“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. 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. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 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! 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.” But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (I Corinthians 6:12-20)
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (I Corinthians 6:12-20)
We hear a lot of “I have the right to do anything… as long as I don’t hurt anyone else.” Paul doesn’t dispute that, but he sets his standards a little higher. He doesn’t think what we should do just shouldn’t do harm. He’s claiming that what we do should do good. And that’s the problem with a lot of things. They don’t do good, or the good they do lasts only as long as the doing of them, or the good that they do is outweighed by the cost, whether financial, emotional, or relational.
That’s part of the problem. People think of immediate physical harm. We think in terms of the moment, and not the lifetime. If we can’t see the harm, or if we didn’t mean harm, that makes it OK. Sex is a great example of that. What harm can it do if we have sex whenever we want, with whom we want, where we want, in the manner we want, as long as everyone is a consenting adult?
Let’s suppose you got a new car. Would you appreciate discovering that the dealer had driven it for six months, turned the odometer back and sold it to you as new? Why shouldn’t he use the car? It’s his.
It used to be that children were taught that their virginity was a gift that they gave to their spouses. I find that incomplete. It’s not virginity or innocence that we give them, it’s ourselves, our whole selves. Which would you prefer for the price, a new car, or one that the Carfax report says has been in a couple fender-benders?
Of sourse, sex isn’t the only way we use others. It’s not the only way that we allow ourselves to be used. Our society is teaching us that our problems are because we don’t value ourselves enough – but we sell ourselves cheaply. We’re told we should treat people like gold, when they’ve been giving themselves away or paying others (not always with cash) to be used by them.
What Paul is calling us to do is to value ourselves, our relationships, and other people properly. If something doesn’t add value, it reduces it, no matter what the thing is.
That’s part of the problem. People think of immediate physical harm. We think in terms of the moment, and not the lifetime. If we can’t see the harm, or if we didn’t mean harm, that makes it OK. Sex is a great example of that. What harm can it do if we have sex whenever we want, with whom we want, where we want, in the manner we want, as long as everyone is a consenting adult?
Let’s suppose you got a new car. Would you appreciate discovering that the dealer had driven it for six months, turned the odometer back and sold it to you as new? Why shouldn’t he use the car? It’s his.
It used to be that children were taught that their virginity was a gift that they gave to their spouses. I find that incomplete. It’s not virginity or innocence that we give them, it’s ourselves, our whole selves. Which would you prefer for the price, a new car, or one that the Carfax report says has been in a couple fender-benders?
Of sourse, sex isn’t the only way we use others. It’s not the only way that we allow ourselves to be used. Our society is teaching us that our problems are because we don’t value ourselves enough – but we sell ourselves cheaply. We’re told we should treat people like gold, when they’ve been giving themselves away or paying others (not always with cash) to be used by them.
What Paul is calling us to do is to value ourselves, our relationships, and other people properly. If something doesn’t add value, it reduces it, no matter what the thing is.
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