1. Sex and Purity in a Permissive Age

This transcript has been automatically generated

1 Corinthians chapter 6, starting at verse 9.

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. 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.

Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power, God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

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. 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.

But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

You were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your body.

Thank you, Corinne. Now, it’s possible to get the impression that we’re living today, the end of the 20th century, in the most permissive society ever. One only has to switch on the radio in the morning to be greeted by innuendos and suggestive comments from disc jockeys to traffic reporters that 10 years ago would have resulted in instant dismissal, and that’s even after the demise of Chris Evans. One of you were telling me just a few weeks ago that you’d been out for the evening with 3 friends, that by the end of the evening 2 of the friends you were with were heading home wrapped in the arms of partners they’d never met before. Even those more moral of our friends who don’t believe in sleeping around are generally quite content to have a number of sole partners, each of whom are loved very much, but none of whom last for very long.

It’s possible, isn’t it, to get the impression that we are living in the most permissive society ever. But Corinth, the city in which the Corinthian church we just had this reading from was situated, was arguably even more permissive than the West at the end of the 20th century. Corinth was a seaport. The old city of Corinth had gained such a reputation for sexual vice and immorality in the ancient world that the Greek writer Aristophanes coined a new verb to Corinthianise, meaning to act like a Corinthian without any morals or any restraint at all in sexual activity. So Corinth was Soho, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Bangkok, all rolled into one, if you like.

And just a glance at Paul’s letter confirms that analysis. Look at chapter 5, verse 1.

It’s actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of the kind that doesn’t occur even among the pagans. A man has his father’s wife. Even in the church, incest rife. And chapter 6, verse 15: Shall I take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? It looks like some of the men in the church were heading off to visit prostitutes without any pangs of conscience.

So how does Paul deal with the wayward Corinthians? We might expect one of two things. We might expect him to adopt the finger-wagging technique, leaning out of the pulpit with the finger wagging, decrying all forms of sexual activity. Sex is bad. Sex is dirty.

Stop it. That’s how the church has frequently reacted over the centuries to sexual misconduct. Indeed, as we’ll see next week, that is how quite a number of the Corinthians were reacting. But not Paul. We’re going to see in our series over the next 3 weeks that Paul has a high, high view of sex.

Indeed, his attitude to sex is far in advance of our contemporary culture. He thinks it’s a good thing.

So we might expect the finger-wagging technique. Then we might expect Paul to give the Corinthians lots of practical advice. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to one of those Christian camps where they have those dreaded relationships seminars. They’re always packed to the gunnels with everybody drooling. They tend to be full of practical advice.

One of the most epic pieces of practical advice I’ve ever heard is If you haven’t got it, don’t touch it. You don’t need a degree in biology to work out what that means. Certainly if you consult the books on this subject, you’ll find reams of material about sliding scales telling us how far a person can— should or shouldn’t go in this or that situation, how intimate a kiss should be before it’s intimate, is snogging appropriate? Well, Paul, we’re going to find, is gloriously refreshing. There are only 3 bits, you may have noticed, of practical advice in our reading.

Each one is a staccato command. Verse 9: don’t be deceived. Verse 18: flee sexual immorality. Verse 20: glorify God with your body. Now again, it would be possible for me to spend all evening talking about these 3 commands, unpacking the words, giving practical tips on how to flee immorality, how to glorify God, and so on.

But Paul doesn’t seem to do that. We’re going to find this evening that Paul goes for the mind in order to bring the body into line. The bulk of his time is spent giving the reasons behind the practical advice. Now I hope you’re ready for that. See, as Christians we are expected to think.

The mind is the headquarters, the centre of operations, if you like, for our life. And so Paul goes for our minds in order to bring our wills into line. The assumption is once we’re convinced up here, then everything else, wherever it might be, will follow. So let’s get down to the first piece of practical advice, and then we’ll spend the bulk of the time on the first point under the reasons behind it. Verse 9: Do not be deceived.

