Lessons #181 and 182
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Avoidance of Sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:12-20)
12 “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “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. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 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! 16 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.” 17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 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; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
The message of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 that we started to consider in our last study is that Avoidance of sexual immorality requires a determination not to be controlled by anything of this life and understanding the body’s function, fate, and its various relationship to sex and God. We also indicated that there are two major propositions that will help us to understand what the apostle wrote in the passage we are to consider. The first we considered in our last study is that avoidance of sexual immorality involves determination not to be controlled by anything in this life. So, we proceed with the second proposition.
A second proposition regarding the message of this section that we are considering is that avoidance of sexual immorality involves understanding facts about the body as it relates to sex and God. This proposition involves consideration of two concepts of the temporary function and fate of the body and its various relationships as given in our passage. We begin with a statement that concerns the temporary function of the body as given in the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 6:13 Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.
We encounter the same kind of problem we had in verse 12 which is, whether to consider verse 12 a quotation of a slogan by some in Corinth or whether it is merely another statement of the apostle as reflected in such English versions as the NASB or the KJV. Similarly, the question is whether verse 13 contains a quotation of a slogan by the Corinthians or another statement of the apostle. In keeping with our approach in considering verse 12, I agree with those who adopt the position that verse 13 involves a quotation of a slogan by Corinthians that the apostle penned down. It makes more sense that we consider verse 13 as concerned with a quotation; for otherwise, it is difficult to see Paul’s argument against sexual immorality.
Acceptance of the fact that verse 13 concerns a quotation of a slogan used by Corinthians creates another problem, which is the extent of the quotation in the verse. There are two approaches to the problem. A first approach takes the position that the slogan or quotation should end before the sentence “God will destroy” as we read, for example, in the 1984 edition of the NIV “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food.” A support of this approach is that it would maintain the same pattern as in verse 12 where the apostle quoted the Corinthians in the sentence “Everything is permissible for me” and immediately followed by a rejoinder that began with a Greek conjunction (de) that means “but” so that the next sentence in verse 12 is but not everything is beneficial. Thus, based on this pattern and because the phrase Food for the stomach and the stomach for food in the Greek is immediately followed by the Greek conjunction (de) that may be translated “but,” it is argued that it is proper to limit the quotation as we find in the 1984 edition of the NIV and majority of our English versions. However, there is a problem with this argument, especially because the Greek conjunction (de) used could also be translated “and” as a marker of continuation of a clause or thought. A second approach is to take the slogan or quotation to include the sentence “God will destroy.” This approach is adopted in the 2011 edition of the NIV that reads You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” Again, I agree with this second approach since it not only allows the assertion of the apostle regarding sexual immorality that follows next to make sense but also what the apostle said in verse 14 that implies a reference to the future fate of the body. Anyway, the interpretation of verse 13 may in part be affected by which of the approaches one adopts.
In any case, our approach means that we will consider the first sentence of verse 13 as the quotation so that we will use the sentence of the 2011 edition of the NIV in our exposition of verse 13. In effect, we will use the translation “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” We begin with the first part of the quotation Food for the stomach and the stomach for food. To understand what the Corinthians quoted here means, we should examine the two key words used.
A first key word is “food” that is translated from a Greek word (brōma) that literally refers to “food” as in the instruction regarding how to deal with it in such a way as not to cause problem for another believer in Romans 14:20:
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
The word may mean “means of sustenance, food” in a sense that is beyond physical human experience as the word is used by the Lord Jesus to describe the means of His sustenance during His earthly ministry in John 4:34:
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
In using the phrase my food, Jesus meant that His sustenance is derived from doing the will of the Father who sent Him. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:13, the word is used for literal food that is eaten for the nourishment of the body.
The second key word is “stomach” that is translated from a Greek word (koilia) that may mean “belly, stomach”, that is, the digestive tract in its fullest extent as it is used in the assertion of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 15:17:
“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?
