I Corinthians 6:9-20            How to Live a Sexually Pure Life          June 26, 2005

        Just a few years ago, a popular phrase shouted—If it feels good, do it!  In many ways, that search for feeling good is a strong mark of our culture.   Many movies, TV shows, magazine, articles, and songs celebrate the feel good attitude.  Sheryl Crow asked a good question in her hit song last year—“If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad?”

     It is a good question and I want to make a perhaps shocking statement that Sheryl Crow is right.  If it makes you happy, then it is not bad.  Let me repeat that.  If it makes you happy, it is not bad.  But here is the real question.  What will make us happy?  What will bring us real lasting long term fulfillment and joy?  And in that regard, it is so easy to get it all turned upside-down.  It is easy to think that what feels good for a moment will make me happy over the long haul.  But so often it does not.  All the food we eat taste so good the brief moment in our mouth, but later our health problems will lead us to regret it.  Buy all those new things at the Mall makes us feel happy that afternoon, but when the credit card bill comes, we are sad.  And probably the strongest issue faced by our modern culture, and one of the strongest issues faced in ancient Corinth, is sexuality.  Our society is convinced that any and every sexual act is to be sought after, but in the end, we will regret.  This morning, I want to look at how we can live a sexually pure life in a society that worships Aphrodite.

     Sexual laxness was common in Corinth.  Paul quotes two common philosophies from Corinth in vs. 12-13.  Let’s take a look.  There are several times in Paul’s letters when he quotes another person or idea and then he refutes that idea.  This can be confusing for modern readers who may think that Paul is saying the statement himself.  Another example is in Chapter 7 vs. 1.  It is best for a man not to marry.  Paul is quoting someone else and then he goes on to explain his view which is not the same as what he quotes.  As always, we need to be careful in reading only one verse and not the surrounding passages.  We may be thinking the exact opposite of where the scripture is headed.  This is so here in vs12.   The Corinthians said—Everything is okay for me.  Here was the ultimate salvation by faith alone, once saved always saved attitude.  I have faith in God so what I do does not really matter.  Once saved, I am always saved, so I can do whatever.  But Paul says, “No.” 

      Look at vs. 13b-15a.   Paul says that we were not made for sexual immorality but we were made for the Lord.  The Corinthians thought that since God had received them by faith, they could now do whatever.  But Paul says that because God has received us by faith, we now belong to God.  All of us—body, mind, and spirit—belongs to God.  And we cannot take what does not belong to us.

      There may be an excitement in sexual experience outside of marriage, but there will never be a blessed happiness because it does not belong to us.  Sex outside of marriage is like a man robbing a bank.  He gets something, but it does not belong to him, and one day, he will pay for it.  Sex within marriage is like someone putting money into the bank.  There is safety, security, and long term interest will be paid.  That investment will pay for years and years.  Don’t try to steal what does not belong to you.  Instead, invest in the wise plan of God.   That wise plan is not sex before marriage.  It is not sex outside marriage in an affair.  It is not a one night stand with someone we meet in a bar.  It is not same sex relations.  God’s banking plan for sexuality is for one man and one woman in a covenant, committed, long term relationship called marriage.  In that plan, there is happiness.

      Look at vs. 13a.  Here is the second philosophy which Paul quotes.  What are the Corinthians saying?  Much like today, these people saw sexuality as simply a physical function of the body, no different from eating food.  If you are hungry, you eat.  Nothing wrong with that.  And so if you are sexually interested, you should feed that physical need.  But even with the stomach, not all foods are healthy for us.  Some things will poison us.  And when we speak of sexuality, we enter an entirely different level of thinking. 

     Look at vs. 18-20.  The scripture says that sexual sin is on a different level from other sins.  I know that many Christians say that all sins are the same in the eyes of God.  I would challenge you to show me that teaching in the Bible.  Paul says here that other sins are outside us, but sexual sin is against our own body and our deepest selves which belong to God.  You see, sexuality is not merely a physical action like eating food when I am hungry.  Sexuality is the ultimate intimacy where I am made one with another person.  I am joined with that other person emotionally, physically, spiritually.  There is a connection made which if broken later will result in injury, scarring, hurt.    Too many young people in our culture have thought they could just casually engage in sexuality without any consequences, without getting involved.  But sexuality is the ultimate involvement with another person and when that relationship is ended, those people are broken.  If we want to find happiness, we need long term, life committed relationships.  We need to be married.  

       What are we then to do?  What if you have already messed up?  Maybe messed up many times.  Seek God in forgiveness and seek God’s healing.  Perhaps you will need counsel or deep healing prayer.  But you can return and find joy again.   If you are not married, commit yourself now to living in sexual purity until you are married.  If you are married, commit yourself to your spouse, as you did in your wedding vows, faithful to them alone as long as you both shall live.    What happens when we live in sexual purity?  Vs 19 promises us the Holy Spirit.  In purity, God comes to live in us.  Our bodies become God’s very temple.  And that is deep joy.  A fountain of fresh water flowing up in us forever. 

      I know for some of you, it is hard to wait.  Maybe you have waited a long time and maybe you think that you will never have that marriage relationship or never have it again.  Others have homosexual feelings that the Bible says should never be followed.  I know it seems difficult.  But all of us have many feelings and desires.  It is our ability to say, “No”-- to the second bowl of ice cream or to improper sexuality—that ability to say “No” which raises us above the mere physical and makes us temples of God.   If you live in purity, you will have the deeper blessing.  Paul lived in that purity and never married.  And he found that God gave him joy far beyond any other. Whatever your place in life, live in purity and you will be filled with great joy and happiness.  Oh yes, if it really makes you happy, it cannot be that bad.   Purity in the Holy Spirit of God will make you blessedly happy.  And it is not that bad.   Amen.