Perhaps the main competitor of Christianity today at least in this country is not Islam or Buddhism. It is not atheism or Hinduism. It's not rationalism or even terrorism. It is eroticism the uninhibited search for fulfilling sexual passions and and whatever form we please.

That eroticism has triumphed in our culture following the so-called sexual revolution every every revolution. Overthrows some kind of old order of the American Revolution overthrew the British order of the rule of the King of England.

The sexual revolution overthrew an order of restraint on uninhibited pursuit of sexual pleasure. Um, it overthrew a morality. That are sort of modesty about sexual things that even though it may often been very hypocritical.

And it was because there were plenty of people during that time who were immoral still it honored in public a Modesty about sexuality that can hardly be imagined. Many at least but younger people today, you know people younger than I I can just barely remember, you know.

Growing up watching TV in the 70s. You know just just like today you see reruns from the 90s right in the 70s. You see reruns from the 50s. I remember old old TV shows from the 50s. Watching when I was a kid, they usually even as a kid I understood show really kind of absurd scenes, but it's the modesty.

Absurd scenes of married couples supposedly sleeping in two separate beds in the same room. You know that that was because that was what they were supposed to. That was the best that was the most they could show on television.

That was the establishment and it was overthrown in the sexual revolution. Replacing it with a rampant Eroticism and now the philosophy is if someone wants to do it and it doesn't hurt anyone else. Then why shouldn't that let them do whatever they want to do.

So we now live in a sex so culture. Every second at least the latest statistics. I was able to find every second $3 ,075 and 64 cents is spent on pornography every second. Right now right at this moment.

There are twenty eight thousand two hundred and fifty eight internet viewers watching pornography and From this moment to about the time. I finished the sermon a new pornographic video will be created in this country.

Of course, that's just a hardcore stuff milder, but still and intentionally. Erotic images and ideas are really just everywhere now and you only need to glance at the magazines on the on the and the checkouts.

Stand at the supermarket or turn on most any television show. Especially, you know popular shows on sitcoms and that kind of thing and just you know, there it is. You can't can't get away from it. Eroticism has won the revolution.

And so we have a culture soaked in.

Sex.

Words and images. And. Knowledge about sex but no wisdom about it. What are we going to do about it? Well first we're paying a high price. The internet often all online affairs attracting women and online pornography attracting men is now responsible for more and more divorces.

The technology and now the smartphones it both isolates people. Oh, you know always people's always staring into their little screens and and at the same time as it teases them. With the unrealistic and twisted versions of sexual relations that leave them wanting a relationship.

But with no idea of what one is like. I think that's at least one factor. Why we are creating this that our culture is creating so many angry lonely desperate young men. At least a few of whom resort to violence.

So we're paying a high price. The good news though is that eroticism is an enemy an opponent that Christianity has fought before and.

Defeated.

Corinth was a society much like ours. Sure, they didn't have the technology to kind of put it in your hand at any time. But they had the same kind of sex soaked Culture. It's the same kind of values if it feels good do it.

Corinth was a major seaport and with so many people passing through transient people people with no worries about keeping or Losing a reputation sailors looking for a good time. There was a lot to make them happy.

It was also the center of the temple to Aphrodite in which one way to supposedly worship the goddess was by employing one of the temple's prostitutes literally a religion of eroticism. Corinth even had a reputation as a center for immorality sort of like our modern-day, Las Vegas to Corinthian eyes.

With slang for to be immoral what happened in Corinth stayed in Corinth I guess so cut loose was the attitude there and finally there was the Greek culture itself which was thought that little of the body thought that the body was just a cage were trapped in and Thought even littler of what we do with our bodies you want to afflict it and be strict with it.

You okay, you can do that or you want to cut loose and you know, follow its every passion chase. Whatever sexual titillation thrills you well, then just have at it and that was Corinth. Many of the Christians there had fallen for these errors.

Either the cheap grace of anything goes probably like the man who's you know, living with a stepmother. He's probably that same attitude well, you know. We love each other whatever their excuse was I'm but the attitude Yeah, I'm free to do with what I want with my body or maybe on the other side People reacting against that this excess rigorous overreaction that thought to avoid falling for immorality.