The word may mean “womb,” that is, the female uterus as the word is used in the question of Nicodemus when the Lord Jesus stated to him the necessity of being born again in John 3:4:
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”
The word may mean “birth” as it is used by Apostle Paul in describing his call to the ministry of God’s word in Galatians 1:15:
But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased
The phrase from birth of the NIV is more literally from my mother’s womb. The word may be used for faculty of desires, hence may mean “physical desire, appetite” as it is used in Romans 16:18:
For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
The phrase their own appetites is literally their own stomach. The word may mean “innermost recesses of the human body” as it is used in Jesus’ description of what would be true of the believer in John 7:38:
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
The sentence streams of living water will flow from within him is literally Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. Interestingly, the word is used in the Septuagint in the sense of “heart”, as we read in Job 15:35:
They conceive trouble and give birth to evil; their womb fashions deceit.”
Womb here functions as the word “heart” that is often used in English for conceiving evil. This is probably the reason the sentence their womb fashions deceit is translated in the TEV as their hearts are always full of deceit. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:13, the word is used in the sense of “belly, stomach.”
Stomach or belly is part of the body so that the declaration of the Corinthians the apostle quoted is concerned with the body although they focused on a body part, the belly. Anyway, when the Corinthians state Food for the stomach, they meant then to convey that the target of food that is required for the physical sustenance of the body is the stomach. A person who has trouble with the stomach would certainly have problem with food and would be physically weak if the person is unable to eat. Thus, the stomach is an important member of the body that is involved with sustenance of a person. Anyway, the point is that the target of food that is necessary to sustain humans is the stomach.
The stomach is the target of food because it carries an important function that involves processing of food, that is, digesting of it. It is this important function that is implied in the next phrase of 1 Corinthians 6:13 and the stomach for food. This second quotation of the Corinthians conveys the fact that the stomach is responsible for processing food. In other words, the stomach receives food through the mouth but then goes on to process it so that the nutrients needed for the body are absorbed while the wastes are removed. This is in keeping with the assertion of Jesus Christ regarding food and the stomach as it is stated in Mark 7:19:
For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)
Thus, it appears that the Corinthians have the slogan that the stomach as part of the body has a temporary function of processing food or is concerned with the physical sustenance of the body. Thus, they are in effect implying that just as the stomach functions for food so the body functions for sex as that which is necessary part of being human.
To continue with this thought of the body being associated with food and sex, the Corinthians being quoted had a second slogan related to the first in the sentence, using the 2011 edition of the NIV, and God will destroy them both. What is the point of this quotation of the Corinthians that the apostle quoted? To answer this, let us first consider the word “destroy.”
The word “destroy” is translated from a Greek word (katargeō) that has several meanings. It may mean “to use up, to waste” as it is used to describe the uselessness of the unproductive fig tree in Luke 13:7:
So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
The Greek word may mean to cause the release of someone from an obligation hence “to be released, to be discharged as in the release of a woman from marriage bond at the death of the husband in Romans 7:2:
For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
It may mean to cause something to lose its power or effectiveness, that is, “to invalidate, make powerless” as Apostle Paul used the word in 1 Corinthians 1:28:
He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are.
It is in this same sense of “to invalidate” that the apostle used it to indicate that the law did not invalidate God’s covenant with Abraham in Galatians 3:17:
What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.
The expression does not set aside may be translated does not invalidate. The Greek word may mean “to abolish, wipe out, set aside” as in Galatians 5:11:
Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:13, the sense of the word is “to do away with, destroy.”
