Glorifying God with Your Body: A Gospel-Centered View of Sexuality
Can your view of sex bring glory to God? In a culture that mirrors ancient Corinth, Paul’s timeless words call us back to something higher, deeper, and more holy, starting with our own bodies.
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Flee Sexual Immorality
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined[a] to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin[b] a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Our Bodies, Sexuality, and Glorifying God
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Corinthians 6:19-20
Before exploring the text, we should revisit the context of the City of Corinth, because it’s highly relevant to what the Apostle Paul taught here.
Corinth as a city was given over to the worship of sex. Corinth was known for the Temple of Aphrodite, who was the goddess of sex. Every evening, a thousand or more priestesses would come down from the Temple of Aphrodite that stood on a hill on the edge of Corinth and would move into the city streets. These temple prostitutes would ply their trade. Corinth was also a port city, and sailors, tourists, and citizens were known for sexual promiscuity.
Modern historians have found important clarifications. For starters, all of Aphrodite’s prostitutes were not willing participants. Many were slaves purchased by wealthy Greek financiers who dedicated these persons to Aphrodite as a goddess. Many of the prostitutes were victims of human trafficking. Regardless, sexual promiscuity was highly accepted in Corinth, and it was even esteemed in Corinthian culture as it is in parts of Western culture today.
When the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church at Corinth, it was relatively new, having been established only a few years prior. The church emerging from Corinthian culture still retained some of the old thought patterns that were shaped by Corinthian culture, as well as certain behaviors related to human sexuality. That’s why Paul was addressing this with the church at Corinth.
This passage is highly relevant to Western culture and the Church of Jesus Christ within Western culture. Let me highlight the four major themes that Paul addressed to the Corinthians, which he wanted them to understand about God’s gift of human sexuality.
1) Don’t Twist the Meaning of Christian Liberty
“‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.” 1 Corinthians 6:12
You may notice that the phrase “all things are lawful for me” is in quotes. The Apostle Paul was quoting them. The Corinthian church had begun to say things like, “We’re no longer under the old covenant. Jesus Christ has bled and died for our sins. So we really can live it up a little bit because we’re not under law.”
The Apostle Paul was quoting them because they were abusing and twisting Scripture in order to live in a way that wasn’t honoring to God. They would talk about the freedom they had in Christ, saying, “Everything is permissible. We’re free from the law. Do whatever you like, whatever’s right in your own eyes.”
This is as old as the book of Genesis. This is exactly what the enemy of our souls did with Adam and Eve; the enemy took a truth and twisted it just a little bit. That’s exactly what Jesus encountered when Satan tempted Him in the wilderness, quoting Scripture but twisting it just a little bit or not applying it in its right context.
There’s nothing new under the sun. This still happens today.
The Apostle Paul started challenging them, affirming that Christian liberty is only liberty when it’s balanced between two extremes. The Corinthians reasoned that the law is extreme, and the reality is that the law is indeed extreme. The law makes a rigid demand on all our lives, and nobody can live up to it.
When we begin to understand the impact of the law of Moses and the Ten Commandments, we become aware of how they’re so easily and often broken. There has been no individual in all of history who has lived a life where they didn’t break one or more of the commands of Scripture. However, only one person has lived it, and His name is Jesus Christ.
But the Apostle Paul reasoned with them that license is also extreme. Feeling that the reaction to being under the law is to be free from the law and doing whatever you think is right, the Apostle Paul said that, too, is extreme, and you’ve lost your liberty when you begin to think that way.
“All things are lawful,” but he also said, “All things are not helpful.” The moment your liberty begins to hurt you or hurt somebody else, you’ve fallen into license and are now entangled and dominated by sin.
2) Don’t Embrace a False Rationalization That Sets You Up for Deception
“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” 1 Corinthians 6:13
The Corinthians were rationalizing sexuality or sexual immorality by comparing it to the biological act of eating. They would say “food for the stomach, stomach for the food,” meaning they were saying that just as eating and digesting food have no bearing on our spirituality, neither does sex; it’s just physical.
