1 Corinthians 5-6: Sexual Immorality

In his first letter to the church of Corinth, Paul intended to correct several instances of immorality and other issues that he had received news of. Today's reading focuses primarily on sexual immorality.

The people of Corinth were struggling with a multitude of sexual sins, including a leader that had married his father's wife. Whether that was his actual mother or a stepmother, the point is that such a thing was tolerated by the people, indicating how far they had regressed.

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-- 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

This is a very important point that Paul makes - he wants to clear up any confusion from his earlier correspondence with the Corinthians about who they are to disassociate with on moral grounds. He clarifies that they are not to associate with sexually immoral people inside the church - as he points out, if they were not to associate with the immoral people of the world then they would be relegated to complete isolation.

11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler--not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside.

Paul states that they are not to associate with those brothers in Christ who are living in sin, such as sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, etc. He reiterates once again that it is not his place to judge those outside the church, as that as within the realm of God's judgment.

While this seems like a somewhat harsh pronouncement from Paul, it must be understood in its proper form. He is not stating that anyone who has ever committed any of these sins is not to be associated with; I would venture to say that we are all guilty of sexual immorality in one sense or another, which would leave us all as lone soldiers in the church. The practices he was referring to were those in which a person willfully chose to live a certain lifestyle and did not see it as incompatible with following Christ.

An example of this might be someone who chooses to maintain a sexual relationship with a person of the same sex; this is to be treated differently than a person who at one point looked lustfully at another and then repented. In the former case, continuing to fellowship with the person willfully living in sin amounts to a tacit approval of the actions of that individual; if we do not combat the immoral lifestyle choice, we have passively given the person approval. Paul states clearly that a person in this situation is not to be held in fellowship.

Finally, Paul gives a powerful condemnation of sexual immorality:

18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin 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? 

Those words speak for themselves. If we understand that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit living within us, how can we possibly defile it in sexual sin?

In closing, consider Paul's wise instructions:

You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Do we realize that? That we were slaves in bondage to sin, but were bought at a price? If we truly understand that, we will realize how offensive it is to abuse God's gifts for lesser purposes. Let us glorify God in our bodies and abstain from defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit.