Bulletin Articles
“Against His Own Body”
Categories: Iron sharpens iron“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. (1 Corinthians 6.12-13)
In this portion of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, he addresses one of the Corinthian Christians’ many misunderstandings, mistakes, and transgressions. While some had strayed too far in advocating for complete sexual abstinence (cf. 7.1), another contingent, by all appearances, had begun visiting prostitutes. Their reasoning began with something true: regardless of God’s restrictions on what foods were acceptable for consumption under the Law of Moses, under Christ those restrictions are removed and foods of any kind are permissible. To this they added the understanding that the fleshly body is not the whole of human existence, and that the immortal soul is God’s chief concern. From all of this, they reached the conclusion that their bodies didn’t really matter all that much, and so they might as well satisfy their sexual appetites just as they satisfied their appetite for food.
Of course, this was wrong. They were mistaken, and as a result were engaging in a behavior God despises. And they couldn’t reasonably claim ignorance, or that it was an honest misunderstanding.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6.9-11)
Paul’s incredulous, slightly sarcastic question is the first hint that he’d been over these topics with them before. By the end of the paragraph, when he reminds them they were washed, sanctified, and justified upon becoming Christians, it’s beyond obvious that he’d already taught them God’s righteous commandments against all of these behaviors—why else would they have repented of them previously? But they convinced themselves, through some shoddy logic and twisting of the truth, that it was okay to return to the very same pit from which Christ had rescued them.
The Corinthians’ mistake in this context is relevant to us today for several reasons—the first is the simple fact of God’s pattern for our sexual norms, which are still today assaulted using the same old lies and confusion, leading to a culture of promiscuity whose chief difference from 1st-century Corinth lies in its expansion to include women as well as men, despite God’s commandments and numerous earthly indicators that it contributes massively to the degradation and decay of society. But while that’s the most pertinent application, there’s another, even more insidious version of the lie, which is gaining ground in our culture by the day: modern gender theory.
This problem has for decades continued to grow in size and scope while being ignored by the general public; many who predicted just a few years ago that it would become a mainstream issue were mocked. And yet, here we are. On March 31, 2022 the Civil Rights Division of the federal Department of Justice sent a letter to the attorneys general of each state, issuing a soft threat against any interference in children being given so-called “gender-affirming care.” That term means the opposite of what it says. To affirm a child’s gender would be to gently and lovingly reassuring a young, sadly confused boy that despite what he feels, he really is a boy and nothing can change that. Instead, when the federal government says “gender-affirming care,” it means repeating the lie the Corinthian Christians had come to believe: that the body and the soul are completely disconnected, and people should give in to their bodies’ most destructive desires. In practical terms, it means amputating sex-specific parts of children’s bodies, pumping them full of synthetic hormones their bodies were never designed to handle, and signing them up for lifelong drug dependency.
This is all bad enough when it involves adults mutilating themselves. It’s a different form of sexual immorality than the Corinthian Christians’ consorting with prostitutes, but is no less sexual immorality. What does Paul say about this sin in general?
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. (1 Corinthians 6.18-20)
Our society has decided to challenge Paul on this one, by pushing it on others as well—sinning against children’s bodies, in ways they can never undo, no matter how many more cosmetic surgeries they undergo. There’s not much an individual Christian can do to fix society’s mistake. But we can do a few things. Refuse to be deceived. Refuse to go along with the lie. Protect your own children from this kind of evil influence. We may lose this battle in the eyes of the world; but we must still fight it, and remember that Christ has already won the war. Do your best to put yourself on his side, regardless of what the forces of Satan do or say about it.
Jeremy Nettles