Nothing new under the sun. In my decades of ministry, on numerous occasions I’ve sat across from someone who had crossed a boundary sexually, causing great harm with a ripple effect in their life or family. Before God begins to give the grace of godly sorrow, you’ll sometimes hear a person in that situation rationalize: “It’s just sex; It’s just physical.”
The Apostle Paul reasoned that that’s not true. There’s more to it than that. In Western culture, people justify all kinds of behavior by thinking this way: “This is just sex,” or “This works for me,” or “This is my truth, but you have a truth that you live by.”
In his book, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Lesslie Newbigin wrote:
“The relativism which is not willing to speak about truth but only about ‘what is true for me’ is an evasion of the serious business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our contemporary culture. It is a preliminary symptom of death.”
That’s true because there is one truth. The Scripture declares that the wages of missing the truth, the wages of sin (the Greek word hamartia means “to miss the mark”), is death (Romans 6:23).
The Apostle Paul knew what these Corinthian believers were living by wasn’t true, and he wanted desperately for them to understand why. He agreed with them that food for the stomach is a temporary thing for our bodies, but he wanted them to understand that it is sacred to God, their Maker.
3) Understand the Sacredness of Our Bodies
“The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” 1 Corinthians 6:13
The root word for immorality is the Greek word porneia, which is where we get the word pornography. It’s a reference to any expression of sexuality outside the boundaries of marriage between a man and a woman.
Why did Michelangelo paint Adam nude? With revelation from Scripture and input from theologians at the time, Michelangelo painted Adam nude because there’s a correlation between spirituality and physicality.
Spirituality and physicality are interrelated. You have a physical reality. God created you as an embodied person, and your physical capacity reflects the image of the One who created you. You are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). You have a physical capacity that reflects the image of God. This is why your body is holy. You have a relational capacity that reflects the image of God. You have a moral capacity that reflects the image of God.
The theologian Dr. Timothy Tennent said: “As Christians, we understand that the human body is not merely a biological category, but the body is supremely a theological category designed for God’s revelatory and saving purposes.”
Your body is sacred. The Apostle Paul wanted the Corinthian church to understand this, to take on the understanding that our body carries eternal consequences in what we do with it. God has designed you to live with intentional impact in the way you steward your body.
Your relationship with Jesus Christ is an embodied relationship. Your body is made in the image of God. God came to us through a body in the person of Jesus Christ, which is the very knot that ties the reality of earth with heaven. It’s your body that will one day be resurrected.
Our bodies are interrelated with the fullness of who God has made us to be. Our spirit is embodied. Our hearts, minds, and emotions are embodied. We’re taught that our bodies are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit for the believer.
When deciding how to steward our body, the relevant question is this: Will this bring glory to God?
This is exactly what the Apostle Paul taught later in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.”
The Significance of Your Body
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two shall become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” 1 Corinthians 6:15-17
The Apostle Paul’s argument was more than simply protecting marriage vows or an admonition against adultery. His question was: “Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute?”
The holiness and sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, which emanated from the heart of God, is not only horizontal and relational, but it’s also vertical in nature. As verse 17 says, whoever is united with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.
The body is not merely for fulfilling appetites. You are significant as an embodied person. Your body matters because:
Your body is for the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:13)
Your body is destined to be raised (1 Corinthians 6:14)
Your body is a member of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:15-17)
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:18-19)
Your body was purchased at a price (1 Corinthians 6:20)
Your body is made for the royal purposes of glorifying God (1 Corinthians 6:20)
Fire is a gift when it’s used properly. When fire is in the fireplace, it warms you, but when fire burns outside the fireplace and burns a house or city down, fire is dangerous.
Sex and sexuality are a gift from a loving God. The biblical view of sex is that it’s a union between one man and one woman in marriage. But great harm can take place when sex moves outside the gift of God’s guardrails.
Outside the guardrails: brokenness, pain, diminishing of human flourishing. God-honoring sex is far more personal, healthy, beautiful, uniting, and far nobler because research shows that the persons who are most satisfied and most sexually fulfilled are persons who are in a covenant of marriage between a man and a woman.
4) Flee Sexual Immorality
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” 1 Corinthians 6:18
Christ does not set us free so we can do whatever we want to do. Christ sets us free so we can do what we’re designed to do. That’s where great joy is, and it’s also where human flourishing is.
