What Happens to the Church When Christ is Not Center Honor God With Your Body

What Happens to the Church When Christ is Not Center

Honor God With Your Body

I Corinthians 6

We belong to God

We were bought with a price

It may be legal according to community standards but not beneficial

 Paul in the same breath links food and sex together

Both are things we do that may be permissible but not beneficial

Paul says he will not be mastered by anything, food or sex

Just like food becomes part of your body so does sex

In both cases the two become one

There is a place for food and a place for sex, a uniting God designed

God also reminds us we are to be united with the Lord where we become one

 Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

What we do in our bodies and in the Body of Christ, the Church, matters so…

“Honor God with your body”

Honor God With Your Body

The Church in Corinth was divided.

Instead of being united in Christ,

 they united around different leaders.

In Chapter 6, the Church

was divided by standards.

There are Civil Laws and Kingdom Laws.

Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

And that is what some of you were.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Paul reminds the believers of

what they were before Christ.

Paul reminds them that it was not

law that changed them, but Christ who

washed, sanctified, and justified them.

It was God’s mercy.

It was not jail time or restitution

as the Civil Law requires.

It was the price of Christ

as a criminal on the cross.

It was because of Christ’s death that

the Spirit of God can now live in us.

Our bodies became the temple of God.

Therefore, we should honor God with our bodies.

Paul says…

Do you not know that the wicked

will not inherit the kingdom of God?

1 Corinthians 6:9

The Law of the Kingdom is much

different than the Civil Law.

Paul addresses two issues…

Matters concerning others

and matters concerning our self.

 

Paul understood Civil Law and he tells us why

we should not take someone in the Church to court.

The standards of the law are different

between Civil and Kingdom.

Civil Law is based on community standards.

I once had to use an attorney to deal with

someone who would not honor a land contract.

The attorney representing me told me a

story of how he delayed the process for

15 months so the renter did not have to

pay the landlord the $1500 a month.

The attorney was proud of saving his

client $22,500 while cheating the landlord.

Now he is working for me, a landlord.

Sadly, too many attorneys are like this attorney with

no conscience; the only thing that matters is winning.

 

Sadly, the legal system can be more about

winning than it is about righteousness.

Taking a fellow church member to court reveals

the Churches weakness to handle matters.

Paul says we will judge angels.

Church members should judge matters in

the Church according to Kingdom principles.

Paul says even the young believer should be

able to judge matters that others take to court.

I say this to shame you.

Is it possible that there is nobody among you

wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?

But instead, one brother goes to law against another

 — and this in front of unbelievers!

1 Corinthians 6:5-6

The message of Christ is a message of righteousness.

The Church should be the best place for an

unbeliever to see righteousness in action.

The second matter Paul addresses is the individual.

Our bodies are the house of the Holy Spirit.

Our bodies as well as what we do with our

bodies sends a message to unbelievers.

Paul in the same breath

links food and sex together.

Both are things we do that may

be permissible but not beneficial.

Paul says he will not be

mastered by anything, food or sex.

Just like food becomes part

of your body, so does sex.

In both cases the two become one.

There is a place for food and a

place for sex, a uniting God designed.

God also reminds us we are to be united

with the Lord where we become one…

 Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

What we do in our bodies and in the

Body of Christ, the Church, matters so…

“Honor God with your body”

Scripture Reading

 1 Corinthians 6 NIV

6:1 If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!   5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6 But instead, one brother goes to law against another — and this in front of unbelievers!

7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.

9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

12 "Everything is permissible for me"-but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"-but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."   17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.