Then while just stay away from sex entirely. That the church was paying a high price for their confusion. Paul here addressed this giving us giving them and giving us four ways to live as temples of the Holy Spirit in a culture of eroticism.

Flee to Be Free

First.

Flee to be free. Second Mary to be moral. Third stay to serve and fourth dedicate to devotion. Flee to be free. In the first section chapter 6 verse 12 to 20 Paul addresses their underlying confusion.

That what they believed and assumed about the body Was wrong. They appear to be taking some phrases of Paul's teaching all things are lawful for me the the food is meant for the stomach of the stomach for food and They took those and they mixed them and they twisted them around and in their own way of thinking.

And Paul probably really did say all things are lawful for me. That we are free from the Mosaic law. We can eat pork now. We can eat oysters. If it's edible really we can eat it and so some of them ate anything and is.

Probably they're like Americans as much quantity as they wanted in a culture of self-indulgence. They use their beliefs to justify Self-indulgence, so they took Paul's motto all things are lawful for me.

By which he was trying to show that because Jesus paid the price for our sins because he was that final Passover lamb. He paid the price on the cross that we don't have to try to pay it anymore by our law keeping that's what he meant.

So since Jesus has paid the price been we're free all things are lawful for me and They took that and instead of celebrating the price paid for by Christ to free us from the law. They then took it. To have implied it to sex.

Okay, the stomach is for food. That's what Paul said, right? That's why I can eat pork. It's for the stomach. So I'll eat it. We're free to given to its every craving. Well, the stomach is for food. Guess what?

The genitals are for to that Paul Cuts no slack and at the end of verse 13 the body is not Meant for sexual immorality. But for the Lord sure the stomach may be for food, but your body is not meant for sexual immorality.

You've got it all totally wrong. He is saying it's an invalid comparison. He is saying that yes, the stomach is made for food. But and we are now free to enjoy all kinds of food that we want. But our bodies are not made for sexual immorality.

We are free to enjoy any kind of food we want but we're not free to enjoy any kind of sexual relationship. We like and as much as many some people may be overwhelmed with some urges. That simply is not what they or we were designed for.

If it feels good do it is Not a good principle to live by. We were made for the Lord if we are not using our bodies to serve the Lord, then we are not using them rightly. The word there for sexual immorality in Greek is Pornia.

So where we get the word pornography from pornography literally means immorality writing. It's a general catch-all word for just all kinds of general word for all sex out of a proper marriage. Any sexual encounter that we have with anyone other than our wedded? husband or wife in a covenant of marriage is Immoral and not what we were meant to do.

Our body is not made for that and no urge otherwise changes that. But what probably shocked the Corinthians most and perhaps us to that phrase from from the end of verse 13 The Lord is for the body. God is pro body.

Our physicalness was created by him and in church history this has often been forgotten with large movements and prominent theologians teaching that our bodies are to be ignored or even combated and Overcome and yes, but and sometimes our bodies are filled with desires to do things that we must say no to.

But we do it. We sometimes say no to the body to save the body for the resurrection in verse 14 God raised the Lord Jesus. That's already he's already done that and he will raise us raise our bodies by the same power.

So we are between resurrections. Jesus is already and Ours is not yet. That's where we live. We live between resurrections. That means that in eternity We will be in a body. Being physical is not like a just a temporary thing for this life and we're gonna be a spirit floating around somewhere.

No, we are not spirits trapped in the body. Our body is part of who we are. It is here in verse 15 our our bodies notice that verse 15 our bodies are members of Christ. We probably heard and assumed. Well, yeah I'm a member of Christ like my spirit is united or joined with him that we're part of the spiritual body.

But here it is notice clearly in verse 15 our bodies That are members of Christ in other words this stuff right this this flesh and bones and skin and and hair and and fluids is part of Christ. So did so what we do with this body?

We are doing to Christ himself. This is why to be free. We have to flee from sexual immorality. In sex we become one with our partner. We might not want to believe it or admit it but it's true. And so no matter how casual we think our sex will be it is still uniting here in verse 15 verses 15 and 16.