Having considered the word “destroy” to indicate it has the sense of to do away with something, we now return to consider what was the point of the sentence of 1 Corinthians 6:13 and God will destroy them both. Those who asserted this, meant to say that God would destroy both food and stomach at the point of death. Thus, they want to convey that the body is temporary in nature and so it does not matter what is done with it. This being the case, it does not matter if one is involved in sexual immorality since it only affects the body that in their understanding would be destroyed at death. You see, those quoted have the sense that “it is just sex” as some people say today and so do not see any connection with sexual immorality with their spiritual life. When I say this, I remember one of my first shocks when I first came into this country. I had a discussion in Clarke College with one student who in the process told me he saw nothing wrong with a young man such as himself having sex with another young female person. My shock was intensified because this was a young man in a Bible College training to be a pastor. Anyway, his thought about sex represents that of many young and adults in this country who see no harm in sex outside of the marriage bond as evident in how sex outside marriage is tolerated or accepted by many Christians who endorse the practice of dating that they know quite often end up in sex outside marriage. The point is that the Corinthians the apostle quoted have the notion that because the body was going to be destroyed at death, they do not see the problem of sexual immorality since the body that is used for sex would be destroyed anyway. In effect, they were erroneous in both their views of sex and the final fate of the body. Both errors are handled by the apostle in the rest of verse 13 and in verse 14 of 1 Corinthians 6. In effect, what follow serve as a rejoinder to the quotation of some of those with distorted view of sex and body in Corinth.
To guard against wrong view or misuse of the body the apostle conveys that the function of the body is not for sexual immorality as in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 6:13 The body is not meant for sexual immorality. We will consider the two key words used to help us understand what the apostle meant in this clause and what the apostle stated later in verse 14.
The word “body” is translated from a Greek word (sōma) that is used both in literal and in figurative senses. Literally, it is used for the body of a human being or an animal. The body may refer to a dead body or corpse as it is used to describe the corpse of Jesus that Joseph of Arimathea requested from Pilate for burial, as narrated in Matthew 27:58–59:
58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,.
The body may refer to a living body such as one that is involved in sexual immorality as stated in Romans 1:24:
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
In effect, the Greek word may refer to “body as the seat of sexual function” as that is the sense that the word is used to describe Abraham’s body at the age of 100 years in Romans 4:19:
Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.
The word in plural has the sense of “selves” as it is used in instruction of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul in Romans 12:1:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
The phrase your bodies means “yourselves” as reflected in the TEV that translated the instruction offer your bodies as offer yourselves. Figuratively, the apostle uses the word “body” to refer to the Christian community. Hence, he tells the believers in Rome that they form one body in Christ, as we read in Romans 12:5:
so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
To the Corinthians, the apostle indicated they were the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:27:
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
The phrase body of Christ here in 1 Corinthians 12 refers to the church of Christ, as Apostle Paul used it in Ephesians 1:22–23:
22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
The word may mean “in person” as it is used by some in Corinth to describe Apostle Paul as we read in 2 Corinthians 10:10:
For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”
The phrase in person is literally bodily presence. The word may mean “nature” as it is used in Colossians 2:11:
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,
The phrase the sinful nature is literally the body of the sins of the flesh. The word may mean “the thing itself, the reality” in imagery of a body that casts a shadow as the word is used in Colossians 2:17:
These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
The clause the reality, however, is found in Christ is literally and the body is of the Christ. The word may mean “physical” as it is used to describe the needs of a destitute believer in James 2:16:
If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
The phrase his physical needs is literally the things needful for the body. The word may refer to an “entire person” as it is used to describe the corrupting activity of the tongue in James 3:6:
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
The sentence It corrupts the whole person is literally defiling the whole body. It is clear that the corrupting influence of the tongue is on the entire person that includes body and soul and not merely the physical body. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:13, it is used in the sense of the physical body of a person.
The second key word in the clause The body is not meant for sexual immorality is the expression “sexual immorality” that we have considered previously but worth reviewing at this point. The expression “sexual immorality” is translated from a Greek word (porneia) that refers to unlawful sexual intercourse hence means “prostitution, unchastity, fornication.” It is used of the sexual unfaithfulness of a married woman in Matthew 5:32:
But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
The word is used in connection with illegitimate children, that is, bastards in John 8:41:
You are doing the things your own father does.” “We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
The sentence We are not illegitimate children is literally We were not born of fornication. The word is used with the meaning “sexual immorality” as part of what Gentile Christians were to avoid in Acts 15:29:
You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul indicated that it is sin that should not even be hinted among Christians in Ephesians 5:3:
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:13, the word refers to sexual acts that are morally objectionable hence means “sexual immorality.”
