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Corinth, A Church Divided, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
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1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Paul begins this section by quoting some of the popular sayings of his day and contrasting them with God's Word. He was providing case studies to show them precisely how God's wisdom differs from the wisdom of the world. The Corinthians — and particularly their leaders, those who Paul had been criticizing from the beginning of this letter — had been using various popular sayings to justify their belief and practice of worldly wisdom. Paul interacts with those popular sayings.
Paul, like a doctor examining a patient, put his finger on the sore spot — sexual immorality — in order to demonstrate to the patient that there was indeed a problem that needed to be treated. He began with the age-old idea that people are free to do whatever they want, that their moral freedom was a God-given right. The popular saying of the day was, "All things are lawful for me" (v. 12).
This is an argument for the gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul himself made to the Galatians because the Galatians had slipped back into a faith of works-righteousness. Paul was adamant that Christians are to oppose every aspect of works-righteousness because works-righteousness opposes every aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul's argument is that Christians are free from the religion(s) of work-righteousness in Christ. We are free in Christ, but not apart from Christ. But does that mean that we can do whatever we want as long as we acknowledge Jesus Christ? No, because the issue is not merely acknowledging Jesus Christ, as if He were some sort of talisman or charm. Rather, the issue is being in Christ — actually being in Christ. Those who are actually in Christ are not free to do whatever they want. They are free to do what Christ wants them to do. This is Christian freedom.
Clearly, Paul does not mean that Christians are free to rape, murder and pillage to their hearts' content as long as they "acknowledge" Christ. Not at all! Nor are Christians free to lie, gossip and slander because they have received the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. It doesn't work like that.
The popular understanding of Paul's day, the understanding that Paul was arguing against, was that fornication (sex outside of marriage) was okay because of the Greek belief that there was a strict separation of body and spirit. This isn't something that people normally think much about. It is, rather, an assumption or presupposition that people have. A presupposition works in the background to approve of certain kinds of decisions and disapprove others. It is a kind of prejudice, and most people are not aware of their own prejudices. But in fact, everyone has all kinds of prejudices, and not all of them are bad or wrong. For instance, Christians have a prejudice toward God. We call it love.
The Greeks had a prejudice about the human body. They believed that all of its activities and functions were evil and corrupt. And that the human spirit was above the fray and was, therefore, divine and perfect. Salvation for the Greeks (and those who believed and thought like the Greeks) was a matter of the spirit and did not involve the so-called corruptions of the body.
The Greeks produced two schools of thought on this matter. The Gnostic's sought to disengage themselves as much as possible from bodily functions and focused on the purity of the mind. They fasted, deprived themselves of sleep and became ascetics. They retreated from the body into the thoughts of the mind in the hope that they could dissociate themselves from the evil and corruption of the body. In Galatia, Paul was speaking against such Gnostics.
The other Greek school of thought was Libertine. The Libertines also thought that the body was evil and corrupt, but they thought that bodily activity had no connection with the purity of the spirit. So, it didn't matter what a person did in the body because the gulf between mind and body was unbridgeable. They believed that the activities of the body could not effect the spirit. Thus, they didn't fast, they partied. In Corinth, Paul was speaking to Libertines.
Christianity through the centuries has generated a great deal of confusion about this matter because, for the most part, Christian theologians have remained captive to Greek modes or categories of thought. For the most part, intelligence and intellectual endeavors in the West have always been defined by Greek categories. Even today our world is dominated by this kind of thinking. It's a kind of mentality that tends to compartmentalize various aspects of life, and is reflected in the fundamental dualism of mind and body. Most of our philosophical disagreements boil down to some version of Platonism verses some version of Aristotelianism. Modern thinking of this kind tends to analyze things by setting up opposing categories, like mind/body, conservative/liberal, right/left, Republican/Democratic, etc.