The word in verse 9 there literally means don’t be led astray. It’s used in the Bible of sheep wandering from their masters. So don’t allow your minds to wander on this issue. See, we’ve already seen that sexual immorality was an issue in the Corinthian church. But the biggest problem of all lies in chapter 5, verse 2.

A man has his father’s wife, end of verse 1, and you are proud in the church? Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship this man who did this?

See, not only was there incest in the church, not only were men going off to the prostitutes, but they were relaxed and arrogant about it.

So that gives the reason for the first of Paul’s staccato commands. Don’t be led astray into lax attitudes towards these sins. They are serious. And in verses 9 and 10 he shows us just how serious they are. Let’s read those verses.

Don’t you know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Now the word Paul uses there for sexual immorality is a word that is used widely to cover all forms of sexual, extramarital sexual behaviour. Anything that is designed to sexually arouse your partner outside of marriage.

Next week we’re going to see that God’s perfect plan and place for sexual intercourse is within the stable lifelong relationship of marriage. So it doesn’t take the brains of a neurosurgeon to work out that if a person is consistently and persistently saying, I don’t give a monkey’s about God’s commands, then that person cannot claim to be rejoicing in humble and ready submission to God.

It’s great verse, isn’t it? Because it doesn’t matter whether you’re a thief. It doesn’t elevate sexual misconduct. What Paul is saying, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a thief or a drunkard or a con merchant or sexually immoral, any one of those things. We cannot openly and willfully trample over God’s rule, says Paul, and at the same time, in open rebellion against him, claim to be on our way to inheriting his kingdom.

So don’t be deceived, led astray in your minds about the seriousness of sexual sin. It is not a little thing, not a kind of minor peccadillo that God will simply smile indulgently at and turn a blind eye to. Persistent rebellion against God keeps people out of his kingdom.

And did you notice how Paul drives the point home? It’s there at the beginning of verse 9: Don’t you know that the unrighteous won’t inherit the kingdom? There at the end of verse 10, at the end of the list: These people will not inherit the kingdom. Now, I want to suggest at the start of this series that this is something we need to take to heart here at St Helen’s in the Sunday evening congregation. In a congregation of this size and of this nature, well, there are going to be many of us who are tempted to grow lax in our attitudes to sexual sins.

We live in a permissive society. Whether it’s our colleagues at work talking about their sexual experiences at the weekend, our friends in the next-door room in the student digs with no apparent sexual control at all, or our respectable, upright, middle-class brother or sister who’s moved in with a friend because they’re in a loving, stable relationship. All of those things can cause us, as they work away at us, to lower our attitude towards sexual misconduct. Paul says it’s a serious thing. Don’t be deceived.

Such people who are in persistent and consistent rebellion against God will not inherit.

So don’t be deceived, whether we’re married or single, parents, or children, old or young. We need to be clear on this. And I want to say, if our attitude to this is right now at this moment in time lax, relaxed, or to use Paul’s word, arrogant, then we need to take radical action. It is a salvation issue. But again, the way Paul urges us to take radical action is remarkable.

I think you’re going to be refreshed and surprised by this. You see, he doesn’t actually beat us over the head and bludgeon us into changing our behaviour. In verses 9 and 10, he’s taught the negative fact: those living in open rebellion won’t inherit. But in verses 11 to 14, he teaches us the positive by reminding us Christians who we are and what Jesus has made us into. We’re going to find in verses 11 to 14 that Paul basically preaches the gospel to us to get us to bring our bodies in line.

Just have a look at verse 11, where Paul says effectively, look at what Christ your King has done for you in the past. Let me read it to you. There are actually 3 huge buts in verse 11. We only get one of them in the NIV. Other translations give them all.

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Now do you see what Paul is saying? Just look at what your Christ, your King, has done for you in the past. He has washed us and made us clean.

Every guilty stain and past misdemeanour has been washed pure white as a result of Jesus’ death. But you were sanctified. He’s consecrated us. If we belong to him, he has set us apart in the past as pure and holy members of his family. Our sanctification, according to Paul here, is not a process that happens gradually.

