***Commentaries by David Prior and Leon Morris have contributed greatly to this outline***

I. Introduction

This article appeared in Leadership Magazine. The source and author are unknown, but the truth of this article is so powerful.

I held a notice from my 13-year-old daughter’s school announcing a meeting to preview the new course in sexuality. Parents could examine the curriculum and take part in a lesson presented exactly as it would be given to the students.

When I arrived at the school, I was surprised to discover only about a dozen parents present. As we waited for the presentation, I thumbed through page after page of instruction on the prevention of pregnancy or disease. I found abstinence mentioned only in passing.

When the teacher arrived with the school nurse, she asked if there were any questions. I asked why abstinence did not play a noticeable part in the material. I was shocked by what happened next. There was a great deal of laughter, and someone suggested that if I thought abstinence had any merit, I should go back to burying my head in the sand. The teacher and the nurse said nothing as I drowned in a sea of embarrassment. My mind went blank, and I could think of nothing to say. The teacher explained that the job of the school was to “teach facts,” and the home was responsible for moral training.

I sat in silence for the next 20 minutes as the course was explained. The other parents seemed to give their unqualified support to the materials. “Donuts at the back,” announced the teacher during the break. “I’d like you to put on the name tags we have prepared and mingle with the other parents.” Everyone moved to the back of the room. As I watched them affix their name tags and shake hands, I sat deep in thought. I was ashamed I had not been able to convince them to include a serious discussion of abstinence in the materials. I uttered a silent prayer for guidance.

My thoughts were interrupted by the nurse’s hand on my shoulder. “Won’t you join the others?” The nurse smiled sweetly at me. “The donuts are good.”

“Thank you, no.” I replied.

“Won’t you please join them?” she coaxed. Then I heard a still small voice whisper, Don’t go. The instruction was unmistakable: Don’t go!

“I’ll just wait here,” I said.

When the class was called back to order, the teacher looked around the long table and thanked everyone for putting on their name tags. She ignored me. Then she said, “Now we’re going to give you the same lesson we’ll be giving your children. Everyone please peel off your name tags.” I watched in silence as the tags came off. “Now, then, on the back of one of the tags, I drew a tiny flower. Who has it?”

The gentleman across from me held it up. “All right,” she said. “The flower represents disease.” Then she asked the man, “Do you recall with whom you shook hands?” He pointed to a couple of people. “Very good,” she replied. “The handshake in this case represents intimacy. The two people you had contact with now have the disease.”

There was laughter and joking among the parents. The teacher continued, “And whom did the two of you shake hands with?” The point was well taken, and she explained how this lesson would show students how quickly disease spreads. “Since we all shook hands, we all have the disease.”

It was then that I heard the still, small voice again. Speak now, but be humble. I rose from my chair. I apologized for any upset I might have caused earlier, congratulated the teacher on an excellent lesson that would impress the youth, and concluded by saying I had only one small point I wished to make. “Not all of us were infected,” I said, “One of us…abstained.”

To remind ourselves of context is always important. Paul started addressing the issue of immorality, specifically incest, in chapter 5. He stated that the proper response for the church in the situation of sin is to remove the immoral person from their midst. The reason Paul gave was because “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” In chapter 5 he also reminded the Corinthians, and thus warning us, that we are not to judge those who are outside the church. We are to be judging matters inside the church. 

Keeping with the theme of judgment Paul explained way it’s not proper for two believers to allow a non-believer to settle disputes between them. The non-believer is not capable of judging the believer because they do not even belong to the same kingdom. The believer operates under an entirely different set of rules than the non-believer does. The believer has been wash, sanctified and justified. It is precisely because of that truth that Paul is so shocked the Corinthians would let their lawsuits be tried before non-believers.

That brings us to our text for this week:

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 enslaved by anything. (13) "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. (14) And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. (15) 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! (16) 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." (17) But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (18) Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. (19) 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, (20) for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

II. Flee Immorality (6:12-14)

Paul is now revisiting the issue of sexual immorality. Instead of narrowing the scope to incest he is now broadening it to cover all immorality. He starts off with a Corinthian mantra that was being misused.

1 Corinthians 6:12 "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.

The quote, “All things are lawful for me” was a mantra the Corinthians very likely learned from Paul himself. Paul would have used it in regards to Jewish laws and customs. He would have used it to defend both sides of the coin; those who opposed him obeying Jewish law and those who opposed him not obeying and observing customs. 

Now, however, Paul is going to go on to explain that phrase even more. He has done this before, hasn’t he? Remember back in chapter 5 when he said, “I wrote to you not to associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world. Now I’m writing to you…” so I get the feeling that the Corinthians misunderstood a lot of the things Paul said. So he felt the need to expound on this phrase that they had latched on to. 

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. This is a great statement. I like to word it this way, “just because you have the right to do something doesn’t mean that it is the right thing to do.” This statement shows that Paul was influenced by his surroundings. He was deftly aware of the people that he was with and they dictated whether or not his actions were appropriate. Of course, that only applies to matters that the Bible does not speak directly to. Paul felt freedom to partake of meat sacrificed to idols (as we will find out in chapter 8) but not if it meant that it caused a brother to stumble. Was he free to partake of that meat? Of course he was, but sometimes it may not have been helpful to the advancement of the gospel. That was Paul’s primary concern in all of this, and it should be ours, as well. Are we hindering the gospel from going forth because of our actions? Sometimes having the right to do something isn’t enough, we need to make sure it’s also the right thing to do. We need to be like Paul and be keenly aware of our surroundings and decide what would best advance the gospel in situations where the Bible does not clearly speak.

