marriage and sex

Good morning friends,
I'd like to apologize for not sending out the daily reading yesterday. There was an exciting adventure story involving spending the night in the Washington Airport that explains most of that, but that's a story for another time. To get back on track with the reading we'll read yesterday's and today's together since they complement each other well. This part of 1 Corinthians is about sex and marriage. One reminder that's particularly applicable here is that the phrases in quotations are thought to be quotes from a letter Paul received from the church, to which he is responding. The first part hinges on fornication, which really means casual sex. Paul's argument is that in baptism and faith our bodies are members of Christ's body and temples of the Holy Spirit. Any time we have sex we are joining our body with another person's body, meaning we join part of Christ's body with that person. Sex is not impure or unclean because love makes it holy. Casual, abusive, or unloving sex dishonors not just our body, but Christ's too.

Some folks in the church took matters further than Paul and felt like sex in general was not good for Christians. Paul agrees in some ways, because the deep human relationships in which sex is appropriate involve high commitment. Paul feels like that kind of commitment distracts us from ministry, as all of us who are in relationships, especially with children, know first hand. But Paul also knows committed partnership, and sex in that partnership, is a good and joyful thing allowed by God. Further, while some people, like Paul, have been given the spiritual gift of celibacy (in other words, they thrive outside of committed relationships and generally don't need intimate human contact) for most of us staying away from sexual commitment leads to temptation. That temptation is powerful and spiritually dangerous, so it is better to structure our desire in marriage or permanent partnership. The overall point here is putting our faith at the center of all of our relationships and living our faith powerfully in everything we do.

blessings in your discipleship today,
Sam

1 Corinthians 6:12-7:9

12“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13“Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.


15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is well for a man not to touch a woman.” 2But because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6This I say by way of concession, not of command. 7I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has a particular gift from God, one having one kind and another a different kind. 8To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am. 9But if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.