The sexual morality of the Hebrew scriptures was vastly different from the sexual culture of the Greco-Roman world in which Christianity was born. Brothers sometimes married their sisters to protect family property rights. Bisexuality was taken for granted. Homosexuality was natural, socially acceptable, even idealized, known as “Greek love.” Pederasty (sex with boys) was a particular privilege. Powerful men gathered “herds of boys”. Although women were generally prohibited from “adultery”, they were encouraged to engage in lesbian relationships. Exposure of infants & abortion was freely practiced. Sexual conduct was largely informed by issues of economics and power.
The prevalence of the Greco-Roman sexual culture in the early church is demonstrated in Paul’s letters to the church at Corinth. In the ancient world, to be “Corinthian” meant indulgence in every lust and pleasure, and there was no law higher than one’s desires. Paul dedicates considerable portions of his writing to the sexual misbehavior of the Corinthian believers. He rebukes a member of the church for having sex with his stepmother and rebukes the church for its arrogance in tolerating this behavior (1 Cor. 5:1ff). Paul exhorts:
Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 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 Co 6:18–20).
A proper understanding of Christian sexual morality begins with a proper theology of the human body. In creation God “formed man … and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). In the Incarnation, God “was made in the likeness of humanity” (Philip. 2:7), that is, the eternal Word/Son “became flesh” (John 1:14). Jesus Christ “bore our sins in his body on the cross” (1 Peter 2:24). Paul declares that “the body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body” and our “bodies are members of Christ” (1 Cor. 6:13, 15). At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit fell upon and filled the bodies of believers (Acts 2:1ff). Therefore, we are to “present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1). Paul exhorts, “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:6). The body is to be disciplined (1 Cor. 9:27). The hope of believers in Christ is that we shall be sanctified entirely – spirit and soul and body (1 Thes 5:23). In the resurrection, “the body of our humble state” will be transformed “into conformity with the body of His glory” (Philip. 3:21). In summary, God created the human body to be a dwelling of God’s Spirit. God became enfleshed in a human body so that human bodies could be redeemed.
Flee Immorality. I can’t help but think that when Paul penned these words, he had the story of Joseph in mind. In effect, Paul was telling the Corinthian Christians that just as Joseph maintained his sexual integrity in the land of Egypt by fleeing the advances of Potiphar’s wife, Christians must maintain their sexual integrity by fleeing the encroachment of an amoral sexual culture. The use of the word flee suggest imminent danger. The two greatest desires of the human body are hunger and sex. Paul acknowledges that “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food”. His point is that just as eating is a natural desire of the body, so too is sex a natural desire of the body. But the body is not for sexual immorality (1 Cor. 6:13).
Sexual immorality dishonors the body. “For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body” (1 Cor 6:18 NLT). Paul declared, “God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them” (Romans 1:24). The consequence of impurity is dishonor. Furthermore, for the Christian, the body is united with Christ, “one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17) to the extent that to commit sexual immorality is to dishonor Christ (1 Cor. 6:15). Therefore, to indulge the desires of the flesh is to incur the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:3).
Human autonomy is a theological heresy. The ancient Corinthians were influenced by Greek philosophies that believed the physical body was morally irrelevant and insisted that pleasure is the highest good. The slogan of the Woodstock era, the sexual revolution and the drug culture of the 1960s, was “If it feels good, do it.” The slogan of secular feminism is “My body, my choice” and reflects a political theory in which each person is free to make independent moral choices. Human autonomy is the refusal to acknowledge God. The apostle Peter reminds us that so-called human autonomy promises freedom, but is “slavery to corruption” (1 Peter 2:19). Paul insists that to be in Christ is to acknowledge that “you are not your own, you have been bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Outside of Christ, humans are “slaves to sin” (Romans 6:6; John 8:34). Christ has purchased us with his blood so that we may be “slaves to righteousness” (1 Pet. 1:19; Romans 6:18). In other words, in Christ we are freed from sin that we may be “enslaved to God” (Romans 6:22).
The body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit. When God created humanity, God breathed the Holy Spirit of life into human bodies. Humanity shared the image and glory of God. Humanity’s rebellion against God means “that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Jesus Christ has redeemed humanity through his death and resurrection and is our divine-human mediator through whom we receive the Holy Spirit. Just before he ascended to heaven, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). On the day of Pentecost, the disciples of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit. Baptism in the Spirit signifies the restoration of God’s glory and anticipates the glorification of the body. Just as the shekinah glory of God dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the ancient Jerusalem Temple as a sign of God’s presence with Israel, the Holy Spirit dwells within our bodies and testifies that we have been adopted as the children of God (Romans 8:14-16).
Glorify God in your body. The Spirit-filled human body is a sacred place, filled with the glory of God. The purpose of our bodies is to reflect the glory and holiness of God. We are to present our bodies “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Rom. 12:1). This is the highest form of worship. God’s will is that we “abstain from sexual immorality” and possess our bodies “in sanctification and honor” (1 Thes. 4:3-4).