He even says that sex with a prostitute. Which perhaps you know is the most frivolous you would think empty sex that one can can engage in is still becoming one.

Flesh.

Still uniting still for a Christian joining the members of Christ with a prostitute. It is sin with our bodies which is a temple of the Holy Spirit if you're a Christian and in immorality for Christians we desecrate that temple to be free.

We must.

Flee.

We must flee because we are not our own. Not our own just to do with our bodies as whatever seems right to us. Whatever feel good feels good to us. If we are true Christians, we've been bought with a price the price of the literal body of Jesus being beaten and cut and Punctured and racked.

That's the price he paid for us. That's the price that we owe Because of our sins and he paid that not only for our spirits for our hearts for our minds. But also for our bodies. That's the price it cost to buy our bodies.

So we now must glorify God With them with our bodies to be free. We have to flee. Sexual immorality. Think of what he's assumed by by flea. Now flee from it. This is didn't just say avoid it stay away from it.

He says flee. Think of what's assumed by that first assumes that sexual immorality is is pursuing us. So we have to run away from it. It takes exertion takes effort. And take and it shouldn't it should inspire some fear in you flee as if like from an angry bear.

You're afraid to be pounced upon by second. It implies flee implies that avoiding sexual morality requires positive action. It will take some. Take some energy. It'll take some work. It will take us to be intentional not to be caught.

We can't just be passive and hope that it won't hopefully it'll just pass us by. We have to take the initiative and apply. Ourselves and those convictions are what really what drives? The rest of this passage all the way the end of chapter 7 the sexual immorality is an enemy.

That is chasing us and to avoid being trapped by it We must actively do something. So in those eight verses at the end of chapters second half of chapter 6, he shows us the reason we should flee to be free.

Because we've been bought with a price. We should pursue purity with a passion. Not because we're afraid of AIDS or STDs or the long-term emotional hang-ups that come with immorality all of which is true.

But you know.

Some doctor somewhere or promise that science can can cure it all and besides really none of that I don't think those kind of fears is going to be effective at keeping us from immorality. When the temptations come Hot and heavy we should pursue purity with a passion not because we're afraid of being caught but because We've been bought.

That's the principle. Then in chapter 7 he applies that principle to several different kinds of situations. Several different circumstances. And first he shows us that most people need to marry.

Marriage as a Remedy Against Sexual Immorality

To be moral.

Marriages is a dam. Against the flood of immorality where most adults are in healthy happy marriages sexual immorality is held back From overcoming them and the rest of the society. For Paul Concerned mainly about maintaining the purity of the body of Christ then marriage is useful for discipleship as a way to flee immorality and not sin against The members of the body of Christ.

In the first five. Or give me a chapter 7 they proposed to him. You know he and he initially accepts. I think that's what he's saying at the beginning of chapter 7. Where he says it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman literally is for him not to touch a Woman, that's what some of them were saying.

He says, you know, basically he says.

Sure.

Sure, that's good. It's great. If you have the self-control it can live without sex, but then quickly he says most don't and Because most don't have that special gift when he calls it a gift of celibacy and verse 7 because most don't have it.

Then he says each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. Paul recognizes the plain fact that if people aren't married most people there's some exceptions, of course like himself.

But if most many if they don't have a wife or their own husband. Many of them will give in eventually to sexual temptation. And so in verse 2 he prescribes marriage.

To be moral.

This is one one of the purposes of marriage to keep you from sexual immorality as the traditional wedding vows of the Anglican Church puts it that marriage quote was ordained for a remedy against sin and To avoid fornication that such persons as have not the gift of continence.

In other words self-control might marry and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ's body. Once I was interviewing for pastoral position in front of a whole congregation about 15. So so years ago more than that actually.

And someone asked me there. You know Q &A ask anything. Someone asked me. What was my biggest temptation when I was young and how did I overcome it. And I replied lust and I got married. That doesn't sound very spiritual or very romantic, but it's true.

It's real.

Then Paul describes exactly how marriage is a damn against immorality in verse 3. Notice verse 3. Some of you may think I'm making this up where it says right there in verse 3 that it how does marriage?