It is true that the word “body” could be used to refer to the church of Christ so that it can be understood that the church should not be involved in sexual immorality but the sentence The body is not meant for sexual immorality is intended to guide against sexual immorality of any believer. In effect, the apostle is concerned that because of wrong view of the body some believers in Corinth would have a distorted view of sexual immorality. Therefore, the apostle states in no uncertain terms that the body is not designed for sexual immorality. However, he does not argue that the body is never involved in sexual relationship since that would contradict what he asserted later in the instruction of sexual relationship between husband and wife that involves the body as he implied in 1 Corinthians 7:4:
The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.
The point is that the apostle does not deny that the body is used for sex but that it is not for unauthorized sex, that is, sex outside the marriage bond. There is in a sense that when the apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:13 The body is not meant for sexual immorality he meant for the Corinthians to recognize that they should exercise proper control over their bodies so that no one should be involved in sexual immorality. In this case, his implied instruction would be similar to what he wrote to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:3–7:
3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
In addition, the apostle would be saying to the Corinthians similar thing that he commanded the Roman believers regarding the use of the body in a way to sin, as he stated in Romans 6:13:
Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Anyway, the apostle wanted the Corinthians, and so all believers, to recognize that the body should not be abused through sexual immorality. Of course, as believers, we should recognize that there are consequences for abusing the body through sin. The body suffers when the Lord brings discipline on a person for sinning against Him or the suffering could be in keeping with spiritual law of sowing and reaping. A person who sows sexual sin will reap it in the body, as implied in Proverbs 5:11:
At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.
The phrase At the end refers either to old age when one’s wealth is depleted or to the end of immoral living, in particular, sexual immorality. The context favors understanding the phrase as a reference to end of sexual immorality because of the wasting away of the body. You see, the clause when your flesh and body are spent may be translated when your flesh and your body are wasted away as in the NET. A person may be wasting due to any of the many sexually transmitted diseases that are results of sexual immorality. Of course, we should be careful not to separate the body from the soul or the real person because when we sin that affects our body or health, as implied in Proverbs 14:30:
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Having indicated that the body is never for sexual immorality, the apostle stated that the body is for the purpose of glorifying and serving the Lord. It is this truth that the apostle conveyed in the next phrase of 1 Corinthians 6:13 but for the Lord. The Lord here refers to Jesus Christ. How am sure of this you may ask? Well, let me establish this by examining the word “Lord.”
The word “Lord” is translated from a Greek word (kyrios) that may mean “owner” in the sense of one who is in charge by virtue of possession. It is in this sense that the word is used to describe a slave girl that was involved in fortune-telling that Apostle Paul healed, as we read in Acts 16:16:
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.
Another meaning of our Greek word refers to one who is in a position of authority and so means “lord, master.” It is in this sense that the word is used to describe the fact that Sarah considered Abraham as being of higher position than she, according to 1 Peter 3:6:
like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
Still another meaning of our Greek word is as a title of respect hence means “sir”, as it is used in Acts 16:30:
He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
These meanings notwithstanding, our Greek word is one that the apostle quite often applied to Jesus Christ, as in Romans 7:25:
Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
The apostle used it to describe Jesus as the Lord that must be confessed in salvation, as we read in Romans 10:9:
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
It is evident that it is to Jesus Christ that the apostle applied the word in Galatians 1:19:
I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.