Such thinking often creates a false dichotomy that overlooks the central issues. I'm not suggesting that all dichotomies are false. They are not. All I am saying is that the categories of analysis determine the acceptability of a solution. The way a question or issue is approached determines its resolution. You may have heard it this way. "To get the right answer, you have to ask the right questions." Most Christian theology suffers from the same problem. It sets up false dichotomies, asks the wrong questions, and fails to adequately reveal or "get at" the essential message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What do I mean? I mean, what does Paul mean? Paul teaches that Christianity is neither Gnostic nor libertine because, according to Paul in this section, Christianity opposes the very categories of Greek analysis. This is the issue that Paul is trying to get at in this letter to the Corinthians. And this is the issue that so many people find so confusing. Remember that Paul's letter to the Galatians preceded this letter to the Corinthians. And in all likelihood, the Corinthian leaders were aware of Paul's letter to the Galatians. However, the Corinthians tended to be Libertines rather than Gnostic's. So, they took Paul's argument about freedom in Christ in a way that was never intended.
Their argument, which really was Paul's argument to the Galatians, was that "All things are lawful for me" (v. 12). Yes, argued Paul, that is true enough, but it doesn't mean that "all things are helpful" (v. 12). The KJV translates the word as expedient. Not all things are expedient. Things that are expedient provide a means to an end, but not necessarily a principled or ethical means. Expediency usually suggests getting something done without regard for principle, morality or ethics. It is the sentiment of the Nike® motto, "Just Do It!" Paul's opposition to this misunderstanding of his teaching to the Galatians reminds me of the children's song,
Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see...
Oh, be careful little ears, what you hear...
Oh, be careful little hands, what you make...
Oh, be careful little feet, where you go...
There's a Father up above, looking down in tender love,
So be careful little eyes, what you see.
Paul did not mean to say to the Galatians that it was okay for them to do whatever they wanted. They were not free to burn, murder and pillage. Like everyone else in this God-created world they were still bound by the Ten Commandments. What Paul meant was that apart from Christ the Ten Commandments provided only a death sentence. But in Christ — and this is the crucial point, only in Christ — was obedience to the Ten Commandments even possible.
It is possible not because we can do it, but because Jesus Christ has already done it for Himself and will bring all of His people into willing compliance by the power and presence of His Holy Spirit. Paul was saying that sin does not keep God's people from salvation, but that God's grace is greater than sin. However, that does not mean that we are free to sin. Rather, like everyone else we will suffer the worldly consequences of sin, but not the eternal consequences. "'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" (v.12).
Verse 13 continues the same point, "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food" — and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." The worldly wisdom expressed in this popular saying was that bodily activities — eating, drinking, sexing, etc. — are intended for the body and have no impact upon the mind or the spirit. It amounts to what can be called philosophical compartmentalization, which simply means that various elements of life and living can be sealed off from one another. For instance, they falsely believed that food has no effect upon the mind or spirit; that education has no effect on the body (it is for the mind or spirit), and that prayer or other spiritual practices do not impact the body.
We practice a similar kind of compartmentalization today. We think that we can cordon off our private lives from our public lives, or our home lives from our work lives, or our church lives from our work lives. Compartmentalization is simply the belief that some aspects of life and living have no effect or relationship to other aspects of life and living. Paul's example was that the Corinthians believed that extra-marital sexual relationships had no connection to their salvation or faithfulness. They argued that because their salvation did not depend upon what they did or didn't do or were able to do, that what they did or didn't do was in no way related to their salvation. Wrong!
Paul was saying that God trumps the body and everything related to it — " God will destroy both one and the other" (v. 13). God will destroy both the stomach (or body) and the food intended for it. He was trying to shake them out of their complacency by saying that arguments or postulates about God are categorically different than arguments or postulates about humanity. What is true for the human body is but a shadow of what is true for God.
And yet, God's truth is for the body. God's truth has taken the body and its various needs and activities into consideration. Here's the crucial verse: "The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body" (v. 13). In other words our bodies are not free to express whatever they want, whatever they desire, whatever they think they need. Rather, we are to live in submission to God, to God's law, to God's desires. Christians are not free to do whatever they want. They are free to do what God wants them to do in Christ. I pray that your ears will take care to hear this aright.