Let me give you specific examples on how to flee:
Practical Steps to Flee
Memorize specific Scriptures that deal with whatever specific temptation you may face. Let them pop up in your heart and mind when you’re battling temptation.
Pray and ask God for deliverance. In the Lord’s Prayer, we’re taught to pray regularly, “Lord, deliver me from evil” (Matthew 6:13). In the Greek, the Scripture actually says, “Lord, deliver me from the evil one amid peirasmos,” when the heat is on, when you’re really feeling tempted and under pressure to cross a boundary.
Have a Christian brother or sister you can confide in. I’ve witnessed through the years someone experiencing temptation, and what got them through it was finding a close brother or sister in Christ they could confide in.
Get your mind on something else. If you’re battling temptation, get busy doing something else. Your mind will follow.
Why Is Sexual Immorality So Dangerous?
Why didn’t the Apostle Paul just say walk away? Why does he say “flee”? Verses 18-20 give us strong reasons:
1) Unique Consequences
“All other sins a person commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.”
While sexual sin is not necessarily the worst sin and certainly not unforgivable, Scripture tells us it’s unique in its consequences. It has a way of destroying a person in a way that no other sin does. Of all sins, this is one sin that involves the spiritual union of two people.
2) Your Body is a Temple
As a follower of Christ, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you. Your life is united with Jesus Christ, and you’re joined with Him. It would be inappropriate to bring Jesus into that kind of sin.
3) Bought with a Price
Scripture says, “You are not your own. You were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). As 1 Peter 1:18-19 says:
“It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
God came and redeemed your life, your body, with His own body. That’s how important you are to Him. You and your body belong to Jesus; therefore, as a believer:
Your eyes belong to Jesus. Are you allowing them to watch things you know He would find inappropriate?
Your mind belongs to Jesus. Are you using it to think impure thoughts?
Your hands and feet belong to Jesus. Are you allowing them to take you to places you know you shouldn’t be going?
The Apostle Paul closed with very clear instruction: “Therefore, honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20).
What We Learn From This Passage
Corinthian culture illustrates that a culture cannot be too far gone for people to be reached for Christ. If Corinthian culture can be reached for Christ, Western culture can be reached for Christ.
Because the Corinthian Christians came out of all kinds of things, including sexual sin, we need to remind ourselves that God forgives sin. God forgives sexual sin. God loves the Corinthians, and God loves you. Because He loves you, He lovingly corrects. He invites persons to receive His grace, turn in a new direction to Him, and forsake sexual sin. Be reminded of the picture of the prodigal son who had gotten deeply involved in sexual sin, and that picture of the father with his arms open, welcoming the son home as he repents (Luke 15:20). That’s what our God is like.
Only Jesus Christ can fill the deepest longing of our hearts. When people cross boundaries sexually, what’s going on underneath is that they’re looking for some kind of thrill or fulfillment that won’t be fulfilled by expressing sexual immorality.
As Blaise Pascal said, “There is a God-shaped hole in all of us that only God can fill.” Think about the woman at the well (John 4). She’d been in serial relationships and was on her sixth husband. Jesus read her situation and said, “If you knew who you were speaking with, you would ask Him for water” because Jesus can satisfy that deeper longing within your soul.
This is why Jesus stood at a religious festival in John 7 and said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink” (John 7:37). Only God can fulfill the deepest longing in our hearts.
The ultimate answer is not only fleeing sexual immorality, but the ultimate answer is coming to Jesus, coming and drinking of living water for His glory.
TL;DR
In 1 Corinthians 6:12–20, Paul confronts a permissive Corinthian culture with a bold vision for sexual purity rooted in divine purpose. This message explores four key truths:
Don’t twist Christian liberty: True freedom honors God, not the flesh.
Reject deceptive rationalizations: Sexual sin isn’t just physical; it affects the soul.
Understand the sacredness of the body: Your body is made in God's image, destined for resurrection, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Flee sexual immorality: Because you belong to Christ, body and soul.
Christ doesn’t free us to indulge, but to flourish in the design of our Creator—for His glory and our good.