It’s a fact. We have already been set apart and made pure and holy and declared to be his people. But you were justified. He has even announced his final verdict on us. The decision of whether we’re righteous or not on the final day of judgement, he has announced and declared us to be right with God.

So do you see what he’s done? In the past, at our conversion, the 3 huge buts, he has taken us and transferred us and put us in his kingdom. Pure, clean, consecrated, justified. So don’t be deceived. God has made us members of a different kingdom with different standards.

Don’t let’s press the rewind button and go backwards to the old life and to the old kingdom, says Paul. Look what God has done for you.

But that’s not all. As we go on into verses 12 and 13, which continue the argument, we’re going to see that Paul appeals to us not only to look to the past, but to look to the present and see who our master is now.

See, verse 11 is very strong. You can imagine Clarice the Corinthian for a moment. I don’t know what they called their children in Corinth, but imagine it was Clarice the Corinthian, saying, having read verse 11, well, I’m effectively there already. I’ve been washed. I’ve been justified by God’s Spirit who dwells within me.

I have been made pure and holy already. I’m in the kingdom enjoying the blessings. So what I do with my body now Doesn’t really matter. And you can see from the quotes in verse 12 that that’s just what the Corinthians had said to Paul when they wrote to him. Everything is permissible, everything’s lawful, verse 12.

And then again, everything’s permissible, everything’s lawful. And then verse 13, food for the stomach, the stomach for the food. And some translations then put the quote on to the end, God will destroy both stomach and food. The argument being that since both my stomach and all food is going to be destroyed at the end of time, why attach religious significance to either? I can just gorge till I burst, like the bloke in the Monty Python sketch.

The way I behave just does not matter. I can let it all hang out, metaphorically speaking, and go for it. My body will simply be sloughed off at the end of time like a snakeskin. The real me, my spirit, will simply continue in unadulterated blissful union with Christ. So I don’t even have to enter the battle against sexual sin.

Well, Paul continues his argument: don’t be deceived. Your body matters now. And his argument is, look at your new master in the present. You can’t separate what we do and what we are. If we’re being mastered by sexual immorality such that we’re not even engaging in the battle, then we are displaying who our master is.

Now let’s take, just to illustrate this point, let’s take Vinnie Jones for a second. For the uninitiated, Vinnie Jones plays football of a sort for Wimbledon. I want you to imagine for a second that our Vinnie was given a high-priced transfer to play for the Arsenal Not a likely prospect, but imagine. Then imagine that when Vinnie next came out of the tunnel in a league match against his old club, when he’s next playing one of these local derbies, instead of wearing the new red and white of Arsenal, he was dressed in the old drab blue of Wimbledon. Instead of kicking this way towards the Wimbledon girls, even though he should now be playing for Arsenal, he’s kicking that way towards Arsenal.

Trying to get it past David Seaman, if that’s possible. Instead of carving up and hacking the Wimbledon players, as he should now as an Arsenal player, he’s scything down his own Arsenal teammates. Well, you’d be bound to say, you know, whatever he says, he may say, well, in spirit I’m with the Arsenal and on their side. Whatever he says, with his body he’s giving out a very different message. And that is Paul’s argument in verse 12.

You may say everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. You may say everything is permissible, but I will not be mastered by anything except the Lord. Verse 13: The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

So Paul’s point is that if the Corinthians are not even engaging in the battle against sexual immorality, then they are demonstrating their allegiance to a different master. What you do with your body matters. Our body is for the mastery of the Lord, not for the mastery of sexual immorality. And anyway, here is the final plank in this first stage of the argument. Verse 15: Do you not know, you Corinthians— sorry, verse 14: By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

In other words, look at what God has done for you in the past if you belong to Christ. Look at who your new master is now if you belong to Christ. Look at where Christ is taking you then in the future if you belong to Christ. It is not as if our body is just going to be sloughed off when we die, says Paul. There is a future physical resurrection to look forward to.