Just as it was necessary for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to manifest in a human body, it is also necessary for God's Holy Spirit to manifest in the bodies of His people. Christianity is a religion of incarnation — Christ's incarnation in the flesh, and the incarnation of His Holy Spirit in His people.
Paul runs with this argument by telling us that "God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power" (v. 14). God raised what? By whose power? God raised the dead body of Jesus Christ who had been slain upon the cross. God raised His body, his human body, from death. But that's not all! God will also raise us. He will also raise Christians, those who willingly believe, those who have been born-again, those who are blood bought by Christ. Just as Christ's body was raised, so our bodies will be raised.
Paul was saying here that Christianity is not so much about heaven — please listen carefully. It's about heaven, of course. Heaven is real and eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven is real. But the greater concern for this world is the coming of the Kingdom of God (heaven) to earth. Christianity is about the manifestation of the Kingdom "on earth, as it is heaven" (Matthew 6:7). The point is not so much that Christians get to spend all eternity with Christ in heaven — though they do. The point is that Christians are the leading edge of the Kingdom of God on earth, which is in the process of manifesting on earth. Christians are the manifestation — in Christ or through Christ — of God's Kingdom on earth. The locus or theater of Christianity is not heaven, but earth — and the earth has been created for bodies.
"Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" (v. 15). To be a member is to be part of a greater whole. The argument of membership in Christ is critical to overcoming the duality of Greek thinking. It is an argument that is uniquely Trinitarian. And like all discussion of the Trinity it is subtle, even difficult. But it is not difficult because it is hard to understand. It is difficult because our minds have been captured by Greek categories of thinking and analysis. All public education is saturated in Greek philosophy, so anyone who is a product of public education is a product of Greek philosophy — even today. The Trinity is a difficult concept because we have all been trained to think otherwise. The doctrine of the Trinity does not fit Greek categories.
Nonetheless, the reality of the Trinity is the linchpin of Christianity — its understanding and its practice. The reality of the Trinity is difficult because it is below the surface or ordinary awareness. You can't tell if someone is a member of Christ by looking at him. We are not talking about membership in a 501(c)(3) organization or about attending a worship service in some particular place. We are talking about being a member of Christ. "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" (v. 15). It's related to church membership, but it is not the same thing.
A member is an appendage, "a body part or organ: as a : limb b : penis" (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary — forgive me for getting graphic here, but it is import to understand this if we are to follow Paul's argument because Paul is referencing a particular organ of the body). Paul's argument is that our bodily parts — eyes, ears, hands, feet, etc. — are not just ours, they belong to God.
Paul uses an example of temple prostitution for two reasons. First, he has already identified that the Corinthians have misunderstood something significant related to God's teaching about sexuality, fornication in particular. And secondly, arguments related to prostitution have a long biblical history. The Old Testament prophets have long described faithlessness as a kind of covenantal prostitution. Unfaithful people "live with" or "sleep with" other gods in violation of the covenantal relationship that God has established with all of humanity.
To be joined to a prostitute is to violate the covenant of the family, which is founded on the marriage covenant, which necessarily involves God. Contrary to popular opinion, marriage is not just between a man and a woman, but is between a man, a woman and God. All family relationships and responsibilities are grounded and established on the biblical covenant of marriage, whether or not that covenant is acknowledged. Family membership is based upon the covenant of marriage which has given birth to the family. The family is a product of marriage, and marriage is a gift (or creation, or institution) of God. All sexual activity outside of marriage is, therefore, a violation of family membership. It is a violation of one's personal identity as a human being.
Paul acknowledges that sex is always a renewal — a remembrance and consummation — of the marriage covenant given by God to all of humanity for our joy, health and well being. It is always that, and is never not that. Consequently, Paul argues that fornication forges a union that is in conflict with God and family. But sex within marriage reinforces one's individuality and, at the same time, one's covenantal unity with one's spouse and family — and God.
The best way to deal with sexual immorality or sexual temptation, as Paul notes, is to flee from it. Run! Get away before you are tempted, before you get near it because it will catch you in its web of sin. The fly cannot defeat the spider. His only defense is distance. Why should we run from it? Because it will confuse and ultimately destroy both our individuality and covenantal unity.
