"Sexual Ethics," 1 Cor 6:9-20, Andrew Evans

Good morning. My name is Andrew Evans.

I am one of the pastor's here at Church of the Resurrection.

We are continuing our series in First Corinthians today.

You know the really exciting passage that we read a minute

ago. If you are new here, let me

extend a special welcome to you. I know we have some some parents

for a baby shower here in town. So glad that you all are here.

What a Sunday to be here. We are talking about sex today,

so before we get started, let's pray, shall we?

Father, I praise You that we do not have to fear our bodies, but

that every part of us, you made every part of us to point us to

you, and I pray that you would meet us, particularly today as

we talk about this tough issue. Would you show us Your grace and

your love? I pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Now, I suspect there are few topics in the church that we

expect to hear about more and enjoy hearing about less than

sex, right? We don't like talking about sex,

particularly in the church. And that's probably in part

because there are certain voices within sort of the broader

church community, particularly the broader evangelical

community, that talk about it loudly and angrily, Right?

And so for better or for worse, whenever we hear a sermon or or,

you know, hear at the start of a sermon about about sex, we brace

ourselves for an onslaught of pious statements condemning

condescending exhortations and at the end of the day, probably

little of help. Part of the issue here, I think,

is that talk about sex is so often purely negative.

It can end up being kind of like the DARE campaign.

You remember the DARE campaign against drugs?

Yeah. Dare to say no to drugs.

That's kind of what we end up doing with sex in the church,

right? DARE to say no to sex until

you're married. And the the end result is that

we end up feeling scared and confused, right.

This is one of the problems with purity culture.

It was essentially negative. Be pure, don't have sex, kiss,

dating goodbye. But just saying no leaves us

wondering what then should we do?

This purity culture of the 90s and early aughts also had the

problem of leaving the impression that the church was

obsessed with sex. And this perception of an

obsession is another reason why I think we don't like talking

about it. Sexual sin isn't the only kind

of sin. God cares about many other areas

of righteousness. Paul actually makes that clear

in our passage today. But talking about sex can give

the impression that sexual ethics are the only kind of

ethics that we care about, and so we don't like to talk about

it. That's probably another reason.

I think, though, there's another reason why we are uncomfortable

talking about sex in the church. And this reason cuts more deeply

than either the the negative sort of approach that so often

that so often we take, or the the obsession, the seeming

obsession. And this reason is, frankly,

that we all know that we have all failed in one way or another

regarding sexual holiness. Sometimes that failure is

spectacular. Sometimes that that failure is

more hidden. Sometimes it's known only to us.

But our society is unbelievably sexualized.

Temptations are everywhere, and nobody is untouched.

We don't like to talk about sex because we know that we are

guilty. And our passage this morning

actually addresses all of these issues.

Paul is writing to a church in Corinth that was living in a

similarly sexualized society, maybe even more so if you can

believe it. And Paul knows that the church

there, just like our church, needs teaching in sexual ethics.

But while so often teaching on sexuality and sexual ethics can

leave us feeling defeated or confused, what Paul writes here

should give us both clarity and hope.

And that's because everything that Paul writes here points us

not to ourselves but to our Savior, points us to Jesus.

And he does this first by laying before the Corinthians what

Christ has accomplished for them.

This is what he does in verses 9 through 11.

Paul starts out this passage by setting the the stakes very,

very high. This is what he writes.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the

Kingdom of God? In other words, only the

righteous are saved. And then he goes on to list what

he means by the unrighteous. 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.

These behaviours are incompatible with life in the

Kingdom of God. Now, by talking about the

Kingdom of God here, Paul is doing something very important

for our understanding of this passage.

Because Paul here is linking the salvation that he describes not

only to what Jesus talks about in the Gospels, where he talks

about the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of heaven a lot, but

he's talked linking this salvation to the story of the

Old Testament. God saved Israel to be a holy

nation, a royal priesthood. They were to be the Kingdom of

God, bringing light into a Dark World.

Paul is connecting the Corinthian church with Israel in

the Old Testament. And so we actually shouldn't be

surprised that in this list, Paul gives 10 words.

It's a subtle pointer back to the 10 commandments.

Paul here is calling the people in Corinth to the same holiness

that God has been calling his people to for millennia.

Now if you go count the words in your English Bible, particularly

in the English translations we have here, you odds are,

depending on the translation, you'll come up with only 9

words. And that's because the ESV

translation here combines 2 words into the phrase men who

practice homosexuality. And these two words are

referring to the active and the passive partners in a homosexual

relationship. Now, I imagine you're pretty

uncomfortable talking about this.

