Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Purity Talk | New Testament | 1 Corinthians 6

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

If you grew up in Christian culture, you're probably no stranger to the purity talk. But is not having sex before marriage the only thing the Bible says about sexual purity? What does purity even mean? Jensen discusses all this and more on today's episode on 1 Corinthians 6. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Corinthians 6

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. In 7th grade, I was sitting in a church gym. The lights were dim. There was vibe music playing in the background. Our youth pastors stood at the front of the room with a stack of little note cards, having just given a talk on purity.

One at a time, people would come forward. I was among them and grab one of those note cards. And on it was a statement that read something like this. I blank on this day dedicate my body to the Lord. I signed this piece of paper as a promise to myself, God, and my future spouse to remain pure from sexual activity outside of marriage. And then it had a place to sign and a date below. I filled out that little piece of paper, signed it, and was told to hold on to it until I

could give it to my future spouse as a promise of my purity. That was my youth group experience. with the sex talk. Following that, my parents gave me a purity ring to wear on my left-hand ring finger to one day be replaced by my wedding ring. My freshman year of high school, my Bible teacher stapled two pieces of paper together and ripped them apart, showing us what happens when you have sex with someone outside of marriage. You always leave a piece of yourself behind, and you both come away permanently damaged. For what it's worth, I came away from all of these experiences, mostly on board and without a lot of confusion. But for many, these kinds of tactics teach a sexual ethic that it

best seems archaic and outdated, and at worst, can be incredibly shaming, damaging, and harmful. The purity culture that permeated my middle school and high school experiences left a lot of people feeling unworthy and damaged. It had a tendency to push people into deep cycles of shame, and it also failed to convince many, many young Christians. The fear tactics of purity culture didn't work. As young people around them had sex and didn't seem damaged, or more and more people didn't expect you to be a virgin when you got married, scaring people away from having sex quickly lost its power.

Maybe the biggest flaw of the purity culture I grew up in is that its focus was solely on keeping you out of someone else's bed, before you got married. But it had very little to say about a sexual ethic after you got married, or about anything that may or may not happen before you actually end up having sex with someone. There was one rule. Don't have sex before you get married. Sign the paper, follow the contract, you'll be good. But like I've said before, in a world where a sexual ethic is a thing of the past, where people's sex lives become newsworthy, and every television show or movie includes steamy scenes, the call to stand firm against sexual immorality is being abandoned at an alarming rate,

even by those within the church. In 1st Corinthians 6, we learn that this isn't a new problem. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, and he's offering strong corrections based on the news he's heard surrounding the lives and actions of the Corinthians. And in the second half of chapter 6, he offers a strong rebuke against sexual immorality. But this rebuke, it isn't like the ones I heard growing up. Don't have sex. Your future spouse will be let down.

Don't have sex, you'll get hurt. Don't have sex, you'll never be the same. You'll be damaged, unlovable. No, Paul offers a defense of the Christian sexual ethic that is based on a deeper foundation, one that goes beyond the call to just not have sex outside of marriage and offers a deeper, more robust incentive to follow Jesus' call to hold. holiness. Let's just dive right in. Verse 12. I have the right to do anything, you say, but not everything is beneficial. I have the right to do anything, but I will not be mastered by

anything. You say, food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both. Okay, so Paul begins by highlighting the common thoughts that permeated the culture around the church Corinth, and based on his rebukes, has probably been adopted by the believers as well. They believed that they had the right to do as they wished, to be their own master, to give the body whatever it desired, to satisfy its cravings. These sayings he throws out would have been commonplace in their culture. And I can't help but notice how it echoes our own cultural mantras. Do what makes you happy. Love who you want to love, follow your heart, satisfy your desires. If it feels right, it is right.

All of this is based on the end of their final phrase, where they say that God will destroy them both. God will destroy both food and body in the end. So what does it matter? You only have one life. Live it now. Live it to its fullest. There are no rules. Do what makes you happy.