Now this little sentence is a foretaste of the argument that Paul’s going to bring up in chapter 15. But his point here is that there will be a real physical resurrection for believers. We won’t have the same bodies when we go to heaven, but there will be some continuity. And just as Christ was raised physically, so shall we be.

So now do you see what Paul has done? He has basically preached the gospel to the Corinthians. Look at what God has done for you in the past. Look at who your new master is in the present. Look at where you are going in the future.

Now I guess there may be some people here this evening who aren’t even battling with sexual immorality. There may be some. The attitude is basically, well, I’m in already. I’m part of God’s family. I know my sins are forgiven.

I know it’s not really for the best, but everybody else seems to be doing it.

There may be others who are not in that position yet, but who are beginning to drift that way. A little give here, a touch of experimentation there, the guard dropped, the standards lowered.

There will be many of us who are finding the battle really hard. There will be others who have fallen badly. And wonder whether it’s even worth going on, whether they can possibly be forgiven. In a permissive society, there are going to be many of us who’ve done things with our bodies and had things done to our bodies of which we are deeply ashamed. Well, says Paul, to get us mobilised for the fight negatively, don’t be deceived, don’t be led astray.

Don’t be blasé about sexual sins. Don’t be lax. They are serious. Positively, look at what God has done for us in the past. We’ve been given a fresh start, washed, made holy, declared right.

We’re part of a different kingdom. Look at who our new master is now. Our body matters. Live for him. Look at where we’re going in the future.

There will be a future glorious resurrection.

So live for Christ now. Don’t be deceived. Secondly, says Paul, flee immorality. And it’s there in verse 18. And the word for flee there is a word used for running away from a wild animal.

It’s used by Jesus in John’s Gospel to describe the hired hand or the false shepherd who runs away. And the great thing about this command is that in 2 short words Paul kicks into touch all those questions of, how far can I go?

I don’t know about you, but to me, flee immorality is remarkably black and white. Either you are running away or we’re not.

Any form of sexual behaviour that’s designed to arouse the other person outside of marriage, says Paul, run from it. Now I’ve only ever once been seriously pursued by a wild animal. We were fishing in Ireland and the sign on the gate said, beware of the bull. Being a farmer’s son and knowing that that kind of notice is put up by all farmers to stop unwanted trippers using their footpaths, I ignored it. It was only 10 minutes later, chest deep in the river and with the pounding of hooves still ringing in my ears, that I knew that the farmers of the Republic mean business when they write their signs.

But I want you to know that at no point in the pursuit, as I felt the horns catching the seat of my trousers and the warm breath and snorting down my neck, At no point in the pursuit did I ever say to myself, I wonder just how close I can get.

The question did not even cross my mind. I almost water-skied across the river. Now you can see Paul’s point. Flee immorality. Don’t even begin on that mindset of acceptable behaviour.

Run! And again, in verses 15 to 18, he tells us why. You see, he’s after our minds. Again, if the immense power of the Holy Spirit is going to grip us, he is going to grip us through his word. Let’s read verses 15 to 18.

Do you not know— the second do you not know— 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! 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.

But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually against— he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

Now Paul uses the prostitute or harlot as an example because that was the extreme point to which the Corinthians had gone. But his reasoning is not limited to prostitution because he uses the same word for general sexual immorality in verse 18. And again, I want to say Paul has an extremely high view of sexual intercourse. God’s stated purpose for creating sexual intercourse was that it should both enable us to have children and unite a man and woman in deep emotional, physical, and spiritual union.

Sex is designed by God to be an act whereby one man exposes himself and gives himself wholly and completely at the deepest level to one woman for life. And one woman exposes herself and gives herself to one man at the deepest level for life. Sexual intercourse is designed to both recognise and to cement that kind of relationship. Hence Paul’s comment, it is written, or he said, verse 16 at the end, the 2 shall become one flesh.

Flesh. So do you see the purpose of sex in God’s creation? We’ll have more of this next week, but the purpose is to cement people and bond 2 people together. That makes sense then of verse 18: All other sins a man commits are outside his body. He who sins sexually sins against his own body.