Nobody particularly enjoys talking about this.

But we have to be clear about what Paul means here.

Some people will argue that Paul here is referring not to

homosexuality per SE, but rather to abusive, exploitative

relationships that occurred in the ancient world.

Just think about Plato's symposium.

Other people argue that Paul has in mind prostitution, and there

are translations. I have these on my shelf at

home. There are translations that will

actually translate the first word as prostitutes.

Now, I want us to be clear about what Paul is talking about here.

This is contested ground. We have to know.

Paul certainly is condemning prostitution.

Definitely. He certainly is condemning

sexual exploitation. But that's not all that he's

condemning in these words, in this phrase, or in with these

two words. He is condemning homosexual

behavior in its entirety. Three points show us this.

First, if you were talking only about exploitation, he would not

refer to the passive partner, the one who is being exploited.

He would only condemn the exploiter.

But he doesn't. Second, when he talks about the

passive partner here, the word doesn't only mean prostitute, It

has a broader meaning. It means the passive person.

That's just the definition of the word.

I'm happy to show you that in the dictionary.

And 3rd this passage, and this is probably the most important

reason. This passage is just begging to

be read in light of the Old Testament.

And homosexual behavior is strictly forbidden in the Old

Testament, particularly Leviticus.

Paul here is in complete continuity with the sexual ethic

of the Old Testament. That's more time than I would

typically like to spend on 2 words in a passage.

This is contested ground though. We have to know what Paul is

saying here. We need to be clear.

We need to be clear about what the Bible says.

Don't miss Paul's broader point here, though.

The unrighteous, including the sexually unrighteous, will not

inherit the Kingdom of God. The phrase sexually immoral at

the beginning of this list translates the word pornoi.

Pornoi. It refers to any sexual activity

outside of a biblical marriage between one man and one woman.

Not just sex, although that's condemned as well outside of a

marriage, but porn lust. Paul here is clearly concerned

about sexual sin. This list has a lot of sexual

references, but that's not all he includes here either.

And that's really important to note, too.

Maybe you don't think of sexual sin as your primary vice.

But haven't we all been greedy before?

This unrighteousness extends to any violation of God's law.

When He gives this list, the point is to prick our

consciences. We should see ourselves in at

least one of these terms. In this list.

We are unrighteous. We know that we are unrighteous,

sexually and otherwise. Now imagine what the original

church at Corinth was thinking as they heard this list.

The room was probably similar to this, only without the blasting

air conditioner in the back. It was probably pretty quiet.

There were probably some uncomfortable shuffling of feet.

And then Paul writes what he says in verse 11.

And such were some of you. They were exposed.

There's probably somebody in that church sitting in the pews

and Corinth for every sin that he listed there.

Paul sees their sin, God sees their sin.

God sees our sin. And then look at where Paul

goes. But you were washed.

But you were made holy. But you were made righteous in

the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God.

My friends, do you feel dirty, defiled?

Look to Christ and see how He has made you clean.

Do you feel impure, used up, sort of as common and disposable

as an old shirt? Look to Christ and see how He

has made you holy, sanctified you to stand in His presence.

Is your guilt hanging over your head, condemning you at every

turn? Look to Christ and see how God

has separated your sin from you. As far as the east is from the

West. He has declared you righteous,

righteous, righteous. If you are placing your faith in

Christ, you are clean, you are holy, you are righteous before

God. Friends in Christ, no matter

what your past is, He has made you clean.

You are free from the sin of your past.

This is what Christ has done for you.

This is the good news of the gospel, and this is the starting

point for how we should think about sex and sexual ethics.

We were guilty before God, but God has saved us.

We are clean. But the gift that God gives us

in Christ goes beyond simply having our sins washed away.

He actually gives us a new positive direction for our

lives. He gives us good things.

God's salvation then drives us toward a positive righteousness,

and this is what he's talking about in verses 12 through 20.

Paul here gives us at least three things that God gives us

in Christ. And the first thing that Paul

names is how God gives our freedom a direction.

God gives our freedom a direction.

One of the great truths of the gospel that we just heard is how

we are free. We are free from the

condemnation, the guilt, the power of sin.

But there's a danger in this freedom as well, right?

To think that we can do whatever we want.

