…The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

1 Corinthians 6:13b

The church at Corinth had been allowing a known and unrepentant fornicator to remain in fellowship among them (5:1-13).  Paul now addresses the consequences of allowing fornication to remain unchecked within the church (cf. 5:6b).  The influence of this unrepentantly immoral brother was first seen in the assumption of some at Corinth that they could do whatever they want (6:12a).  After rebuking that erroneous notion (6:12b), the apostle turns his attention to another twisted bit of logic making its way through the ranks of the Corinthians: the notion that since food is for the physical body and sexual intimacy is for the physical body, then God must allow the latter with no limitations just as he does with the former (6:13).

He corrects their flawed reasoning by first pointing out that in the end God “will destroy” (katargesei, inactivate, render powerless, reduce to nothing) both food and our physical bodies (6:13a).  Death will start the slow decomposition of the physical body and thus take away its need for sustenance.  Furthermore, at some unknown point in the future this universe and world will end and all who have died will be resurrected with new, imperishable, immortal bodies on that last day (15:50-53; John 5:28-29; Matt. 24:35ff; 2 Pet. 3:10ff).

While food was indeed meant for our bodies and our bodies were meant for food, Paul then points out that “the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (6:13b).  He then reminds them that “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (6:14).  Paul’s mention of how God “will also raise us” indicates that he expected that the Lord would not return in his lifetime.  However, his larger point is to motivate them to repent of their sexual immorality by means of reminding them that they serve a resurrected Savior and Lord whom they will stand before at Judgment on the day they are also resurrected (2 Cor. 5:10).

Elaborating on his point that “the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (6:13b), Paul writes, “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!  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’.  But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.  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” (6:15-20).

When we obeyed the gospel, Christians, we put on Christ at baptism and were baptized into his body, thus becoming united in spirit with him (Gal. 3:27; 1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 6:5).  We also received the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38-39), and from that time onward both Christ and the Spirit of God “dwells in (us)” (Rom. 8:9-11).  In this way, God “sanctif(ied) (us) completely,” with his will being that “(our) whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless” (1 Thess. 5:23) because we “were bought with a price” and are therefore “not (our) own.”  Additionally, God intended the sexual union which he created to be a blessing solely between a husband and wife (Heb. 13:4), a point alluded to by Paul when he quotes Genesis 2:24.  It would therefore be the highest insult and contamination to take our body – which was created by and belongs to Christ (Col. 1:16; Acts 20:28) and “is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God” –  and join them sexually with other fornicators such as prostitutes.

The world views sexual intimacy in a common, selfish way.  Christians must view it as holy, sacred, a special gift from God given solely to husbands and wives.

— Jon