Prevent hold back sexual immorality. And he says in verse 3 it is frankly by having sex and that is often as the neediest spouse needs. So it's not sex itself that is immoral or wrong. It's sex outside of marriage.

That is there was no idea as it rose later in church history of a supposed Spiritual marriage in which two people will live together, but stay celibate. There's also no idea as we have in some parts of the church today of speaking of marriage without any reference to sex.

You know like those shows from the 50s that I used to see when I was a kid two single beds Separated in one room a portrayal of marriage as if it were sexless. Once I read two different articles on how in quote on how to a fair proof your marriage.

Okay, sound like a good topic how to a fair proof your marriage. One of which one of the articles was supposed to be Christian. But both of them were nearly hilarious for the way they missed the obvious.

Seemed to be the end. The first answer is pretty obvious to me. How to fair proof your marriage. And if you saw an article on how to keep your husband or wife from eating out too much. Well, you think the answer would be pretty obvious.

Prepare meals at home. Why is it that on two separate articles on how to a fair proof your marriage neither mentioned that you might ought to try?

I.

Don't know maybe sex with your spouse ever thought of that. Some people have it. Paul is not so otherworldly. He's not so unreal. He even gives a reason for it. When we are married our bodies are not our own in the traditional wedding vows when we put the you know Put the ring on each other's finger.

We are to say with my body. I'd be honor as Christians our bodies are members of Christ and when married our bodies are not our own anymore to do with this. We please. That's why the spouse has a right to say what we what we put on or take off and how we let it go.

This is totally contrary to the the modern view, you know proclaim so loudly particularly on the issue of abortion today. You know, my body is my own to do with as I please. Even after I've surrendered in in marriage now Paul says no it isn't.

Your body belongs to him and vice versa if you're married notice that in verse 5. Even if we want to dedicate ourselves to a time of special prayer. What what we would think is the most spiritual pursuit gonna be abstained from sex and pray.

We need your you need your spouse's permission to do that. You can't go off into prayer and away from sex. Because you decide to and even if it is granted should only be for a limited time. He says so this Satan may not use one spouse's spirituality to lead the other into immorality.

We have been bought with the price and marriage is a way to be moral to be what we were bought for. So then Paul deals with several cases of marriage under attack for whenever possible. Marriages should stay together in verses 10 and 11.

Paul says the Lord commands me that was Jesus himself. Commands he's taking this from the teachings of Jesus about About marriage and divorce and the Jesus himself commands that wives don't separate from their husbands and husbands don't divorce.

Even if one is an unbeliever. They should not separate. He's not a believer. She's not a believer. That's not a reason it's not cause for divorce or separation. The marriage can still work as a dam against immorality and perhaps there's no guarantee but perhaps.

The unbelieving family member will be converted says you being there with makes the family holy gives that influence. So whenever possible the marriage should be held together but sometimes sadly is not possible in verse 15 the if the unbeliever leaves.

Unbelieving partner leaves and in that case the abandoned believer is not bound to continually try to be winning the separating. Separating unbeliever back a marriage with any life left in it is to be nurtured.

But when an abusive unbeliever just abandons a believer that they can file that kind of marriage can finally be ended for the sake of peace. We marry to be moral. Christ bought our bodies With his blood and marriage helps us to glorify God with our bodies.

So we flee to be free. And we marry to be moral and we also.

Staying Content to Serve the Lord

Stay.

To serve in verse 17. And he's beginning with marriage. But then he goes out into every area of life if you've come to the Lord is is married or single be content. In that condition. Don't make getting married the pursuit of your life.

Don't be like, you know, you were saying Jerry Maguire. Finding that one relationship it completes you complete me. Don't be like that. So you can't be content and you tell you you find it don't think I'll serve the Lord later.

After I've gotten my career together or my business is successful or I've got all the money I think I need or after I've gotten married then I'll Serve the Lord. Sadly, there are people especially young adults who are waiting to start what they think is their life.

You know after they got married and maybe maybe then after they had the children I'm maybe after they have enough money in the bank. They think when they get a wife or a husband or kids or a good job when they settle down then.