Paul says it this way, "Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body" (v. 18). All sin is primarily sin against God (Psalm 51:4, Luke 15:21) and against some other person — lying, slander, murder, etc. But the sin of fornication is unique in that is constitutes a sin against one's self. Yes, it violates God's covenant and involves another person, but in some way, according to Paul, it is a violation against one's own body, and against one's own soul. And because our bodies are members of Christ, it is a violation against membership in Christ. It is a violation against the character of the Trinity and against the image of God in which we have been created.
The nature of the Trinity is one in three, three in one — unity in diversity, diversity in unity. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches a unique understanding of reality that allows for both particularity and unity. It is the only perspective from which both particularity and unity can be philosophically (or logically) justified. But when a person is joined in one flesh with someone apart from God's marriage covenant, the unique essence of the character of the Trinity is obscured. We are less able to understand or discern who God has created us to be because human sexuality is at the very core of human identity. And we are less able to understand or discern who God is because human beings are always related to God covenantally. To obscure the idea of covenant is to obscure God.
Yes, we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but that personal relationship is always manifest through God's covenant. God's covenant is an essential element of reality. To perceive reality apart from God's covenant is to miss the Trinitarian character of reality1. Truth cannot be seen apart from participation in God's covenant because the universe in which we live is necessarily Trinitarian. That is, it is the Trinitarian character of God Himself that allows for, or accounts for the existence of individual things and simultaneously, allows for participation in various classes of unity through covenantal relationships.
All things that belong to a group or class of any kind do so through a covenantal or legal relationship. What I mean is that it is God's law that holds everything together through differentiation. God's law not only holds families together, but it holds the universe itself together. So, to obscure or confuse our understanding of covenantal relationship by violating the marriage covenant, we alter our understanding and our actual relationship with God because God always relates to humanity in terms of His covenant.
Thus, extramarital sex undermines God's unity or order in the universe by violating God's law, which is the only principle that allows for individuality within unity, or particularity in the midst of universality. A person is always more than an individual because all persons are necessarily related to various groups, like families, churches, states — even humanity itself. And all groups are related covenantally, legally — according to God's law. And it cannot be otherwise. Thus, to dishonor the covenant of marriage — whether one is married or not — always amounts to the destruction of social coherence or unity. It is a form of social suicide.
Paul concludes this chapter with this thought, "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?" (v. 19). Paul refers to the bodies of believers as temples. The Old Testament understanding of temple — the Temple at Jerusalem, in particular — as the place of God's presence. God was present in the Temple. Of course, Jesus taught that God is present wherever two or three believers are gathered in His name (Matthew 18:20). And in the Old Testament, the Temple was the place that God's people gathered. But the point is that the Spirit of God is present in the lives of believers, not in the Temple itself, nor in some particular structure or location.
It is the Trinitarian Spirit of God that provides for both the individuality and the unity of believers in Christ. And apart from that Trinitarian Spirit, there is only death and destruction. The last phrase, "whom you have from God" (v. 19) simply repeats this truth. Some versions translate it whom and some translate it as which. It could be either in the Greek. The difference is whether it refers to the temple or to the Spirit. Either interpretation will do.
Finally, said Paul, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body" (vs. 19-20). It could hardly be more clear that Christianity is about life in this world and in these bodies. Of course, its about heaven, but that's later. Our bodies are now. Christianity is about the manifestation of God's Holy Spirit in the lives of believes in the midst of this fallen world for the sake of its redemption and our happiness.
1See, The One And The Many, by R.J. Rushdoony, Ross House Books. Subtitled Studies in the Philosophy of Order and Ultimacy, this work discusses the problem of understanding unity vs. particularity, oneness vs. individuality. "Whether recognized or not, every argument and every theological, philosophical, political, or any other exposition is based on a presupposition about man, God and society - about reality. This presupposition rules and determines the conclusion; the effect is the result of a cause. And one such basic presupposition is with reference to the one and the many." The author finds the answer in the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity.
