We Belong to God
Olav Olavson was a free citizen of Sweden, but he found himself hard pressed for money. In desperation, he sold his body for medical research to the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 1910. He inherited a fortune a year later and tried repurchasing himself. But the Institute refused to sell him his rights to his body, and in a lawsuit, they retained possession of it. The Institute even collected damages because he had two teeth extracted without permission.
As I read this story, I thought about how many times Olav must have wished he would have never given someone else ownership of his body. I also considered that some people will never know what it’s like to live knowing someone owns their body. On the other hand, every person who has been born again by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ should know what it’s like to live with someone else having ownership of their body.
In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul taught the Corinthian believers that God has paid the price to have ownership of our bodies. Paul stated this truth as a question that was part of a literary device called a diatribe. This literary device anticipates objections to an argument, raises questions, and then answers them. 1 Corinthians 6:19 is the third of three questions that Paul used in 1 Corinthians 6. Paul asked and answered the first question in verse 15 when he wrote, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!” He raised the second question in verse 16 when he asked, “Or do you not know that one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, ‘The two shall become one flesh.’” Thus, 1 Corinthians 6:19 is the culmination of Paul’s argument that the believer’s body belongs to the Lord.
Paul’s argument about the believer’s body is essential because the recipients of his letter lived in a society that was replete with sexual immorality. In True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary, Boykin Sanders referred to the influence of this society as “Romanicity.” He used this word to capture the powerful influence of Roman values on the people of that day. Paul was fully aware of societal norms established by Roman standards of living. Knowing the potential for members of the Corinthian church to succumb to the alluring, enticing, immoral, and culturally acceptable standard of living, Paul warned the Corinthian believers to “Flee immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18a). He added, “Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body” (1 Cor. 6:18b). In the Life Application New Testament Commentary, Bruce Barton commented on the seriousness and urgent message contained in Paul’s directives to the Corinthian believers about the dangers of sexual immorality. Barton offered the following explanation:
Clearly, other sins also affect the body, such as gluttony or drunkenness, but no other sin has the same effect on the memory, personality, or soul of a person as sexual sin. Paul argues that in intercourse, people are united (6:16–17). Their spirits are not involved in quite the same way in other sins. Also, Paul argues that our bodies are the temple of God (6:19–20). In sexual sin, a person removes his or her body from God’s control to unite with someone not in his plan. Thus, those people violate God’s purpose for their bodies. Satan gladly uses sexual sin as a weapon, for he knows its power to destroy.
Barton’s explanation contains at least two points that can help 21st century believers understand some essential truths about God’s perspective on how we should use our bodies.
First, because of an eternal purchase (1 Cor. 6:19-20), God maintains the right to determine the purpose of our bodies. God did not allow His Son to give His life in death so that we could determine how we use our bodies. God paid the price to Himself to have ownership of our bodies (Gal. 3:13-14). Therefore, we should begin each day by asking the Lord God to help us dedicate our bodies to a divine purpose that exalts and glorifies our heavenly Father (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 10:31).
Second, God doesn’t want us to use our bodies pervertedly (1 Cor. 6:15-17). The Corinthians did not value their bodies in a way that attached temporal and eternal value to the body. Because of their low view of the human body, Paul had to provide them with a divine view of the believer’s body that prioritized purposeful use through intimacy with Christ (v. 15). Believers living in a 21st century context are not exempt from devaluing their bodies and damaging the intimacy that should be present in a relationship with God through Christ. As a result, 21st century believers should never pervert their relationship and intimacy with Christ by giving their bodies over to immoral acts.
Whenever we live with a divine perspective of our bodies, we will understand the seriousness of sexual immorality. Furthermore, we will live knowing that God has purchased our bodies for a divine purpose that must never be violated, tarnished, or neglected. The enemy will always do his best to suggest giving our bodies over to sexual immorality through various means available in the 21st century. Nevertheless, we must live daily with this truth in mind: “We Belong to God!”