[FS] Live Christ in Your Culture #14, Our Bodies are not Our Own

Paul brings First Corinthians 6 right into the middle of real life and says plainly that the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord. Paul knows Corinth is a city where prostitution is legal, normal, and even religiously tied to the temple of Aphrodite, but he does not let the culture set the rules for believers. Paul takes the popular saying, “food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food,” and shows how that kind of thinking gets turned into, “God gave this appetite, so just do it.” The phrase sounds a lot like the modern line, “I was made this way,” but Paul will not let desire become lord.

Paul says, “all things are lawful for me,” but he immediately adds that not all things are helpful, and he will not be dominated by anything. The issue is not just whether something is legal or normal in society. The issue is whether it is profitable before God and whether it starts to master the person. Sexual desire is strong, and Paul treats it seriously because it can enslave. God gave the appetite, but God also gave guardrails so that the gift would bless and not destroy.

Paul then pushes the Christian to think eternally. God raised the Lord, and God will raise believers by his power. That future resurrection means the body is not disposable, cheap, or merely physical. The body belongs to the Lord now and will be raised by the Lord later, so choices made with the body carry eternal weight.

Paul also says that believers are members of Christ. That is deep and intimate language. To join the body to a prostitute would be, in Paul’s words, “never.” Genesis says the two become one flesh, and Jesus confirms that marriage is the place where that oneness belongs. Paul then raises the matter even higher: the one joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

Paul’s command is simple and strong: “Flee from sexual immorality.” Joseph running from Potiphar’s wife gives the picture. Sexual sin may not be the worst sin in every category, but it is unique because it sins against the body and corrupts intimacy at a deep human level. Finally, Paul says the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit dwells there. The believer is not his own, because he was bought with a price. So the body must glorify God.

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Freedom must refuse every master [47:06] Paul’s line about lawful things does not create a wide-open life of self-indulgence. It creates a test: does this thing help, and does this thing dominate? Christian freedom is not proven by doing whatever desire demands, but by refusing to let any appetite take the throne. [47:06]
• 2. Guardrails protect God’s good gift [49:32] God’s boundaries around sexuality are not presented as punishment for having desire. They are given because desire is powerful and can either bless deeply or destroy deeply. The fence around marriage protects the beauty of intimacy from becoming a self-centered hunger that consumes people. [49:32]
• 3. Eternity retrains bodily desire [51:21] Paul anchors sexual choices in resurrection, not in the mood of the moment. The body will be raised by God’s power, so the body cannot be treated as a temporary tool for private pleasure. Eternal thinking forces desire to answer to the future God has promised. [51:21]
• 4. Oneness makes sin unthinkable [58:04] Paul’s “never” comes from union with Christ. The believer’s body is a member of Christ, so sexual sin is never isolated, private, or merely physical. Oneness with the Lord means the body carries the reality of communion with Christ into every decision. [58:04]
• 5. The body belongs to God [01:08:11] The temple image means God is not far away from bodily life. The Holy Spirit dwells in the believer, and that turns the body into a place claimed by God. “You are not your own” is not loss of dignity, but the deepest reason the body must be honored. [68:11]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [34:58] - Our Bodies Are Not Our Own
• [35:46] - Remembering Washed, Sanctified, Justified
• [37:21] - Corinth’s Sexual Culture
• [38:25] - Defining Sexual Immorality
• [42:31] - Lawful Does Not Mean Helpful
• [49:15] - Sexuality Guided by God
• [51:21] - Thinking Eternally About the Body
• [56:19] - Members of Christ
• [61:58] - Flee Sexual Immorality
• [67:52] - The Temple of the Holy Spirit
• [68:39] - Bought With a Price

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 6:12-20
“‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything. ‘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. 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 is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But he who is 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.” [35:07]

Genesis 2:24
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” [58:36]

Matthew 19:4-6
“He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’” [59:07]

John 17:11
“And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” [01:00:34]

Observation questions

1. In 1 Corinthians 6:12, what two limits does Paul place on the saying, “All things are lawful for me”? [47:06]
2. What popular line from Corinth does Paul quote in verse 13, and how was that kind of thinking used to justify sexual sin? [43:15]
3. In this passage, what reasons does Paul give for why the body should not be used for sexual immorality?
4. What commands and images stand out in verses 18-20: “flee,” “temple of the Holy Spirit,” and “bought with a price”? What does Paul seem to be stressing through those words? [01:08:11]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says not everything lawful is helpful, and he refuses to be dominated by anything. How does that change the way a believer should think about freedom, especially in a culture where something may be normal or legal? [42:31]
2. Paul connects sexual choices to resurrection by saying God raised the Lord and will also raise believers. Why would eternal resurrection truth matter in such a practical area of life? [51:21]
3. Paul uses Genesis 2:24 and says sexual union makes two people “one flesh.” Why does that make sexual sin more than a private act or a merely physical act? [58:36]
4. Paul says the believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and that the believer is not his own. How does that truth challenge the common idea that a person can do whatever he wants with his body? [01:08:11]

Application questions

1. Paul says Christian freedom is not proven by doing whatever desire wants, but by refusing to be mastered. Where does that land personally right now? Is there any appetite, habit, screen pattern, relationship, or private behavior that feels like it is starting to dominate life? [47:06]
2. God gives guardrails because sexual desire is powerful and meant for good. Which part of God’s design is hardest to trust in this season: waiting, faithfulness, purity of mind, or running from temptation? Why does that part feel especially difficult? [49:32]
3. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord. How would daily life look different if the body were consciously offered to the Lord this week—in dating, entertainment, social media, texting, or private thought life? [48:27]
4. Paul says to think eternally, not just in the moment. What short-term desire most often makes eternal thinking hard? What would it look like to slow down and remember resurrection before making a choice? [55:35]
5. Paul does not say to manage sexual immorality but to flee from it. What does “running” need to look like in real life for this group—changing routines, adding accountability, cutting off access, or leaving certain situations sooner? [01:03:38]
6. Believers are members of Christ and one spirit with the Lord. How does that truth reshape the way a person thinks about hidden sin—especially sin that seems private because no one else sees it? [58:04]
7. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” Does that truth feel comforting, confronting, or both right now? What would it look like to glorify God with the body in one clear, concrete way this week? [01:08:11]