Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells us this in the context of a warning against sexual immorality. As Christians, the Spirit joins us to Christ, body and soul, as the Catechism so often tells us. That means Christ cares for and protects both body and soul. What we do with our body in this life is just as important as what is done for our soul. Though distinct our soul and our body are not truly separate from each other. What we do with our body affects our soul. I want to tease out a number of implications here of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. I am a bit all over the place, but I hope it is helpful.

  1. Holiness and sexual immorality have a lot to do with each other. It is interesting where murder, and stealing and lying are dealt with in the five books of Moses vs. sexual immorality. It is the book of Leviticus that deal with sexual immorality, especially chapter 18, the book that emphasizes the holiness of God. Sexual activity is tied to uncleanness. Reproduction is tied to uncleanness. Certain sexual practices are abominations. They defile the land of Israel. Now uncleanness is not the same as sin, but certain sins create uncleanness in a different way than others. This is highly suggestive. Our bodies are to reflect the holiness of God.
  2. This is all the more true, when our bodies become home to the Spirit of God. We corrupt our relationship with God when we become one with a prostitute because we cannot be one with both God and a prostitute.
  3. Eating and sexual immorality have a lot to do with one another. It is interesting that the Westminster Catechism connects, drunkenness, idleness, and gluttony with sins against the 7th commandment. Both the desire for sex and food stem from the lower parts of our bodies. This means that the warnings over drug use using “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit” are not entirely unjustified. You are connected to Christ and your body is to be used to his glory.
  4. Paul has a really interesting line in 1 Corinthians 6: 18, “Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” Sexual immorality is a sin against God. It is a sin against others, but first and foremost you are sinning against your own body. In committing this sin, you are corrupting your own body. For fallen man this continues to be true. He hurts himself when he participates in sexual immorality. For the Christian this is even worse for he sins against the dwelling place of the Spirit of God. Rather than be one flesh with the prostitute you are to be one spirit with the Lord.
  5. This is not just because God does not want you to have fun. The fact that God wants your body to be holy, is suggestive for the future of your body. God has a specific purpose for your body as well as your soul. God knows your body better than you do and God wants what is best for it. As we’ve already noted sexual immorality is a sin against the body. It corrupts and destroys the body. When you participate in sexual immorality you might not immediately know why and if everybody participates in sexual immorality it is even harder to know how that works. We need to depend on God’s word about our bodies.
  6. One thing to note is the nobility of chastity. Chastity, even if the world does not honor it, is honorable and glorious before God. We can think of Revelation 14 where God pictures faithfulness to him as virginity. When we think about this it becomes clear, for chastity both in and outside of marriage reflects the holiness and the faithfulness of God.
  7. None of this undermines the goodness of marriage and sex. Chastity is both in and outside of marriage. Marriage reflects God’s holiness and faithfulness just as much as singleness does. It is true that a person’s body belongs to their spouse in marriage, but this does not take away from the fact that they may truly be one with the Lord. Ultimately, marriage is not a sin against the body, while fornication and other forms of sexual immorality are. This is because marriage fulfills the exclusive connection with another being that our bodies need.

I think the most important thing to remember here is that we want to reflect the holiness of God in recognizing holy boundaries. The Heidelburg Catechism refers to Marriage as holy marriage and this reflects the truth that it is the true boundary for intimacy. It reflects the exclusivity of marriage. We need to be faithful within out individual holy boundaries whether that is boundary of singleness or marriage.