PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
PERSONAL LIBERTY
\”Everything is permissible for me\”-but not everything is beneficial. \”Everything is permissible for me\”-but I will not be mastered by anything. \”Food for the stomach and the stomach for food\”-but God will destroy them both.
1 Corinthians 6:12 ~ 13
- We can do most things that we imagine.
- The problem is that some things that cross our minds are not beneficial to us.
- There are some things that we have the liberty to do that are detrimental to us.
- Everything that feels good is not good for us.
- If we don’t control our thoughts and actions, they will control us.
- I love to eat all kinds of food.
- However, too much eating can destroy my health.
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Philippians 4:5
- In America, you can have what you can pay for.
- Everything I can pay for is not good for me
- We have a personal responsibility to do only that which is beneficial to us and those around us.
- We are the masters of our souls, not the stuff we can obtain.
- If we don’t control our appetites, we become a slave to our desires.
- An athlete must focus all his/her energy on excelling in the sport.
- Christians must focus all their energy on excelling in God’s Righteousness.
- All the fleshly stuff we desire will be destroyed by the Lord.
- Heaven and earth will be consumed by fire but God’s word Is eternal.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Matthew 5:18-19
OUR BODIES ARE FOR THE LORD
V:13. 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!
1 Corinthians 6:13 ~ 15
- Corinth was a city where sexual immorality was the norm.
- 1000 prostitutes were at the service of the public in their temple.
- When prostitution is culturally accepted by everyone around you, The desire is hard to get rid of.
- With the power of God, the desire to sin can be eliminated.
- We recognize that any man in Christ is a new creation.
- The problem is a change in attitude takes time.
- We need to be reminded from time to time that we are Part of the body of Christ.
- We can glean from Paul’s letter that participation in normal Sexual activities of the community were happening among Church members.
- Putting Biblical doctrine into practice requires us to speak to the Issues that are displeasing to God in the Church.
- Understanding that our bodies are the temple of the Lord is Important.
- The process of sanctification was begun when we were baptized Into the death of Jesus.
- We were raised into the newness of life with his resurrection.
- The sins of the world are the dead things to us.
- Sexual immorality of any kind is one of the dead things to believers.
- We should not bring dead things into the temple of the Lord.
- Sex with a prostitute is joining as one with him/her.
- We cannot unite ourselves with prostitution.
- To do so is to deny Christ control over our lives.
- To do so also is reject our commitment with Christ.
- To do so also is to make ourselves slaves to sin.
- To do so also is to reject the saving grace of Christ.
UNITED WITH CHRIST ONLY
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.\” But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:16 ~ 17
- We have two choices in life that count.
- Unite with Christ
- Or stay united with the world.
- To unite with Christ is to change our attitude.
- From an attitude of sinfulness to an attitude of righteousness.
- To unite with Christ is a change in our destination.
- From a destination of hell to a destination of heaven.
- To unite with Chris is a change of ownership.
- From being owned by Satan and his demons to being owned By Christ.
- To be one with Christ is to be one with the eternal spirit Of life.
- To be one with Jesus is one with all wisdom
- To be one with Jesus is to be one with all power.
- To be one with Jesus is to be one with the universal creator.
- To be one with Satan is to be one with eternal hell.
- To be one with Satan is to be one with eternal darkness
- To be one with Satan is to be one with a defeated foe.
- All believers are married to Christ.
- Christ is the bridegroom, and we are His bride.
- Consider this; adultery is detrimental to any marriage.
- To be united to sexual immorality is spiritual adultery.
- Sexual immorality is self-destructive.
KNOW THE REALITY OF SEXUAL IMMORALITY.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 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 6:18
- There are sins inside the body and sins outside the body.
- Sexual sin is a sin against one’s own body.
- Sexual immorality grieves the Holy Spirit that indwells us.
- We cannot be one with a man or woman we are not Married to and one with the Holy Spirit at the same time.
- Sexual immorality grieves God the Father who call us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- The lust of the flesh pulls the believer back into the darkness he/ she was freed from.
- Sexual immorality grieves the God the Son who died on the cross In payment for our sins.
- We are not our own. We belong to Christ.
- Because of the destructiveness of sexual immorality, we are commanded to flee.
- We are commanded to honor God with our bodies.
THANK GOD WHO GIVES US THE STRENGTH TO FIGHT IMMORALITY.
Rev. M. Mitchell
There are some who are carnal Christians and they are just as those Christians who are more observant in regards to following the law of Christ. We are all justified only by the blood of Christ!
Wait a minute! Yes, the Bible is crystal clear that we are justified not by works, but by faith alone (Gal. 2:16).
