Second Sunday after Epiphany: Epistle, 1 Cor. 6:12-20

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

The church is a mystery. It is something at which God hints in the Old Testament and even though a form of it exists there, its full flowering comes under the glories of the New Covenant in Jesus. And the way the Apostle Paul lays out the mystery in “his own way” is with the metaphor of the church as the body of Christ. Not new to most of our thinking, I believe, like most things biblical, most of us have not done enough thinking about it. In our reading today Paul links the life of the individual believer and his honoring of God in his body to the fact that the “big picture” is that all of us as individuals make up the body of the Lord. And that lays some responsibility squarely on us. The body is not a mistake and the physical life of the believer is not a trifle.

The moral restrictions of the New Testament are clear and especially in regard to how the body is to engage the appetites. God gives us desires and they are good. Freedom however has limits and the body’s capabilities don’t always stay within godly bounds of freedom and going unchecked will never remain within them. That’s the issue Paul addresses here. “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?” (6:13b-15a).

The body of Jesus, raised from the dead is the substantive reality to which the individual Christian has been joined. As well, the gathering of believers is joined where individual temples become THE temple of the Lord. Our world is rife with sexual immorality and the person who claims never to be influenced by its attractions is, well, not living with eyes and ears open. It. Is. Everywhere. But God’s great encouragement to us, (and His restrictions always come with the power to triumph) is that very word above, “and the Lord for the body.” Sometimes I forget that. The Lord who is for me and for you in everything, includes in that everything, His desire for us to live chaste and beautiful lives in this world. I fail. Perhaps you do as well. But brothers and sisters, the Lord is for the body. Yours and mine and collectively for His church.

Verses 19 and 20, “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.” Once again it all flows from the cross and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. I want to remember these blessed truths every day. I want to remember that you and I are His temple. I want us to glorify God in our bodies. So does He. The Lord is for the body. Amen!