Honoring God with Our Bodies: Stewardship, Purity, Worship

First Corinthians 6:12-20 brings the matter of sexual purity right into the light of God’s grace. God’s grace gives forgiveness when believers fall, and God’s grace gives power to live true to who believers are in Christ. The indicative tells believers who they are, and the imperative shows what kind of life honors the Lord.

Paul takes up the Corinthian slogan, “All things are lawful for me,” and qualifies it because bad theology had started giving people permission to sin. The Corinthian culture had trained people to treat bodily appetites like simple needs, so hunger meant eating and sexual desire meant acting. Paul says the body has a greater purpose than satisfying primal appetites. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Sexual purity becomes a matter of stewardship because the believer’s body belongs under the lordship of Jesus. Christ is not against the body. Christ sustains the body, nourishes the body, and calls the body into holy usefulness. The believer does not resent God’s guardrails, because every moral boundary protects and provides for real good.

Paul then shows that sexual purity is a matter of freedom. The body is a member of Christ, and sexual immorality takes what belongs to Jesus and joins it to what defiles. Sex is never “just sex,” because the body and soul are intertwined. Lust, pornography, adultery, premarital sex, and every form of sexual immorality drain spiritual energy, like an old boiler losing heat up the flu. Intimacy with Christ becomes limited when the body is used in ways that contradict belonging to Christ.

Paul’s command is simple and direct: flee from sexual immorality. Joseph ran from Potiphar’s wife, and Odysseus tied himself to the mast because alluring voices cannot be treated casually. Sexual sin wounds deeply because it is sin against another person, against one’s own body, and, for the believer, against union with Christ.

First Corinthians 6 ends by making sexual purity a matter of worship. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the place where God has chosen to dwell. The believer is not his or her own, because Christ bought the believer with the precious price of his blood. The body, then, should become a hymn of worship. The black wolf still has to be faced, the weeds still have to be pulled, and repentance still has to be daily, but Christ gives forgiveness, strength, and a better joy than sin can offer.

##

---

Key Takeaways

• 1. Grace empowers holy obedience God’s grace does not merely meet the believer after failure. God’s grace also strengthens the believer before temptation, giving power to live in line with a new identity in Christ. The indicative and the imperative belong together, because belonging to God creates a life that seeks to honor God. [30:18]
• 2. The body belongs to Jesus Paul refuses to let the Corinthian slogan become a permission slip for sin. The believer’s body is not a private possession to spend on appetite, but a stewardship placed under the lordship of Christ. God’s boundaries are not resentment-worthy restrictions, but guardrails from the One who is for the body. [45:34]
• 3. Sex is never just sex Sexual sin cannot be isolated from the soul, from worship, or from union with Christ. The culture treats sexual desire as a simple appetite, but Paul treats the body as joined to Jesus. The believer cannot leave the soul “parked outside” while the body goes somewhere else. [60:47]
• 4. Fleeing is spiritual wisdom Paul does not tell believers to negotiate with sexual immorality, manage it, or linger near it. Paul says to flee, because some temptations are too dangerous for casual strength and too costly for pride. Joseph’s running and Odysseus tied to the mast both picture the same truth: freedom sometimes looks like refusing the room entirely. [59:57]
• 5. Hidden weeds require honest repentance The same rain that makes good grass grow can also make weeds grow, and the soul needs regular tending. The believer may need to examine what is being watched, spoken, imagined, or tolerated. Deeper intimacy with Jesus often begins when hidden compromise is finally pulled up by the roots.
  
  ## [66:29]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [28:39] - Opening to First Corinthians 6
• [30:18] - Grace, Identity, and Obedience
• [32:46] - The Two Wolves Within
• [39:06] - Reading First Corinthians 6:12-20
• [40:28] - Honoring God With the Body
• [42:32] - Corinth’s Slogan and Bad Theology
• [43:14] - Sexual Purity as Stewardship
• [51:13] - Sexual Purity as Freedom
• [56:09] - The Boiler and Lost Intimacy
• [59:37] - Flee From Sexual Immorality
• [62:16] - Sexual Purity as Worship
• [64:30] - Pulling the Weeds of Sin
• [68:07] - Invitation to Confess and Repent

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.” [39:06]

Matthew 5:27-28
“‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’”

1 Corinthians 10:5
“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

Colossians 1:17
“And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

Observation questions

1. In 1 Corinthians 6:12-13, what two limits does Paul put on the slogan “All things are lawful for me,” and what does that show about how the Corinthians were using freedom? [42:57]
2. What contrasts does Paul make in this passage between appetite and purpose, especially in the line, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord”? [45:34]
3. What reasons does Paul give in 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 for fleeing sexual immorality, and how many different truths about the body can the group list from the passage?
4. What pictures are used to describe the struggle against sexual sin, and what do those pictures emphasize about temptation and response? [01:00:14]

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says the body is “for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” What does that mean for how believers should think about their physical bodies, desires, and choices? [49:33]
2. Paul does not say to manage sexual immorality but to flee from it. Why is running away the wise response here, and what does that reveal about the power of this kind of temptation? [01:00:21]
3. Jesus says lust is adultery of the heart in Matthew 5:27-28. How does that deepen the meaning of sexual purity beyond outward behavior alone? [54:05]
4. Paul says believers are not their own because they were bought with a price. How does that truth turn sexual purity from mere rule-keeping into worship? [01:02:35]

Application questions

1. Grace gives forgiveness after failure, but also strength before temptation. Where is there a need right now for that strengthening grace instead of waiting until after a fall? [30:18]
2. The body belongs to Jesus and is not a private possession. Are there habits, entertainments, relationships, or private patterns that have been treated as “my business” instead of Christ’s business? [45:44]
3. Sexual sin often grows where thoughts are left unchecked. What would it look like in daily life to take thoughts captive to obey Christ, especially in what is watched, imagined, or revisited in the mind? [01:07:20]
4. Fleeing sometimes means refusing the room entirely. What practical steps might help someone stop lingering near temptation and start running from it? [59:57]
5. Sexual compromise drains spiritual energy and weakens intimacy with Christ. Has there been any place where joy in Christ feels thin, distant, or “lost up the flue,” and could hidden compromise be part of the reason? [57:00]
6. The soul needs regular tending, because the same rain that grows grass also grows weeds. What weeds need to be pulled up honestly and completely right now? [01:06:29]
7. The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and should become a hymn of worship. What would it look like this week to glorify God with the body in a concrete, visible, and obedient way? [01:03:21]