But Paul quickly gets to the point, reminding the Corinthians that this transient outlook on life is not the foundation that they as believers have built their lives on. Verse 13. The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power, God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall then I take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never.

her. Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is written, the two will become one flesh. But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. So Paul reminds the Corinthians of the basis of their faith. Just as Jesus gave up his own body for the church, so too, when we are united with Christ, we lay down our whole lives, even our bodies, down at the feet of Jesus. The gospel calls us to sacrificeally lay down our desires, our wants, our bodies, our lives for the sake of God's kingdom. We are not our own. Our bodies are for the Lord. And our bodies are not transient, only here for a time to do with as we please. No, Paul reminds the Corinthians that their physical bodies will be raised from the dead to live in the kingdom of God for all of eternity, alongside Christ who was. the first to be resurrected.

As the church, our bodies are members of Christ. We are all united to one another and united to Christ. Our bodies are not our own. Paul takes his readers all the way back to Genesis and reminds them of the purpose of sex. When two people are married and they have sex, the two become one flesh. They become united to one another in a covenantal bond that is sacred. and lasting. But throughout scripture, we also learn that marriage and the image of two becoming one in sex was created by God to point us forward to the ultimate marriage of Christ and his church when he

returns. Just as a man and a woman are bonded through covenant to love and uphold one another, to be united in flesh and mind, so too will Jesus return and be united to his people forever. But where we fail in marriage, Jesus will be the perfect husband, perfectly united, perfectly loving, perfectly sacrificial. And so, in a world where sex has become casual, it has become commonplace, and at many times meaningless fun meant to satisfy my own desires, God's people from the very beginning have always been taught to see it as something much more, something holy. As we unite with another being in any sexual act at any time in our lives, that act is to be holy and pleasing to the Lord, uniting us and reminding us of the joy that it is to be united

to Christ as His church. But as Paul points out, when we seek out sexual pleasure for our own benefit, for our own game, outside of the protection and covenant of marriage, we unite not only ourselves but Christ with that which is unholy. We sin against our bodies and against Christ when we invite sexual immorality of any kind into our lives. Paul goes on to stress the importance of his warning in the next few verses. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. Because sex is sacred, because our bodies

are not our own. Because we are united with Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we are called to flee sexual immorality. Paul's call to flee sexual immorality is comprehensive. It doesn't just say to not have sex before you get married. No, in every area of our lives, the content we consume, the shows we watch, the articles we read, the celebrity scandals we follow, the books we read, the music we listen to, the jokes we make, the people we physically engage with should all be free from sexual immorality. The fact of the matter is that whatever we let into our bodies, whether through sight,

sound, speech, or touch, either invites us further into unity with Christ or invites sin into our bodies. The call to sexual purity is far higher than the call to sign a piece of paper saying you won't have sex until marriage. But the foundation, the why behind seeking purity in our bodies, is far more motivating as well, far more enticing than the same. fear tactics so often use in our churches. Scripture tells us that our bodies are not our own, but they have been bought for a prized by Jesus Christ. And one day, just as he rose from the dead,

he will raise our bodies to live with him in his kingdom, a kingdom that is holy, good, and pleasing, a kingdom where we are united in a perfect marriage to the one who loves, redeems, and restores his children. For those of you who may have shame from sexual experiences, allow the truth of the gospel to free you. Our bodies are being redeemed. Jesus is faithful to complete the work of sanctification in the lives of his children. As a believer, you have a future as the bride of Christ. You and I will know what it is to be fully loved, fully united with the one who created us, died for us, and brought our bodies back to life when death had taken its toll. No one is beyond the redemption of Christ.

From this day forward, may we live as we were created to live. May we see our bodies as they were created to be seen. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies have been bought and are headed for redemption. May we use wisdom and discernment as we allow things to enter into our lives. And may we be reminded again and again that we are called to sexual purity, because the joy, fellowship, and unity that we are offered with Christ is far greater than anything we could experience outside of his loving care.

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