Sex Week: Want What’s Best

” ‘Everything is permissible for me’—but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me’—but I will not be mastered by anything.” (1 Corinthians 6:12)

In an effort to confuse the search engines, we’re labeling our online Bible study for the next few days “sex week.” We’re going to break down the end of 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul explains to a group of Christians why casual sex is a bad idea.

sweek_350The Corinthians were confused. Paul himself had explained that they weren’t bound by the Old Testament Law; “everything was permissible” for them. So why should they not have sex with whomever they wanted? Even prostitutes? There were no “rules” against it in this new covenant with Christ, right?

Not right. Paul will show them that the problem isn’t in the rules, it’s in them. Christians have become different people with a different purpose. Our bodies, he will say, are now part of Christ. Having sex is more than just scratching a biological itch. It is using our bodies to form a kind of spiritual bond. To do so outside of the marriage commitment – with bodies made for the Lord, he will write – is not “beneficial.”

In other words, it doesn’t help. It hurts him and us. More tomorrow.

Think: Why do you think so many people become mastered by sexuality even though that leads to so many problems?

Pray: Ask God to help you to want his best for you and for him. Ask him to help you not to be mastered or controlled by anything except him.

Do: Notice the messages you hear this week from friends and media that suggest sex is just a physical act and not a big deal between willing participants. What’s wrong with that perspective?