This morning, Pastor Luke continued on with our 1 Corinthians series with chapters 5 and 6 and the topic of sexuality within the church.
It’s important for us to remember that Corinth was an extremely sexual city. Prostitution and the worship of Aphrodite (the goddess of love, fertility and sexuality) were rampant and set the tone for the culture itself.
The church in Corinth was celebrating their sexual immortality, and Aphrodite’s influence was not just over the city but within the church. This same sexual immorality is rampant within our world and culture today as well. For example, pornography in America is a $16.9 billion industry (a number which is larger than the GDP of 80 countries in the world) and 12% of all webpages and 25% of all google searches are porn related.
The good news is that there is hope in Jesus.
Pastor Luke tackled two primary questions, starting with: What is and what is not okay?
In this passage Paul used the term “sexual immortality” five times, and this word in Greek is porneia. This word is the root of pornography, but is also much broader than that as well; encompassing everything and anything outside of Gods specific design for sex and sexuality.
The Corinthian church were basing their sexual ethic off of their culture, and specifically within the framework of dualism. They believed that their true self was held in the spirit and soul, and therefore the flesh and the body were somewhat irrelevant and inconsequential. Within these Chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul reorients their sexual ethic away from their culture and instead around the Bible, starting in the creation story of Genesis.
In Genesis we learn that we as human beings are image bearers of God and that our purpose is to worship Him and complement one another as male and female both relationally and sexually. Gods purpose was man and woman in a monogamous covenantal relationship together, and He said that it was good. The Bible therefore starts with a positive view of sex and sexuality, as we were sexual before we were sinful. As long as it in in the right context, sex is something to be enjoyed.
However, we are born bent; and our desires, appetites, views and sexuality are not as they should be. God therefore draws a line for His people not because He is prude or a fun-hater but because He knows what is best for us. The sin in our life is always going to hinder our relationship with God and other people.
Paul tells the Corinthians to flee sexual immorality because our bodies are a temple, they are not our own. When we become believers in Jesus our spirits are intimately connected with Christ, and we must therefore not defile them with sexually immoral acts.
The second question Pastor Luke answered was: what about homosexuality?
Typically, the church has handled this issue in two ways; labelling it either as the chief of all sins, or the other side embracing and celebrating it as fully acceptable.
We need to come to a middle ground, understanding that homosexuality is not just an issue; it’s people. It’s bigger than an act. And although scripture clearly condemns the act of homosexuality, it does become more complicated when we tackle the identity and attraction elements of the topic.
The bottom line is that following Jesus is one of cross bearing for everyone, and we all have burdens to carry and bear. Therefore, although our sexuality is super important, it is not the most important thing about us. God defines who we are, and we need to make sure our sexual ethic matches scripture and not culture.
We as a church want to be a people who are shaped by Jesus in every single area of our lives. This includes our sexuality, which needs to be framed around the Bible, and simply not our culture or our times.