His next point of clarification is that while all things may be lawful, he will not be enslaved by anything. Throughout history many Christians have used their Christian freedom to partake of sinful acts. Whether sexual immorality, as is contextually the case with the Corinthians, gluttony, drunkenness, pornography, homosexuality, incest, selfishness, pride, idolatry, greed, malice, slander, etc. Whatever the vice may be, Christians often use the proclamation of their freedom in Christ to indulge the sinful nature. Those things are enslaving. And Paul makes a proclamation that is good for all of us–the proclamation not to be enslaved by anything. Too often in our freedom we enslave ourselves.

Paul wrote about this elsewhere in Scripture:

Romans 8:1-11 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (3) For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, (4) in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (5) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. (6) For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. (7) For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. (8) Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (9) You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (10) But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (11) If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Here in Romans 8 Paul reminds us that without the freedom of Christ we are dead to sin. We’re given a measuring stick here to find out if we’re marked by life (Spirit) or death (flesh) in verses 6-8.

Verse 10 has another of those divine buts! If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. You have been given live and you have been set free from the bondage of sin.

But what do we do with that freedom? That’s the big question. Paul said in Galatians 5:

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

This was the Corinthians problem and I believe it’s a problem for a lot of Christians today. We use our freedom to gratify the desires of our flesh. That’s not why we were set free! We were set free from the bondage of sin in order to gratify the desires of God.

Do not be enslaved by anything that is lawful for you. 

I have a friend whom I confronted on watching movies that are inappropriate. Movies with excessive swearing, nudity and the like were regularly being viewed by him. When I confronted him about it he said that stuff doesn’t affect him and that his freedom in Christ allowed him to watch that stuff. I told him that I thought the statement about those things not affecting him gave more insight into his personal walk with God than viewing the movies themselves. If he has the Spirit those things certainly should bother him because they are contrary to what God desires. 

1 Corinthians 6:13  "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.

Does anyone else think it’s weird that Paul shifts from talking about sex to talking about food? I spent a while scratching my head trying to figure out why he would throw in a passing comment about food when the context is sex. Then I read some commentaries and they really helped me out. Paul was appealing to another common catchphrase of the day. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food” was a phrase the Corinthians used to claim that one natural desire (eating) is as normal as the other (sexual desire). Paul’s response…”God will destroy both one and the other. Now you may know that our bodies will not be destroyed, but rather restored. What Paul was saying, I think, is that the food and the desire for it will be destroyed. Because he goes on to say that the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord…the Lord is not going to destroy the body but restore it.

This switch back to sexual immorality shows us that Paul was talking about the desire when talking about food. His appeal that the body is not meant for sexual immorality shows us that it’s desire. The body is not created for fleshly desire but for heavenly desire. It was created for the Lord and the Lord is meant for the body. The reason that Christ came and did what He did is for the restoration of the body. 

1 Corinthians 6:14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

There is the reference to the restoration that our bodies will experience. He will raise us up and restore our bodies to a glorified state that can exist for eternity in His presence! Again, Paul points to eternal reality to discourage sin. This is another one of those statements where Paul encouraged the Corinthians to live according to what they really are. They are going to be glorified and spend eternity with the Lord—this should affect the way we live in this present age. 

III. Conclusion

 When you examine your life in the light of this passage do you feel like you’re setting your mind on things of the Spirit or on things of the flesh? Is your mind hostile to God or sensitive to the Spirit? 

The Bible serves as a divine measuring stick so that we can take our thoughts and actions and hold them up in comparison to God’s standards. This helps us to determine whether or not we are actually in the faith. There are many people who think they are Christians but if you hold their actions and thoughts up to that divine measuring stick there is no indication that they belong to Christ. 

Now, honestly, all of us will fall short if we are looking to perfectly match up in our own power. The point is not that Christians are perfect; the point is that a true Christian’s life is not marked by defeats but by victories. Struggle, fight, temptation and failure are things that happen in the life of a Christian. But praise God we have been given the power of victory through Jesus Christ!

It is precisely because of Christ that we are no longer slaves to sin but are free to battle it. The battle and struggle that goes on in a Christian’s life is evidence of the Spirit! Without the Spirit there is no battle or struggle, there is only gratification. Many evangelists and pastors will try to sell Christ as someone that will make your life easier. They teach that you will be healthy, wealthy and wise if you give your life to Christ. That simply is not the case. In fact, I think that being a Christian is the hardest thing that I have ever done. And it is precisely because of that battle that goes on in me on a regular basis. 

But praise God we have victory through Christ. Then, when we take our lives and hold them up to that divine measuring stick we do match up; not because of anything we have done, but because of the presence of Christ in our lives. 

If you are a Christian and are struggling with sin, please let us help you by allowing us to intercede for you. Our prayer room will be open during the last song and we would love to join you in the battle.

If you are here and you haven’t felt any desire to battle sin and you realize today that probably means you’re not going to heaven, then we would like to help you with that as well. Please visit our prayer room during the last song or on your way out grab someone and tell them your desire. Don’t let this day pass you by.