When asked by the Pharisees
about marriage, more specifically about divorce, the Lord gave this answer;
"Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them
male and female, and said, ' For this reason A man shall leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh '? So they
are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let
no man separate." (Mt 19:4-6) This was not asked because the Pharisees
wanted an answer, but because they were challenging the Lord’s authority as the
new and better Moses. Their follow up question demonstrates that point, but I
have quoted the Lord’s words because in saying it, the Lord defined marriage
from creation.
The more a society as a whole
becomes sexually immoral, the more likely it is that sexual immorality will
invade the church. Sex was created by God and given to men and women with a two
fold purpose; (1) it binds the man and woman together, (2) and by it a new
human being is created. It is nessasary for the man and woman to be bond
together to effectively raise up the child in fear and adminition of the Lord.
Sexual immorality is becoming
more prevelent in our society as a whole, and therefore threatens to invade the
church. Paul in one of his epistles to the church at Corinth addresses the
subject of sexual immorality within the church in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6.
Corinth was a large and important city in the Roman empire and controlled the
overland between Italy and Asia. It was literally at the cross roads of the
world. Also being a sea port Corinth was renowned for its sexual corruption and
other vices.1 It is said that Plato used the term “Corinthian girl” when speaking about a
prostitute.2
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5
Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for having a man among them that has his
fathers wife. Paul is amazed by this, because this kind of thing does not even
exist among the gentiles. The Corinthians had become lackadaisical in their
persuit of holiness and had become concerned with boasting about their human
wisdom. Paul had previously told them not to associate with immoral people, not
the immoral people in the society, but immoral people within the church, not
even to eat with such a person. Paul is telling the Corinthians to excommunicate
this man.3 Christianity is
a community faith, it is impossible for someone to live out the faith on their own;
his hope is that by putting this person out of the church his flesh well die
and he will repent.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 6
Paul then tells the Corinthians that they need to judge their own disputes. The
Corinthians need to look at things differently and not go to judges outside of
the church, but judge their own affairs because the unrighteous will not
inherit the kingdom of God.4 (1 Cor 6:9-10)
Paul then begins to talk about the body and how the body of the redeemed
belongs to the Lord. Paul then brings it back around to the understanding that
sex binds. “Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute
is one body with her? For He says, ‘The two shall become one flesh.’” (1 Cor
6:16)
Since the Lord defined sexual
relationship (marriage) as the binding together of a man and woman for life,
any other sexual relationship by definition is immoral. Paul in 1 Corinthians
has given the frame work of how to deal with sexual immorality within the
church. It is not to be tolerated within the body, because like leaven in bread
it will spread throughout the entire body. (1 Cor 5:6) Therefore, it must be
cleaned out (1 Cor 5:7) and is done so by the whole body judging the members of
the body who are envolved in sexual immorality for the sake of love.
1 S. J. Hafemann, “Corinthians, Letter to
the” in Dictionary of Paul and His
Letters, eds. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G.
Reid (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1993), 172.
2 S. J. Hafemann, “Corinthians, Letter to
the” in Dictionary of Paul and His
Letters, eds. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G.
Reid (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1993), 173.
3 S. J. Hafemann, “Corinthians, Letter to
the” in Dictionary of Paul and His
Letters, eds. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G.
Reid (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1993), 172-173.
4 Ibid.