You know, they'll go back and do the church thing and then they'll get involved and then they'll serve the Lord and That's the wrong order. Bosses don't think like that. What they end up doing courses that they often end up paying the price and they find themselves Often married to the to a wrong ones out of the Lord the Lord who they never got around.

They may never get around to serving the Lord and they often will see their children. Growing up without the faith that they sold away in their younger days. They were told that they were bought with a price in verse 23.

That phrase is repeated again. Notice comes from verse chapter 6 now. It is in verse 23 chapter 7 verse 23 you were bought with a price, but they couldn't stay and serve. Serve the Lord in the condition you are in.

Right now in other words right now. There should be nothing between you and serving the Lord. Nothing you're waiting on nothing. You're waiting to accomplish some landmark. You're waiting to pass you thinking about well, I want to but first let me get this.

No, nothing else comes first. Serve the Lord now be content in whatever condition you are in now. And don't make an idol out of a relationship now. That doesn't mean you have to stay lonely with no future.

Even slaves here are told that if they have an opportunity They can take advantage of it. They should be be content in the situation you are in. But if you have the opportunity to comes around slave get free take advantage of it.

So do you single people be content in your singleness use the advantages you have? Of more free time that you don't have to accommodate someone else's schedule that all the responsibilities of Being married that you don't you don't have those you want to worry about them use that not just for your personal convenience.

But to serve the Lord, but if the opportunity comes as you're serving the Lord someone. Lord bring someone into your life. Well, that's great. Then you can get married. We were bought with a price and so we stay to serve stay and the condition you are in now.

Serve in the condition serve the Lord and the condition you are in now. Finally We are to be dedicated to devotion. In those last 15 verses he bring kind of bringing all the threads together. He's laid out with us before we are to flee to be free.

So we run away from whatever could make us vulnerable to immorality. We're to marry to be moral if in it. If in this case, there's an arranged marriage. If I say we don't have any of those today, but actually we do we keep it.

Persons here today. We actually we even have one in our own congregation. If there's an arranged marriage and the couple doesn't have the gift of self-control, they should be married. But he most of Paul most highly extols the advantages of staying to serve.

So the conclusion is above all Be dedicated to devotion. A married person has no responsibilities at home. All right. I said that wrong. I shouldn't say no married person has responsibilities at home.

I supplied them. No, don't hear me wrong. You have a married person and that's that's his warning by the way. That's why he has a kind of bias against marriage. That's why I'm saying I you know If you can stay unmarried is better for you.

Not because anything to do with sex like he thinks is contaminating or unholy. No, it's just because. Being married you have responsibilities. It takes time away from you and he wants you to use that time for the Lord.

All right.

You understand a married man must as a matter of duty be interested in how to please his wife. Some of his interests must as a Christian be dedicated to her. Married people can't give their time completely to working for the say for the spread of the gospel or for serving in the church.

They have a duty to their spouse whom they married. Hopefully they married to help him or her to be moral but single people if they're content in the situation they're in their own in their condition as Single they're not just frantically always looking for mr. Or miss, right?

They're just desperate always thinking of the next date or the next boyfriend or the next girlfriend not thinking. They won't they're the kind that think they won't be complete until they're married until they're married till they have that soul mate and.

Because they're like that so they're unable to do anything in the service of Lord. If they're not like that if they're single people content in this and the service of the Lord content of the Lord as they are.

They can have an undivided devotion. That is useful. It is sought after by Paul here. It's useful for the kingdom of God. Once again in first Corinthians Paul stresses, you know where we are at in the history of God's work.

Has it changed since his time to ours in chapter 6 verse 14? Remember we are between resurrections. That's the present distress. He mentioned in chapter 7 verse 26 in light of the present distress. He says Distress means you're being torn like between two things.

Now Christ has been raised in the past later. We will be raised now in verse 31 the present form of this world is passing away. It's not gone yet, but it's on its way out. So even we who are married must be prepared to live as if we were not to live with undivided devotion to the Lord to live in our bodies so that the so that we tell the world that God is more important than All our bodily cravings that he paid the price for us.