Free Bible Commentary
“1 Corinthians 6:12-20”
Categories: 1 Corinthians“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, ‘THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.’ But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
---End of Scripture verses---
Wow what an incredible passage of Scripture!
Paul had already established that sexual immorality was sinful in verses 9-10. In today’s passage he refuted the lame argumentation that the brethren in Corinth were using to justify this horrid sin (verses 12-13). I believe that “All things are lawful for me” was a sort of catchphrase that the brethren used to justify fornication. They tried to group sexual immorality into the same realm as eating “unclean meats” (Romans 14:14), and thereby justify sexual intercourse as just another natural urge and need that was okay to satisfy anyway that they chose to do so.
People use this same type of thinking to justify the sinful things they want to do today. Is it true that “all things are lawful for me”? Well of course not! Paul just posted a long list of sins that are not permissible in God’s legal system, and that will cause a person to lose the kingdom of God (verses 9-10)! And of course, sexuality immorality definitely made the list. We must be careful to not justify and permit the things that God has clearly forbidden. “All things” are not options that we can exercise if God has commanded us otherwise!
“But all things are not profitable” or “helpful”. Even when something IS permitted, that does not mean that it is necessarily a good thing to DO. We should avoid doing any “legal” thing that can bring harm to someone else and tempt them to place their own souls in jeopardy. AND, we should avoid doing anything that can cause us to be “mastered” by the power of its influence. This is classic Pauline wordplay that actually reads in the Greek, “ALL things are in my power, but I will not be brought under the power of any ONE thing.”
Paul had labeled “drunkenness” (verse 10) as a sin that will cost us our soul. Just the fact that it is potentially “addictive” and destructive is all the reason we really need to stay completely away from alcohol consumption! So many people have tragically been overpowered and enslaved by sex, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, etc. Those of us who understand that our “bodies are members of Christ” (verse 15), and “temples of the Holy Spirit” (verse 19), should make certain to not pollute, defile and destroy God’s holy sanctuary with such destructive things.
“The Lord is for the body” (verse 13). God did not make our bodies and bless us with them for us just to turn around and abuse them. We are all “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14), and our bodies are designed to be a sanctified dwelling place for Him! Three more times in chapter 6 Paul asks the rhetorical question, “Do you not know?” These are things that we should know and be absolutely convinced of and convicted by! God will raise up our bodies through His power (verse 14)! He has much better things in store for us if we prove to be good stewards of the bodies He has entrusted to us!
When Paul said “The two shall become one flesh” (verse 16), was he implying that a marriage occurs when a man and a woman engage in the sin of fornication? No! He is saying that the sexual union is so very sacred that it is only SUITABLE for marriage. We become “one flesh” with a partner when we engage in the ultimate act of physical intimacy whether we are married to them or not. But the main point Paul is making is that we dare not break the ultimate, sacred, “one spirit” union that we have entered into with Christ (verse 17), by engaging in cheap, sinful, carnal unions!
“Flee sexual immorality!” (verse 18). Run for your life from sexual sin! Some foes are just too formidable to come close enough to to fight against. Sometimes it is not cowardice that prompts us to run, but wisdom! “Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.” While it is true that there are a multitude of sins that are committed “inside” and “against” the human body; fornication defiles the sacred union we have with Christ and the Holy Spirit like no other sin does!
“For you have been bought with a price” (verse 20). Christ paid the ultimate price to redeem you from the slavery of sin. When you commit your life to Him, ownership is effectively transferred over to Him, and you must understand that “you are not your own” any longer (verse 19). THEREFORE, “glorify God in your body”! In everything that you do! In everything that you refrain from doing! In every place that you go! In everything that you say! In everything that you think! I know this is a very difficult and challenging thing to do, but we must try our best to glorify God with our whole life (Romans 12:1-2)! This is our very purpose for existence!
Please read 1 Corinthians 7:1-7 for tomorrow.
Have a great day!
- Louie Taylor
