In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul takes it a step further when he says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?”

My body is a temple? That is the highest praise you can give. The temple is where Heaven meets Earth. Exactly. This means that sex and spirituality can’t be divorced. It means that sex isn’t the opposite of reading the Bible. It’s quite literally the vehicle through which God has chosen to bring His image into the world. The greatest source of pleasure is always the greatest place of responsibility. We must view sex as an integral part of our faith, not just our relationship to someone else. We must view sex as a priest taking care of a temple. A priest doesn’t view the temple as secondary – it goes first. At the same time, we must recognize that no one wants you to have a better sexual experience in this life than God. However, the default position of our world will lead us into sexual fragmentation – not wholeness. The enemy who has come to steal, kill and destroy has a plan for your sexuality – and it’s to lead you into shame.

The human body is designed for sex, but we have to pay attention to the words of the Designer.

GO FIRST, BE SELFISH

Much like our world, the Corinthian church didn’t want to listen to God’s design for sex. They viewed it as an appetite that had to be fed, and they let their appetite rule them. Paul reserves some of his harshest critiques of the New Testament for their behavior.

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 I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 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 whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.

- 1 Corinthians 6:14-18

In verse 18, Paul tells them to flee sexual immorality. Most of us stop reading here. However, the second half of the verse is critical for understanding the flee command. He says, when you sin sexually, you are sinning against your own body. Huh?

If I steal money from you, I sinned against you. In fact, according to Paul, all sins are against someone else. Sex is different. In the same way I would have to apologize to someone else for stealing, sexual sin means you need to apologize to yourself. Sexual sin is the greatest form of self-sabotage.

It’s as if you are stealing from yourself, gossiping about yourself, slandering yourself, and so on. In essence, his command is to be selfish. Think of yourself for a minute! Your default position is to think about maximizing pleasure in the short term. Sex, more than anything else, blinds us to the long-term effects. Paul says that pornography, lust, and so on is like falling on a sword repeatedly. Be selfish and stop.

You have been given a certain amount of sexual energy. Think of it like money. Every day you wake up, you have 100 dollars of sexual currency. You have options. You can do what some Christians do – which is through shame and guilt to try and deny it is there. You can do what our culture does – which is to spend it in 100 different places. Spend some on a website. Spend some on a flirtatious interaction with a coworker. Spend some in a fantasy. It’s going to go somewhere.

When Adam and Eve were married in the garden of Eden, God said the two have become one. When you are married, this person is not outside of you, they are you. If they win, you win. If you lose, they lose. You are one. If you sin against yourself, you sin against them. Your sexual currency is designed to be spent with one person. If you spend it on a website or a waitress, it doesn’t flow where it needs to go. God’s design isn’t to be cruel – it’s to keep us from living a life of illusion instead of reality. All other forms of sex fragment us into fantasies and endless appetites. They aren’t real. They pull us away from meaningful connection with a real person. It isn’t about “sexual purity” as much as it is about “sexual authenticity.”