He used it to describe Jesus Christ in Ephesians 1:15:
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
The apostle used the word to describe God, as in 1 Timothy 6:15:
which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
The phrase Lord of lords is one that also applies to Jesus Christ, proving His deity, as we may gather from Revelation 17:14:
They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”
We have considered the various usages of the Greek word translated “Lord” so one may argue that the fact the apostle applies the word to Jesus Christ in the passages we have cited does not necessarily mean that that is the sense in which it is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:13. Anyway, there are several factors that should convince such a person that the Greek word translated “Lord” in 1 Corinthians 6:13 refers to Jesus Christ when the apostle used it. First, from the point of the apostle’s conversion, the association of Jesus with the word “Lord” is one that was seared in his mind. This we can see from his recounting of his call to be an apostle of Jesus Christ recorded in Acts 26:15:
“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.
The Lord that replied to Paul is Jesus. Thus, from his conversion he associated the word “Lord” with Jesus. Second, the preaching of the apostle is centered on Jesus Christ so that even if Jesus is not mentioned and the word “Lord” is used then it is clear the apostle meant Jesus. When he preached to the proconsul and he was interrupted by Elymas, he pronounced judgment on him. When the proconsul saw what happened, he believed the preaching about the Lord, as we read in Acts 13:10–12:
10 “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? 11 Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.
The phrase the teaching about the Lord is a reference to the preaching about Jesus Christ. There can be no doubt that when the apostle used the word “Lord” in this passage in Acts that he meant Jesus Christ. We know this because Jesus was whom the apostle preached and when he offered salvation it is in His name, as when he offered salvation to the Philippian jailer according to the record in Acts 16:31–32:
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
Third, the concept of judging enables us to recognize that when the apostle used the word “Lord” without any further description that he means Jesus Christ. The apostle in teaching the Corinthians about behaving properly during the Lord’s Supper, indicated that the Lord judges those who sin and disciplines them, as stated in 1 Corinthians 11:32:
When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.
The apostle was certainly aware that all judgment was consigned to Jesus Christ as he must have heard the declaration of the Lord Jesus reported in John 5:22–23:
22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
The apostle was aware of this assertion of Jesus Christ, that is the reason when he referenced judgment of believers, he used the word “Lord” to mean Jesus since He is the One responsible for all judgments. Fourth, the apostle used the word “Lord” interchangeably for Jesus Christ in this first epistle to the Corinthians, as we read in 1 Corinthians 7:22:
For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave.
Here the apostle used the word “Lord” interchangeably with the word “Christ” because the freedman of the Lord is also Christ’s slave. Fifth, the context of the use of the word “Lord” in our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:13 indicates the apostle meant Jesus Christ because in verse 14, he indicated that the Lord was raised from the dead. It is Jesus Christ that was raised from the dead. Hence, the apostle must mean Jesus Christ when he used the word “Lord” in the passage we are considering, that is, 1 Corinthians 6:13. We can state that generally the apostle uses the word “Lord” to refer to Jesus Christ except for when he quotes from the OT and the word is used for God, as for example, in his quotation in Romans 9:29:
It is just as Isaiah said previously: “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”
Be that as it may, it is our assertion that the phrase of 1 Corinthians 6:13 but for the Lord should be understood to mean that a believer’s body is for glorifying and serving Jesus Christ and not for sexual immorality. The Holy Spirit expects our bodies to be used in a way that will bring glory or honor to God. It is for this reason we have the appeal in the passage we cited previously, that is, in Romans 12:1:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
It is true the phrase your bodies may be understood as yourselves, but the point remains that we are expected to ensure that our bodies are used in activities that bring glory to the Lord. The apostle makes reference to the fact that his body is for honoring the Lord in Philippians 1:20:
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
The sentence Christ will be exalted in my body indicates the apostle’s concern is that Christ be magnified or praised through his body which, of course, is an idiom for Christ to be praised or honored through him. Hence, it is important that we use our bodies to serve the Lord and for that which brings praise to God and not for anything sinful. It is in the sense of bringing glory or honor to Christ and serving Him that it can be said that the body is for the Lord. There is more to what the apostle says about the body, but we are out of time. We will continue in our next study.