Christian Basics Bible - Flipbook - Page 19
page 1309 • 1 Corinthians 6
the church who is wise enough to decide
these issues? 6 But instead, one believer*
sues another—right in front of unbelievers!
7
Even to have such lawsuits with one
another is a defeat for you. Why not just
accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why
not let yourselves be cheated? 8 Instead, you
yourselves are the ones who do wrong and
cheat even your fellow believers.*
9
Don’t you realize that those who do
wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God?
Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in
sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit
adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice
homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy
people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or
cheat people—none of these will inherit the
Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once
like that. But you were cleansed; you were
made holy; you were made right with God
by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Avoiding Sexual Sin
12
You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—
but not everything is good for you. And
even though “I am allowed to do anything,”
I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You
say, “Food was made for the stomach, and
the stomach for food.” (This is true, though
someday God will do away with both of
them.) But you can’t say that our bodies
were made for sexual immorality. They were
made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about
our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the
dead by his power, just as he raised our
Lord from the dead.
15
Don’t you realize that your bodies are
actually parts of Christ? Should a man take
his body, which is part of Christ, and join
it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you
realize that if a man joins himself to a pros
titute, he becomes one body with her? For
the Scriptures say, “The two are united into
one.”* 17 But the person who is joined to the
Lord is one spirit with him.
5:1 Greek his father’s wife.
5:3 Or in spirit.
5:4 Or In the name of
the Lord Jesus, you must call a meeting of the church.
5:5a Or so
that his body will be destroyed; Greek reads for the destruction of
the flesh.
5:5b Greek and the spirit.
5:5c Other manuscripts read
the Lord Jesus; still others read our Lord Jesus Christ.
5:7 Greek
has been sacrificed.
5:8a Greek not with old leaven.
5:8b Greek
but with unleavened [bread].
5:11 Greek a brother.
5:13 Deut
17:7.
6:1 Greek God’s holy people; also in 6:2. 6:6 Greek one
brother.
6:8 Greek even the brothers.
6:16 Gen 2:24.
Casual sex
For many people nowadays, sex is simply something you do, a recreational
pastime—harmless fun, provided you take precautions and “don’t hurt anybody.”
That may have been your own view in the past; but now that you are a Christian,
it’s important you understand what God thinks about sex. God invented sex, and
he planned that it should take place within the loving relationship of the marriage
of one man to one woman, to strengthen that relationship (Genesis 2:24). Jesus
challenged those who didn’t live this way—forgiving them, but also telling them
to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). And the New Testament letters constantly
call Christians to live a holy life in this area (e.g., 1 Corinthians 6:9-20; Galatians
5:19-25; Ephesians 5:3-14; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-5; Hebrews 13:4).
The Bible tells us why avoiding sexual immorality is important. It is because,
in the sexual act, something actually happens at a spiritual level: Two people
become “one” (1 Corinthians 6:16), just like God said at the beginning (Genesis
2:24). Any kind of casual sex therefore makes you “one” with the other person,
linking you in some way. It also abuses your body, which now belongs to God and
is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:15-20). That’s why there is no place
in God’s Kingdom for such behavior (6:9-10) and why we are told to “run from
sexual sin!” (6:18). It affects not just our life but also our relationship with God.
But if you have failed in this area, don’t despair! There is as much forgiveness
for sexual sin as anything else, as the Corinthians themselves discovered
(6:911). Confess what you have done and then “go and sin no more.”
See also Prostitution, page 285; Sexuality, page 742.