HOWEVER the Bible is also equally clear that the faith that justifies us is never alone! True faith is demonstrated through the presence of good works and obedience to Christ in the life of the believer (James 2:17–18). True Christians live a life characterized by a war between the Holy Spirit and the flesh (our old sin nature) (Rom. 7:13–20; Gal. 5:16–24).
Ridiculous and highly irrational, too!
No, a male and female do not physically become one flesh through intercourse!
They remain two separate organisms both during the act of sex and after the act is over! However, DNA from the male can potential combine with DNA from the woman’s egg which can result in the birth of an offspring that has mix of both his or her parents DNA.
Oh, come on! Why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t we just agree to disagree about our opinions and personal applications of the word of God?
The difference between the spiritual Christian and the carnal Christian is one of degree. Becoming spiritual (= mature) is a gradual process in which the enthroned Christ subdues more and more of our remaining corruption, and we become more and more in tune with his Spirit. The fruit of the Holy Spirit pervades more and more of our lives, and the old sins lose more and more of their hold. This comes to pass as we trust Christ more and more fully as the all-satisfying friend and guide of our daily lives. The Holy Spirit has opened the heart of the carnal Christian to receive the word of the Lord (Acts 16:14). God has effectually called him (1 Corinthians 1:24) and drawn him (John 6:44) to Christ. The Holy Spirit has crucified the flesh (Galatians 5:24) and put the old self to death (Romans 6:6), that is, a mortal blow to his old nature has been struck, and Christ has been enthroned in the place of the self-reliant “I”.
Therefore the carnal Christian has decisively turned to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and has penitently renounced the path of disobedience (Romans 10:9; Acts 3:19; 16:31). He deeply acknowledges Christ as Lord of his life and does not renounce him in his heart. He has begun—but only begun—to fight the sins of his life (Romans 8:13).
There is no such thing as a “Carnal Christian”. Here I am not talking about believers who continue to battle against sin, but about unbelievers who don’t battle against sin, while claiming to be believers. The only thing “Carnal Christianity” is good for is to open wider the gate to the wide road to hell. It is the devil’s own patented false assurance machine. Getting jabbed with it will not keep you out of hell. It’ll just delude you into thinking you’ll never end up there, until you die and join the millions of other jabbed goats in eternal torment.
Let’s stop the delusion! Without Christ you will have crisis !
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7: 21)
Can you really be a carnal Christian!?!?
Hmm….
The phrase “carnal Christian” comes from a misunderstanding of the King James translation of 1 Corinthians 3:1-3:
“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”
Yes, the Christians in Corinth were living an immature lifestyle. The so-called carnal Christians of today live similar lifestyles, characterized by envy, strife, and division.
But can a Christian truly be “carnal”? That is the real question!
The word “carnal” is from a Greek word that means “worldly” or “fleshly.” In other words, carnality involves worldliness and a giving in to fleshly appetites. Is a carnal person really a Christian?
First Corinthians is written to believers, “sanctified” and “called to be his holy people” (1 Corinthians 1:2 NIV). Paul’s description of them as “carnal” obviously means that, yes, there are times when Christians act in selfish, worldly ways. Instead of rising to the goal of God’s holiness, the Corinthians were sliding back into old habits.
A person who claims to follow Christ and consistently acts in ways incompatible to his or her faith may have never been truly saved. Why? Because:
“No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” (1 John 3:6).
Those whose lives that continually contradict Christian teachings may not be true followers of Christ. As James said, “I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18).
Hey, doesn’t the Bible also say, ” continue in sin that grace may abound” ?
Greetings Rick Heckler,
What you posted is actually a misquote here is what the text of the Bible actually says:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (KJV Romans 6:1 – Romans 6:2)
Okay, I will admit that I made a mistake, but I think you and the other Bible believers are also going to have to admit that there are contradictions and mistakes in the Bible for example:
How does one harmonize the text of Acts 7:16 with Genesis 23:17 – Genesis 23:18?
Is the location of the Sepulcher in Sychem or is it in Machpela/Mamre?
I will be waiting for answers although I doubt anyone is going to be able to answer this question.
Thank you Rick Heckler the question! This is indeed a treat.
Please feel free to ask any question at all about the text of the Bible here!
And, either Rev Mitchell and or I the Editor/website Administrator of will chime in. Some of the other commentators here may provide you will answers as well.
Okay, I would like to remind you that truly “there is nothing new under the sun”. If you have a question about the Bible most likely someone had the same question before you did. And, guess what? This proves to be the case as your question was asked and answered in “Difficulties in the Bible: Alleged Errors and Contradictions” published back in 1907, basically 115 years ago!
Torrey, R. A. Difficulties in the Bible: Alleged Errors and Contradictions. Willow Grove: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1998.
A very brief but meaningful and timely post for this sexually promiscuous generation.
Yes, our bodies are the temple of the Lord! We, need to take care of our spirits as well as our bodies