The Body as a Temple: Honoring God

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 “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. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. ¹⁵ 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! ¹⁶ 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.”  ¹⁷ But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. ¹⁹ 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; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

In chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, we saw Paul addresses a serious case of sexual immorality within the church. Paul now again addresses this topic in Chapter 6. He speaks on the concept of the body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. Paul urges the Corinthian Christians to avoid sexual immorality and to honor God with their bodies, emphasizing that they are not their own but have been purchased by Christ. 

He emphasizes the distinction between freedom and choices that are beneficial and/or enslaving, highlighting that while individuals may claim the right to do anything, not everything is advantageous. The Corinthians often justified their reasoning with excuses; one being that with their freedom in Christ, all things were permissible. They were using their liberty as a license to indulge in sexual sin. Just as food is for the stomach, so the body for sex, they claimed. Paul reminds them to take a gospel centered approach to living rather than feeding one’s own desires.

Paul begins to explain with an effort to shift their thinking from what was norm within the culture there to a new standard – God’s standard. And in doing so, Paul first states that the body is not for sex or to indulge into one’s fleshly desires, but it is for the Lord. One cannot separate the spirit and the body with regards to the actions carried out and it having no effect or consequences to one’s spirit.

With a set of rhetorical questions, Paul makes his point – do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And your body belongs to Him. He further makes it very clear, that he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. There is a union of yourself and your body with the Lord. And therefore, how should one treat sexual immorality – it is to flee from it. I was reminded of how Joseph responded to Potiphar’s wife accosting him, he fled. He did not reason, grin and try to resist. We are to not just flee sexual sin but flee from sexual temptation. And we fight it, not in our own strength but by the Spirit’s help in prayer, and we should fortify ourselves in His Word. Paul reminds them and us that our bodies are a temple of the Holy spirit and urges believers to recognise their union with the Lord, valuing spiritual integrity over fleshly desires or cultural norms and glorify God.

God Bless.