Sermon Tone Analysis

Expository preaching is good for the church in a thousand different ways.

And it’s good for the preacher, even when it’s tough.

For instance, I’m not sure that I’d preach this chapter in 1 Corinthians if it wasn’t what was next.

No, I am sure; I’d skip it.

It’s just a little awkward, a little sensitive, a little close to home.

We face the same temptations, we have the same struggles, we commit the same sins as the Corinthians.

A quick reading of church history reveals something very sad about the church in the past.

Time and again we see that followers of Christ fell into beliefs and practices that were considered acceptable in their cultures.

They thought they were following Christ and seeking His kingdom, but today we realize they were blinded by the norms of their cultures.

Examples appear in every historical period: the atrocities of the Crusades; executions of heretics; wars between Protestants and Catholics; the African slave trade.

The list goes on and on.

We read about these events and wonder how Christians could have stooped so low.

How could they have endorsed such pagan practices?

It is easy to see these failures in Christians of the past, but it is important to realize that we face the same temptations ourselves.

Christians are easily influenced by the standards of the world.

When we grow up in a culture that tells us certain practices are good, we tend to embrace these practices even as we follow Christ.

Every Christian has such cultural blind spots.

We follow wrong cultural practices because we are blind to their evil.

-Richard L. Pratt, Jr.

Sex, views on sexual behavior, and sexuality in general—these are some of our cultural blind spots.

We are, no doubt, influenced by our culture and we always have been.

There’s never been a moment in the history of the church where the culture hasn’t had some measurable sway over the church and her members.

The root problem, I think, is that we believe, along with the Corinthians, that we “have the right to do anything.”

It’s a pretty common cultural assumption: “I have the right to do anything.”

It creeps into our thinking, into our kids’ thinking, into the very fabric of the church.

“I have the right to do anything.”

It might be true on some level that you have the right to do whatever you please, but not without consequences.

You have the right to drive 120 mph down Third Street, but it won’t turn out to be a good decision, and there will likely be some serious legal ramifications.

You have the right to do with your body whatever you please; technically, you do.

But, friends, I promise you there are long-lasting consequences, damage to future relationships, and harmful effects on your soul when you do whatever you please.

“I have the right to do anything,” so say the Corinthians.

This was one of the mantras of their day.

This, they believe.

It was a saying used to justify all sorts of behavior.

If you think about it “I have the right to do anything” could be used to justify any and every kind of behavior.

“I have the right to do anything.”

The Corinthians would say this and then they’d go visit a temple prostitute.

That was a thing!

Some in the church were even convinced that religious prostitution was a benefit to their spiritual life—the promise of good fortune and blessings.

It’s whacky, but it’s no more odd than our views on sex and sexuality.

The birth control pill came out in ‘60s which led to “free love” in the 70s, sexual promiscuity in the 80s and 90s, internet pornography in the late 20th- and early 21st century, cohabitation, common law marriages, multiple partners, swinging, and a general redefinition of marriage and gender and what’s proper.

And the church has, in part, gone right along with the culture.

Talk about whacky.

“I have the right to do anything.”

That will lead all sorts of places, and it has.

“I have the right to do anything” is a dangerous place to be.

It’s a dangerous thought.

It’s a dangerous cultural assumption, and we must not allow it to creep into the church anymore than it already has.

We must, as Paul does, confront this attitude within our own church family, and repent of believing and behaving that we have the right to do anything.

>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6.

And if you’re able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word. 1 Corinthians 6, beginning with verse 12:

May the Lord bless the reading of His Holy Word!

_______________

Paul acknowledges the Corinthian mantra—“I have the right to do anything.”—and

comes back with a much-needed corrective (a big ‘but’ alla): but not everything is beneficial.

Boy, howdy, isn’t that true?

You might have the right to do whatever you’d like, but ask yourself if it’s beneficial in any way that’s not temporary, carnal, or outright sinful.

Not everything is beneficial.

Whatever liberties believers have, choices must be carefully evaluated as to their spiritual benefit.

“I have the right to do anything, but (big ‘but’ alla) I will not be mastered by anything.”

You may have the right to do this or that, but has that thing become your master?

Do you serve that thing, that behavior, that action?

You might have the right to do anything, but can you stop doing what you’re doing?

Or has it caught hold of you?

The Corinthians had become victims of their own desires.

They had lost control over their own bodies as they gave themselves to sexual immorality.

Their sexual desires had mastered them.

And therein lies a good portion of the problem.

The Corinthians had a lot of catchy sayings but none catchier than this: “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.”

The Corinthians (along with the Greeks of their day) believed that sexual pleasure was meant to be enjoyed just as food was meant to be eaten.

Sex was for them just another bodily function: “We’ve got sexual organs; might as well put them to use.” “We’re sexual beings.”

“Sex is natural, a biological imperative.”

If the body is to sex as the stomach is to food, reason the Corinthians, then sure, every form of sexual pleasure is legitimate.

“Have at it.

Do whatever feels good, whatever makes you happy.”

But we know (and we’re told) that we mustn’t treat sex as casually as we do food.

And, what’s more, our bodies are not throwaways.

The body isn’t meant for sexual immorality.

The body is meant for the Lord; it’s the instrument by which we serve and glorify God.

And our body has great worth and importance:

We are to serve Him with our bodies AND we must remember that Christ redeems our bodies.

Paul references the resurrection of Christ—the bodily resurrection of Christ.

God didn’t just raise the spirit of Christ from the dead.

The physical body of Jesus was raised from the dead; He walked right out the tomb, leaving it empty.

Likewise, on the final day of judgment, God will raise the bodies of all believers from the dead.

The resurrection of Jesus means that we, too, will be raised and by the same power.

This gives our bodies inherent worth.

This means our bodies must not be used for acts of sexual immorality, but for Christ and His service.

Paul desperately wants to Corinthians (and us) to:

Understand

He uses a phrase five different times in 1 Corinthians 6. Paul is begging for them to understand: Do you not know?

Paul asks this question five different times in this short chapter—Do you not know?

Understand your bodies are members of Christ, so what we do with our bodies matters, infinitely.

We are joined with Christ spiritually—so intimately joined to Christ on every level that even our physical bodies are united to Him, being parts of His body here on earth.

Understand you are one in body with whomever you have sexual contact.

For the Corinthians to have casual sex, to engage in sexual acts with prostitutes (religious or otherwise), is beyond wrong.

If they belong to Christ, their bodies are members of Christ Himself.

Should they take the members of Christ and join them with a prostitute?

May it never be!

Of course not!

There is no such thing as casual sex—for the Christian or anyone else.