Defeating Immorality with the Gospel (1 Cor 6:12-20)

We went through two weeks of examining what a marriage relationship should be like:

Ephesians 5:22-33 Marriage reflects the ultimate reality of Christ and the church
Hebrews 13:4 Purity in marriage

God's plan for marriage is for it to be absolutely pure and holy. In Scripture it is said that God is so pure that His eyes cannot look upon evil. Thus it is said in Hebrews that the marriage bed must be undefiled, or else judgment awaits us - those who are adulterers and sexually immoral. The promise of judgment ought to cause us to tremble and take care of ourselves, that we do not fall into the hands of God the consuming fire! Yet how many people, men and women, have dared to toy with and destroy this plan of God? It is an incredibly difficult age to live in and still be sexually pure - with fatal attractions all around us constantly.

Yet what can we do? Often it is said that we can do several things, such as avoid places of temptations, not using the computer behind closed doors, not being alone with the opposite sex etc. All these are good. We tend to ask what we can do and we ask for practical rules to follow, but one thing we must recognize is that we will definitely fail when left to ourselves. Rules do not have power in themselves, and they will prove to be less attractive when temptation presents itself. A better question than "What should I do?" is actually "What has God done for me?" The real power to defeat temptations is not in the things we can do or the tight rules we keep (as good as they may be), but in the Gospel, what God had already done for us. It is this meditation and deep appreciation and internalization of the Gospel, as Paul teaches in 1 Cor 6:12-20, that has true power to combat sexual immorality.

So consider the reasons Paul says we ought to flee sexual immorality - these are reasons firmly grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

1. The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for holy use for the Lord (v13)
2. God will raise us up with glorious bodies one day (v14)
3. Our bodies are members of Christ (v15)
4. Our bodies are joined to the Lord in one spirit, not to the prostitute (v17)
5. Sexually immoral person sins against his own body, which is temple of Holy Spirit (v19)
6. Our bodies belong to God; we are bought with a price (v20).

It is surprising that in these verses, Paul did not lay down any so-called 'practical rules' to flee. You just simply flee, and it is possible to do so once your mind is full of Christ and once we understand the extent that Christ has died for us to redeem us and our bodies for holy purposes, and the price that He had to pay. Our bodies are not ours to use for our sinful passions. In fact, our bodies house the Holy Spirit, and to sin with our bodies is to grieve Him. Once we understand all these, we are liberated to use our bodies to glorify God (v20).

The most practical way to defeat temptations is to saturate our minds with the Gospel - what Christ has done for us already. That's what Paul wants us to do more than anything else. In the Gospel lies the true power to defeat sin. Through the Gospel, God saves us and changes us, hell-bent and hell-deserving adulterers into men and women who would be kept pure for Him, out of a gracious response to Christ and the Spirit working in them. No one has ever kept God's perfect standard of purity, not even David, the man after God's heart. But here is the good news Paul wants us to know:

"Such were some of you (sexually immoral). But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." (1 Cor 6:11).

It is my prayer that Qiao and I will love and live by the Word of God daily. The Word will prevent us from sin, when we realize we love God supremely more than any other attractions in the world. In the light of Christ, the things of this world will grow strangely dim. In the radiance of the Gospel, the Enemy has no chance to tempt us.