Now, we can't be condemned, so we should indulge our passions,

do all sorts of things that we want to do, like sexual

immorality. But it looks like, and it in

fact looks like the Corinthians were thinking exactly this way.

So in verses 12 and 13, Paul here seems to be quoting from

something that they were saying. So look at these with me.

He quotes this, this first phrase twice.

All things are lawful for me. This is the attitude of freedom,

right? I can do anything, I'm free, who

can stop me? But notice how Paul responds.

He quotes them, but then he doesn't say, actually, you are

not free from everything. Not all things are lawful.

That's not what he says, is it? Now there's clearly a sense in

which he could have said that because he just gave a list of

10 things that are incompatible with life in the Kingdom of God.

But see what he says instead. All things are lawful for me,

but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me,

but I will not be dominated or enslaved by anything.

Instead of looking to what we want to do, we should be looking

to do what is helpful, what most demonstrates our actual freedom.

Do you see how he's actually here giving their freedom a

direction? He's pointing them.

Don't indulge yourself. Use your freedom to do what is

helpful. And it looks like the

Corinthians had another saying that they used to rationalize

their their sexual indulgences as well.

It goes like this. Food is meant for the body and

the body for food. And God will destroy both one

and the other. In the ESP, the quotation marks

end after in the body for food. I'm thinking the quotation

marks. There are no quotation marks in

Greek, right? So like they're kind of guessing

where it is, but I think the quotation marks should end after

and the body will be destroyed and God will destroy both one

and the other. So I think that is the phrase.

And the Corinthians seem to be saying, well, look, God might

made my body to experience pleasure.

That's the way he made me. And look at the end of the day,

my body's going to be destroyed anyway.

So why not while I have it, enjoy it, right?

That's what they seem to be saying.

I'm free. But again, Paul wants to give

direction to their freedom, and he he responds in a way that

maps precisely onto this sort of Corinthian saying.

God might have made your body with sexual potential, but God

did not make the body for sexual sin.

God made our bodies for him to glorify him in our lives.

In fact, Christ came to redeem us, all of us, including our

bodies. And our bodies will not be

destroyed. In fact, just as God raised

Christ, he will raise us up as well, our bodies physically.

And all of these statements, Paul here is giving direction to

our freedom. We are free from our sin.

We are free from the condemnation of the law.

But that's not a license to do whatever we want precisely

because we are free, free not just from the guilt, but also

from the power of sin. We are free to live in ways that

are helpful, that show a true freedom, that live in

self-control, and that honor the one with whom we will be living

for eternity. God here gives our freedom a

direction. But God gives us more as well.

He gives our lives a connection, gives our lives a connection.

Underlying sexual sin typically is a deep longing for

connection. There's a reason that in the

Bible, the euphemism for sex is knowing someone.

We long to be connected. If one of the problems with

purity culture is that it's so often negative, you know, just

say no, dare to say no. Another is that it actually

doesn't help us with the deep longings that we feel deep

longings to be connected. But the gospel actually meets us

precisely here and addresses this deep longing that we all

have. Look at verse 15.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

This is what happens when we become a Christian.

We are connected. All of us, including our bodies,

are connected to Christ. All that Christ has becomes

ours. All that is ours becomes

Christ's. He sees us.

He sees you with perfect clarity, warts and all.

And he says, and I want you, and I want you in my life, and I'm

going to connect myself to you. Isn't this exactly what we want?

Isn't this exactly what we are longing for in sex and in other

kinds of relationships, intimate relationships, We long to be

seen and to not be rejected, but to be desired and pulled closer.

And because of the gospel, we have precisely that kind of

deep, intimate connection with God.

This is Paul's point here in verses 15 through 18.

And This is why we should not indulge in sexual immorality,

like, for example, prostitution. God saves all of us, our bodies

and our souls, our whole lives. He, he joins us to Himself.

But when we sin, particularly sexually, we are joining

ourselves to something that is not Christ.

We can't be connected simultaneously to God and to

sin. We are disconnecting ourselves

from God and connecting ourselves to something else, to

sin. Paul makes this argument in

verse 16 by citing Genesis 2 as it is written.

The two will become one flesh. The act of sex here unites two

people, whether in righteousness under God or unrighteousness

apart from God. And this union within a marriage

points to the union that we are meant to have with God.

Verse 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes 1 Spirit with

him. This is what God is doing for us

in the gospel. He's joining us to him.

