The Nature of Sexual Freedom...

This week we are talking about the topic of sexuality and sexual freedom. And at the risk of being viewed as old fashioned or irrelevant, as we look at a section of a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, we will discover two things. First, we are going to discover that the situation that was occurring at this church is so strikingly similar to what we experience today that the counsel that Paul provides is incredibly relevant and practical to our lives today.

Second, I will go out on a limb and say that there is not a single person who would ever say that they regretted following the counsel that Paul provides about this topic. On the contrary, for many of us, maybe the greatest regret in our lives involves failing to follow the timeless truth that Paul provides us in this passage.

Paul continues to address this issue of sexuality and sexual freedom in 1 Corinthians 6:13-14:

Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.

In verse 13, Paul explains to the members of the church at Corinth that the sexual freedom that they were pursuing is only temporary in nature. Paul uses the analogy of eating to help drive his point home. While the activity of eating involves a pleasurable relationship between food and our stomach, the enjoyment that we receive as a result of that relationship is temporary, as both food and our stomach will not last past the time of our deaths. I mean when you really think about it, the pleasure of eating only lasts until we are hungry again, doesn’t it?

And just like eating, sexuality can be an appetite that is only satisfied when it is fed, and that satisfaction only lasts until the appetite reappears. The apostle then contrasts the temporary nature of physical pleasure with the eternal relationship that occurs between followers of Jesus and their Lord and Savior. When Paul states that the body is not for immorality, the word immorality describes any unlawful sexual intercourse, which would be any sexual activity that occurs outside of a marriage relationship. Paul’s point here is that we were not designed to be engaged in relationships that promote unlawful sexual intercourse, which are temporary in nature. Instead we were designed to have an eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Paul then provides the proof that we were designed for such a relationship in the reality of the resurrection. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, God will also raise followers of Jesus from the dead in order to participate in the eternal relationship with Him that we were created for and have received as a result of believing, trusting, and following Jesus as Lord and Leader.

Paul here is bringing us face to face with the issue of idolatry, which is the worship of something other than god as God. For the members of the church at Corinth, their desire to have sexual freedom had become an idol; their pursuit of pleasure through sex was more important than their pursuit of their relationship with Christ. And it was this worship of the sex that was moving them away from their worship of their Creator. You see, faulty theology, or our view of God, can cause faulty behavior.

And in the same way today, Christians can unchristian when we worship the idol of our sexual appetites and pleasure over our relationship with Christ.

So, are you how are you responding to the appetite of sexuality and sexual freedom? How are you feeding that appetite? What does your view of sexuality and how you engage your sexuality reveal about what you worship?