1st Corinthians 6.12-20
St Paul is the great New Testament preacher of freedom and liberty. This theme comes up often in his letters. “For freedom Christ has set us free,” Paul says in Galatians. In Romans, “You are not under law but under grace.” Because we belong to Christ, we are free from all the ways we find ourselves being measured but often fall short, free of the demands to prove our worth—whether to ourselves and to others—from GPAs to job success, from looks to likeability.
Freedom in Christ even means being free from some things that the scriptures themselves once required. Old Testament laws about the kinds of foods that could be eaten and the sorts of foods that must be avoided, rules about food clean and unclean, give way to freedom in Jesus Christ. In the gospels, Jesus says it’s not the foods we put in our mouths that make us unclean; it’s the things that come out of our mouths that reveal the truth of our heart. Paul today says that neither food nor our stomachs have eternal value. Or as he puts in another place, “The Kingdom of God is not food or drink but [the matter of] justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Justice, peace, and joy: these are windows to life in God, the way we are open to God and become openings for others to see God’s goodness through us. For freedom Christ has set us free.
Only how are we meant to use this freedom? That’s the question explored in today’s reading from 1st Corinthians. Who am I? Where am I going? What’s the purpose of my life as a person of faith? I recall a theologian once saying that if you want to confuse an American, ask them what freedom is for. The ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ spirit runs deep among us. Only what is freedom for, what’s its purpose? Yes, freedom from something. But beyond that?
In today’s reading, there’s a dialogue of sorts going on, a back-and-forth between Paul and his readers. Paul quotes what the Corinthians are saying about freedom then offers a response. “All things are lawful for me;” all things are permissible. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? ‘I can do what I want. I’m in charge of my own life. Nobody’s going to tell me how to live.’ The trouble is that the Corinthians were using their freedom in a way that makes Las Vegas look like a sleepy English village. Scandalous things were happening in the church that, Paul says earlier in his letter, even the outside world didn’t have a stomach for. Can you even imagine?
Yet despite the problems that grew from the Corinthian church’s misuse of freedom—today’s issue with prostitutes and fornication only one problem among a letter’s worth of problems ranging from lawsuits between fellow believers, people with strong faith losing their patience with those making tentative and questioning steps in faith, the affluent marginalizing the poor and not letting the hungry have something to eat even at church dinners—despite all of the problems that grew from the Corinthian church’s misuse of freedom, Paul doesn’t revoke it or put them in theological detention, doesn’t hand down a give-it-or-take-it rule they must follow until they prove themselves worthy. Instead, he reframes their perspective and reshapes their hearts so they can see and know again for themselves what it means to be people of faith: who they are, where they’re going, what their purpose is.
In Jesus, God became fully human with the same flesh and blood we have so that, in Christ, we might become fully alive in God. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” The Holy Spirit resides in believers and transforms us into a dwelling place dedicated to God. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” Instead of laying down a mandate, a magnet is what Paul gives to draw them again to life in God. He reframes and reshapes how they see their life in Christ, their body as a Temple of the Spirit. “All things may be permissible.” Yes, you are free. ”But not all things are beneficial.” It’s as though Paul is saying, ‘You may indeed be free to do something, only that doesn’t make it wise for who you are, where you are going, and what your true purpose is.’ Instead of taking away the freedom the Christians in Corinth have, or laying down a new law the must follow, Paul asks them, and us, to think through for ourselves the purpose of our freedom in Christ.
Try some basic, practical, domestic examples. You’re not, for example, mandated to clean the windows of your house and there’s no law saying you must. You are, in other words, perfectly free to let them get dirty. But then they’d hardly fulfill their purpose of giving you a view of the world around you. Or you’re perfectly free to use the edge of a knife as a screwdriver if you’d like; it may work just fine; I’ve done that very thing. The problem though, is that as the knife edge gets bent, it will be harder for the blade to serve its proper purpose. “Permissible but not beneficial,” to use Paul’s words. Or again, there’s no law stopping you from wearing your great-grandmother’s vintage wedding ring while working the compost pile in your backyard. But that’s pretty unlikely, isn’t it? Maybe the furthest thing from your mind. Don’t we all have a sense that some things are meant to be valued, honored, and kept for special purpose and use? That’s what Paul is saying about you as he explores Christian freedom and the purpose of your life. You are not your own; you belong to God; you have surpassing value: “You were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.”
Christianity, then, isn’t merely spiritual—warm thoughts on a frigid winter weekend. It’s bodily. Our faith is expressed in our thoughts, words, and deeds. That’s the whole point of Paul’s language about our body as a temple of the Holy Spirit. In the Scriptures, the Temple is the place where heaven and earth overlap, where God dwells. To speak of your body as a temple is to say that God has made a home in you, just as the Son of God, in his birth, made a home in human flesh.
Today Paul isn’t merely speaking against certain kinds of behavior, though he is doing that. He is reframing your perspective, reshaping your heart, describing the value of your life in Christ by exploring how you’d never think about using things in ways that cheapen them or go against their given purpose. Whenever Paul describes the shape of Christian life and speaks out against things like strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and more as he does in his letters, he’s not handing down some sort of rulebook meant to spoil the fun while the world around us parties on. He is not giving us a mandate but rather a magnet to draw us once again to the purpose of life in God “You were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.” You are the Lord’s treasured possession; Christ spent his life on you and for you; you belong to the Lord. The purpose of your life is to be a dwelling and Temple of the Spirit, a window open to the light and life of God—a living, breathing witness in thought, word, and deed so that others might have a view of God’s kingdom of justice, peace, and joy in the Spirit through you.
Just before today’s second reading begins, right in the middle of dealing with all the troubles and scandals among the Christians of the church in Corinth, Paul reminds them of their true value and identity as people made free in God. “You have been washed clean, you have been dedicated to God, you have been justified through the name of the Lord Jesus and through the Spirit of our God.” This is your life in God, too. “You were washed clean, dedicated to God, justified.” This is all language about Baptism where God works through water and word to wash you, join you to Christ, and form you into a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit.
Today, with your perspective reframed and your heart reshaped, you are free to work out the answers to questions like, ‘Who am I? Where am I going? What’s the purpose of my life as a free person of faith?’ You are free to work out the answers to those questions in every part of your life so that you, too, in daily love and service might “glorify God in your body.”
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