And this helps to explain why Christians rightly care so much

about sex. We shouldn't be obsessed with

sex. It's not the only thing that

matters, but it does really, really matter, because sex

within a marriage points us in a way that almost nothing else in

the world does, points us to the relationship between Christ and

his people. Our sexual ethic points to the

gospel, and that is why it is so, so important.

God created marriage and sex within marriage not to be an end

in themselves, but to point to the greater spiritual union that

we have with God through Christ and friends.

While we may not all be married, we can all have this greater

union, this greater intimacy that the gospel points us to and

that marriage points us to. Because of the gospel, God gives

our lives a connection. Now look, this connection isn't

just to God individually. We are actually connected to

each other as well in the body of Christ.

Our lives, all of our lives, including our bodies, are

connected to Christ. Christ then connects us to each

other in a, in a, in a real spiritual way.

And this means, in a word, spiritual friendship.

We are to pursue spiritual friendship with each other and

we can do that. Ultimately, we can only do that

because of what Christ has done for us.

On the flip side, this also means that our sexual sin is

never just private. If one of us is being severed

from Christ, the entire body suffers.

Our sin, especially our sexual sin, tears at the fabric of our

common life together as a church.

So because of what Christ has done for us, our freedom is

given direction, our lives are given connection, and then

third, our bodies are given a new vocation.

This is the point of the last two verses, verses 19 and 20.

So Paul tells the Corinthians that because of the gospel,

because of their salvation, their bodies are now a temple of

the Holy Spirit. Now this is really an amazing

thing to contemplate, right? That the Spirit that was

hovering over the waters at creation, the Spirit that

brought our Savior into the world, this Spirit is now living

inside each of us in our bodies. And when Paul is saying this,

he's, he's drawing out the dignity of our bodies.

Not only will our bodies be raised in the future just like

Christ was raised, our bodies are now temples of God's Spirit.

We have a profound dignity because of what Christ has done,

and we even have a holy vocation that should cause our us to

treat our bodies not as as instruments to be tossed away,

used in any which way reaching for any pleasure.

Our bodies are holy and we should treat them that way.

And one implication of being a temple of the Holy Spirit is

that our bodies are no longer our own.

This is where Paul goes. The temple belongs to the God

that lives there. So our bodies as a temple belong

to the Holy Spirit for him to use as he sees fit.

And what he sees fit to do with our bodies is to glorify

himself, to glorify Godfather, Son, and Holy Spirit in our

bodies. This is the final verse of our

passage. So glorify God in your bodies.

And the major way here, the the big implication that Paul wants

us to see is that we glorify God not the only way, but a major

way through our sexual holiness. God's glory is the driving cause

of our pursuit of holiness. We want to glorify God, the God

who saved us and who sent his Spirit to live in US.

And so we pursue holiness. But it's so important to see

that God's glory isn't merely A cause here.

When we live holy lives, God manifests his glory in us.

This is part of what a temple does.

It manifests the glory of the God who lives there.

In our Old Testament lesson that we read Solomon and the people

are dedicating the temple and you know, you hear about the

oxen and the cows that are being slaughtered beyond number,

right? And you can sort of get lost

there. But don't miss what happens at

the end. The temple is consecrated and

then the glory of the Lord descends upon it and fills up

the temple. It is filled.

It is radiating out God's glory, and here as the temple is filled

with God's glory, the temple is at the peak of its existence.

This is the fullness. This is what it was made to do,

to be filled with God's glory. And friends, this is true of our

sexual holiness as well. Sexual holiness doesn't mean

fundamentally forgoing fun and pleasure until maybe, just

maybe, at some point we can get married.

Sexual holiness doesn't mean just saying no.

Sexual holiness means, most fundamentally, saying yes to God

and to His life that He wants to fill you with.

It means pursuing connection with Him and ultimately being

filled with Him, just like the temple was filled with God's

glory and God's presence. And the result, my friends, is

not a boring and a joyless life. The result is a fullness and a

richness and even a vivaciousness that you cannot

get anywhere else. The result is the glory of God

radiating out from you as we revel in the fullness of life

that He has given us. In Christ.

My friend, sexual sin is a cheap counterfeit of the full life

that sexuality is designed to point us toward.

This is why we can't both sin and be connected to Christ.

You don't need a counterfeit when you have the real thing.

But thanks be to God who has cleansed us to give our freedom

a direction, our lives a connection, and our bodies a

vocation so that we can have life in its fullness.

All to His glory, in the name of the Father and of the Son of the

Holy Spirit, Amen.