All other sins do not bond you at this deep level emotionally, physically, and spiritually to another person. Only sex does that. Don’t abuse it. I just want, as an aside, to say that that is a totally different view to our world today. The world in which you and I live both worships sex and simultaneously degrades it.

It’s an extraordinary anomaly, isn’t it? Everywhere we look, sex is treated as the highest possible ideal.

The ultimate experience.

And yet at the same time, everywhere we look, sex is treated just like a cheap consumer item that can be picked up, used, and discarded. So you hear a 14-year-old singing, I want to make love to you.

The motto of the age: if it feels good, do it. If it makes you happy and seems alright at the time, go for it. Don’t think about it.

But of course you cannot join yourself and expose yourself at this deep level to one person and then another and then another and then another and another without doing damage.

So Paul’s argument is simple. Don’t you know? Don’t you know that your body is united through your conversion to your new master Jesus Christ? And don’t you know, verse 16, that if you have intercourse with another person, you’re joining yourself to him or her? You’re engaging in this cementing process.

Don’t even begin along the line or the road of joining your body and spirit, which is part of Christ, with his or her body, which is in outright rebellion against Christ. It’s unthinkable.

May it never be, he says, that we should join ourselves to somebody who is in outright rebellion against Christ. It’s a complete anomaly.

So now let me ask you to do something this evening when you get home. After you’ve brushed your teeth and said your prayers and donned whatever Vivienne Westwood fashion accessory you wear to bed, go and stand in front of the mirror and look at yourself. Say this to yourself, preach this passage to yourself. Don’t you know, Michael, Sally, Claire, Eric, James, don’t you know that your body is a member of Christ, joined to him at your conversion? How can you take your body, which is part of the pure and perfect Jesus Christ, and unite it in this way to a person who is living in immorality and who is in the mastery, not of Christ, but of the other kingdom.

So that is the second point. First, don’t be deceived. Second, flee immorality. Let it never be that I should unite my body with the body of one who is in outright rebellion against Christ. Third, And we’ll just spend a few seconds on this.

Glorify God. And that’s the last, don’t you know, verse 19 and 20. Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price.

Therefore honour God with your body. Now you may be looking at your body and saying, Well, this body isn’t very special. It may appear very ordinary. It may bear deep emotional scars. But don’t you know, don’t you know that as a Christian you have God himself dwelling in you through his Holy Spirit?

Don’t you know that Jesus purchased you by dying on the cross for you? And he did it knowing all about your past, however sordid.

Don’t you know that Jesus not only purchased you for you to belong to him, he purchased you for a purpose, for you to live for him forever.

So don’t be deceived. Flee immorality and glorify God. Now our society is not the most permissive that there has ever been. There have been many far more permissive than ours. And there will be many far more permissive than ours in the future.

But Paul is adamant. Do not be blasé about sexual immorality.

Are you tempted? I cannot believe that you’re not. I guess just about every single one of us here this evening is tempted. In some way to sexual immorality. Won’t you allow God’s Holy Spirit to empower you and to enable you?

Won’t you give yourself into his hands to strengthen you in the battle?

You ask, how do I do that? Well, let him grip you through his word. That’s what Paul is aiming to do. He’s aiming to have our minds and wills gripped by God’s word.

Let your mind— I’m going to give you one practical piece of advice— let your mind run over these words. Take 15 minutes a day to preach these realities to yourself when you get up in the morning. Before you go out to the party.

Teach yourself and pray these truths in. Don’t be deceived. Look how serious it is. Don’t be deceived. Look at what God has done for you in the past: washing, consecrating, justifying.

In the present, look at who your new master is: Jesus Christ. To live for. In the future, look at where I’m going— to heaven, to be with him forever. Don’t be deceived. Flee immorality.

Should I cement my body to somebody else who is rebelling against God? Certainly not. May it never be. Run away from it, not towards it. Finally, glorify God.

For we’ve been bought with a price. We are not our own.