Christ in Us

1 Corinthians 6: 11-20 (January 18, 2009)

1)Text

11And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “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 meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

2) The Context

Corinth was a major port which also commanded the land route from the Peloponnesus peninsula to central Greece. An industrial and ship-building centre, it was also a centre for the arts. St. Paul visited the community at Corinth between 45 and 51 AD. As he was leaving Ephesus (circa 54 AD), he wrote to the church on matters of some importance. Fellowship had deteriorated into cliques and in-fighting. Outside influences had challenged the core beliefs and morality of its members. A libertine philosophy had gained a foothold among some in the Church.

In chapter six, Paul addressed this matter directly. After he acknowledged the freedom Christians were given (6:12), he argued that sexual license was not true freedom. For sexual license did not acknowledge the roots and responsibilities of such freedom. The roots of Christian freedom were found in the justifying grace God gave the believer. And, as such, the Christian was responsible to God the Father. The person who claims sexual license was too self-absorbed to seek the roots of freedom or to exercise responsibility to someone greater than he or she was.

The interesting part of Paul's argument was his focus on the value of the body. This was purely Jewish in concept. The Greek culture in which the Corinthians lived downplayed the body and exalted the spirit. But, for Paul, the physical body had dignity as a vessel for the Spirit and a promise of the final resurrection. The body and spirit were inseparable.

Bodies grow up. Bodies grow old. No matter the shape of our bodies, they are still God's gift to us. They remind us where the Spirit dwells in the world. And they are a foretaste of our future on the final day. They reaffirm St. Paul's contention that we belong to God, not to ourselves.

3) Interpretation

In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians he tackles a number of specific problems in the church. One of these problems is immorality. In chapters 5 and 6 Paul deals with this issue. He begins by confronting a particular situation where someone in the church has married their "father’s wife." Paul tells the church that they should deal with this problem, that they should pass judgment on it. This leads him to discuss the problem of lawsuits between members of the church. They should deal with such disputes within the church itself. Church members need to deal with these matters in the knowledge that evil-livers "will not inherit the kingdom of God." Returning again to sexual immorality, Paul raises the issue of church members visiting prostitutes.

Dealing with ethics in the Gentile churches was no easy task for Paul. On the one hand he had to steer Gentile believers away from the slavery of the law, but on the other hand, he had to counsel those believers who were allowing their Christian freedom to enslave them again to sin. Paul knew well enough that a return to law-righteousness not only promoted disobedience, but also undermined salvation. A believer's progression toward Christ-likeness, as well as their possession of Christ-likeness, is always a matter of grace appropriated through faith. It is "Christ in us" that enables us to be what we are. Yet, in dealing with the Corinthians it was the slavery to sin problem that confronted Paul. Interestingly, it is quite possible that those he speaks against might have been influenced by his teaching on justification by faith apart from works of the law. That is, he may be speaking against those who have misunderstood the concept of "freedom" in Christ. His legalist brothers had always warned him that to remove the law from a believer is to invite libertarianism - anything goes. The problem in Corinth may well be this very problem.

There are other possible scenarios for the Corinthian libertarianism. The influence of Platonic thought is one. In Platonic thought, flesh is separated from spirit. One is of this earth and is destined for oblivion; the other is of God and is destined for eternity. Such a view can also promote an "anything goes" mentality. The Corinthians were certainly into the "spiritual" and their emphasis of the spiritual self might have left them open to a disregard for the physical self.

For some reason, believers tend toward Platonic dualism - the body is matter and is to be cast off; the soul is of God and is to be preserved. In popular theology it comes down to the body of the dead still in the grave, but the soul alive in heaven. Resurrection is often seen as a spiritual thing which concerns the soul, separate from the body. This results in two different approaches. The first approach is libertarianism. Seeing the body as something to be cast off in death means it doesn't matter what we do with it. We might as well satisfy its appetites, so we won't get distracted from the more important spiritual issues of life. The second approach is asceticism. Seeing the body as something to be cast off in death, it is best to subdue its control over us, allow us to live free from its constraints and accentuate the spiritual self.

Paul confronts this libertarian problem by focusing on sound teaching - Spirit filled truth. Walking in the Spirit comes about by hearing the leading of the Spirit. It is this leading, through the ministry of the Apostles, Prophets, Teachers and Pastors, which builds us "up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ", Eph.4:11-13. So, Paul gives the Corinthians sound teaching, and in the power of the Spirit, this truth will set them free. Those who are in Christ will hear Christ and as Christ is in them, he will change them into his own image.

4) Thought Exercise

How do you know that Christ is in you?

How does the Christ in you change you?