Today's sermon is by Dan Stipp and is primarily taken from 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, though he reads much of chapter 6 for context.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Dan begins with a description of the context. Corinth was a major trading post because ships would travel to the port on one side of Corinth, take their goods across land and then ships on the other side would carry the good on to the next port. Corinth was extremely wealthy and the place where the temple to Aphrodite was found. Aphrodite is one of the Greek gods and is a goddess of fertility. Worship of Aphrodite generally included intercourse with the temple priestesses.
He also describes the Greek dualist religion, which states that the body is temporal and that the spirit lives on after death. As such, the body is an obstacle to the Greek. Greeks typically took one of two ways of dealing with this problem: (1) asceticism was the practice of beating one's body into submission by denying it what it needs, or (2) indulgence was engaged in because what happens in the body dies with the body, so let's have some fun in the meantime. Corinth was largely possessed by those interested in indulgence rather than asceticism.
The first point of this sermon is that we belong to God. (v. 19) The second is that we were bought back by and for God. (v. 20) Dan is specifically interested in saying that we who follow God must not sin because he is our owner. We don't want to do anything to dishonor Him, especially since the Spirit of God dwells within our body as the temple. (v. 19) By committing acts of sexual immorality after we become believers, we dishonor God through this act of sin. Furthermore, God went out of his way to buy us and this reenforces the point.
Dan finishes by asking, "What does this mean for my life and relationships?" He answers this question with three answers:
- Accept God's authority over all my life
- Flee from sexual immorality
- Embrace my relationship with the Lord and His design for my relationships with others
One thing I would like to add to this is something I usually say, you have no power to do these things without the power of God working through your life. This sermon was for the believer, but for the unbeliever that God is calling, know that you will have this power when you accept God's call on your life. God's ownership is not only a reason to want to live a moral and good life, but it is the power by which we seize this life.
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