Bodily Maintenance || 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 || Weekend Wind-Down #15

Welcome to the fifteenth week of “Weekend Wind-Down.” This series is where we take the verse of the day, look at the face value interpretation, check the background and context of the verse, do a deeper dive on the focus scripture, and figure out what we can walk away with. 

Today’s verse is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, which says this:

19 – Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 

20 – for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 

Face Value

God created our bodies as homes for the Holy Spirit. It’s our job to take care of ourselves so we can honor God accordingly. 

Background

Paul wrote this letter to identify the problems inside the Corinthian church and offer solutions. Paul also teaches believers to live for Christ in a corrupt world. 

Our scripture is a part of Paul’s sharing of the problems of the Corinth church. Because Paul wasn’t there, the Corinthian church fell into divisiveness and disorder. Paul talks with them about how they can avoid sexual sin. He talks about the combination of sexual sin and prostitution, which was necessary for the Corinthian church because Aphrodite’s temple was there. This temple employed many prostitutes as priestesses and used sex as a part of the worship ritual. God created sex as an essential part of marriage, but sexual sin (defined via my study bible as sex outside of marriage) always hurts someone. It hurts God because it shows we would follow our desires rather than lean on the Holy Spirit. It hurts others because it violates the commitment necessary to a trusting relationship. It can lead to physical disease if we’re not careful. It messes with our minds, which are in anguish when we physically and spiritually harm ourselves.

Deep Dive

When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us; therefore, we no longer own our bodies. Christ’s death freed us from sin but also obligated us to his service. Because our body belongs to God, we must not violate his living standards.

2 Corinthians 6:16 says: 

16 – And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Paul quotes Isaiah to share how the church is the temple of the living God. Corinth had a lot of temples for pagan deities, so the audience that read this letter could visualize what Paul was honestly saying. The church isn’t where believers go; it is who they are together. 

1 Peter 1:18-19 says: 

18 – For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 

19 – It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God

A slave got ransomed when someone paid money to buy their freedom. God ransomed us from the chaos of sin – not with money, but with the sacrifice of Jesus. We can’t escape from sin on our own; only the life of God’s Son can free us.

Take-Home Point

We need to take better care of ourselves to do what God calls us to do with the body that he designed to do it with. Paul’s context in the original scripture was about sexual sin and prostitution and how that can cause harm to us physically, mentally, and spiritually. I want you to substitute your issues in place of sexual sin and prostitution. It is control, drinking, porn, or something else altogether. 

Paul encourages us to ensure what we do honors God and is pleasing to the Holy Spirit. What are the things that honor God? What are those things that God would be happy with us about? Think about that. 

Why does any of this matter? Because we are the living, breathing examples of God’s church and creation to show others the goodness and glory of God. As Paul said later in the 2 Corinthians 6:16 passage, the church isn’t about where we gather. The church is who they are when they’re together. The church is who they are when they arrive at the building and leave. We are the body of Christ, called to do what God calls us. 

It may be hard to wrestle with, comprehend, or believe we only do this because we are “enslaved” to God. While God freed us from the bondage of sin, we get told to do what God says. How is this freedom? While in slavery, people who didn’t do what they were supposed would be beaten, tortured, or killed. Yet, God wouldn’t do that. God would allow us the choice not to do what he says. He may not be happy with it, but he’s not forcing us. There’s the difference: Doing what God says is not forceful. It’s a choice. God sacrificed his son to death for us to have this choice. We have freedom with God because of this choice. Let’s choose to take care of our bodies, also known as the walking Temple of God. 

Thank you for joining me for this Weekend Wind-Down as we explored how we can take care of our physical bodies to do what God calls us based on Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Stay tuned for the next reflection. Let me close out with prayer. 

Thank you for the freedom you provide to do what you’ve called us. Thank you for the sacrifice of your son that prepared this freedom for us. Please help us take care of our bodies better to honor you and do your will here on Earth. It’s in your name; we pray. Amen.