01 Sep Gospel and sexuality

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

¹² “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “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 not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Sex is not an easy subject to talk about. Sex is a complicated thing. On one hand, sex is God’s amazing gift for his people to be enjoyed and delighted in. Yet on the other hand, there is no sin more damaging and more widespread in the church today than sexual sin. If you grew up in Asian family, not many of you had the sex talk with your parents. So when an Asian kid asks their parents, “Where does baby comes from?” the answer from the parents is, “Baby comes from heaven.” Right? Not many of us are educated about sex in our home. We learned about sex from our friends, media and school. What makes things worse, we hardly talk about sex in the church. If you grew up in church, we are told to not have sex outside of marriage. But why? Why is it wrong to have sex outside marriage? If it is wrong to have sex outside marriage, why do we have this desire for sex? And why is it extremely hard to resist this desire? So we are confused. Add to that the fact that we live in a culture that worship sex. We see people around us talk about and celebrate sex all the time. We see it in movies, billboards, magazines, advertisements, internets. The mantra of our culture is “If it makes you happy and it feels right, you should do it.” If sex makes you happy, then why wait? You should do what makes you happy.

Let me open my card from the beginning. I was one of those who believed the lie of our culture over the word of God. I failed to keep my sexual purity. So tonight, I am not talking to you as a person who has a clean record in the area of sexuality. I am talking to you as a person who were once broken and destroyed because of sexual sin. I know firsthand how devastating sexual sin could be. I was there. And not only that, hear me clearly. Today, I still struggle with sexual sin. I am a sexual sinner. Some of you are thinking, “Oh no, astalavista RSI, time for me to move church.” Relax. You don’t have to go anywhere. Just to be clear, I am not sleeping with anyone and I am not addicted to porn. What I meant by sexual sinner is that if all of the thought that went through my head this week were put on the screens tonight, none of you would want me to be your pastor. Can I be honest enough to admit that? In case you are wondering, I am a healthy single young man who has a sexual drive just like you. My sexual desire did not go away the moment I signed up to be pastor. That’s not the way it works. I am tempted with sexual sin every day. It is a daily battle for me. Pay attention to me now. Guys and girls, I’m not dumb. I’m not that naïve to think that none of you in this church is affected by sexual sin. Many of you, if not most of you, are well acquainted with sexual sin. No one else might know about it since you might be very active in ministry and you never miss church. But if I can sit with you and talk with you personally and honestly on your sexual life, you would tell me that you are struggling. And I am not just talking to singles. I am talking to marriage couples as well. Just because you are married, does not mean you are free from sexual sin. In fact, marriage only makes the consequences of sexual sin even more devastating.

Here is my promise to you tonight. I’m not going to go easy on you tonight. I love you too much to do that. The Bible won’t permit me to do that. So I’m letting you know that you might be in for a tough ride tonight. It might be painful and hurtful in some ways but do not switch off. Please. No matter how uncomfortable you might feel with what I’m going to say, stick with me to the end. I am not here to shame you. God is not interested in shaming you. I am here to tell you that what God has to say about your body and sex is extremely glorious. The Bible not only has the power to cut the infection of sin in your life but it also has the power to heal and make you whole. And that’s my prayer for you tonight. For you to be healed. For you to be whole again. The same gospel that turned me from a damaged good to a vessel of God’s mercy has the power to do the same in your life. There is no sin that can overcome the grace of God. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

As Christians, we believe that every commandments in the Bible is given for our joy. God is not a stingy God who does not want us to have fun and enjoy life. In fact, it’s the other way around. He wants us to have the fullness of life and he is after our joy. I understand that church a lot of times didn’t do a good job communicating this, especially in the area of sex. And there is a good reason for that. There is no sin more damaging than sexual sin. That’s why the safest way to protect the people is to talk bad about sex. So we’ve been taught, “Sex is bad, sex is evil, sex is disgusting and sex is gross. Save it for your future husband and wife.” What? But that’s not the way God describes sex. Sex is God’s gift for us. One that we ought to cherish and enjoy. Get this right. No one wants our sexual satisfaction more than God. God is not the enemy of sex. God is for us and he is for sex. Some of you don’t believe me. Let me give you three proofs.

If you look at the shape and parts of human’s body, it is obvious that God designed it that way for a purpose. You look at the parts in male’s body and you look at the parts in female’s body, it seems obvious what the plan was. It was not like God made man and woman, went and got KFC for lunch, came back, dropped his KFC and was like, “What on earth is happening down there? Gabriel, Michael, look at that insanity. Can you believe it? I never knew they would be so creative and came up with that. Adam! Eve! What are you guys doing? Stop. It’s gross!” No, that was not what happened. God was the one who came up with sex. God was the one who designed our body and he was the one who gave us sexual desire and he is not sorry about it. God declared that all of his creation is good. Including sex!

If that’s not a good enough proof for you, God gave us one book in the Old Testament that is about celebration of sexual love from beginning to the end. Many Christians do not know what to do with this book. It is called ‘Song of Solomon.’ This book is in the Bible because God wants us to know that God is for sex. It is given for us. Another proof is that God uses the description of sexual union to describe the relationship between Jesus and his bride. Ephesians 5:31-32 – Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. The phrase “the two shall become one flesh” is speaking of sexual union between husband and wife. And don’t miss it. Paul says that sexual union between husband and wife is a shadow of what will happen between Christ and the church. Sex is a model and foretaste of the fullness of joy of knowing Christ perfectly.

Now, can you see how the Bible gives us a glorious view of sex? God is not the enemy of sex. He is for sex. God wants us to enjoy sex and praise him for the gift of sex. But God also gave us the blueprint for using his gift. It is clear that sexual union is for husband and wife, male and female. God never designed sexual union to be for the same sex. It does not matter what our culture say about sex today, God’s design for sex is for between male and female. Paul then continues to say that sexual union between two people is so profound that they virtually become a new, single person. The two become one flesh. And the term ‘flesh’ here does not only refer to physical aspect of life. Flesh is a figure of speech used to represent the whole person. “Sex is God’s appointed way for two people to reciprocally say to one another, “I belong completely, permanently, and exclusively to you.” You must not use sex to say anything less.” – Timothy Keller. With another word, sex is an act of giving all of you to the other person. So when you have sex with that person, it is an act of saying that you are giving yourself to that person emotionally, personally, socially, economically and legally. That’s what it means by the phrase ‘one flesh.’

This is why the Bible clearly said that sex is reserved for marriage. Marriage creates a place of security for vulnerability and intimacy to happen. But what happen is that enemy takes the good gift of God and makes it the ultimate. So rather than using sex to praise the goodness of God, we pursue sex and neglect God. Rather than serving God with our sexuality, we serve ourselves with our sexuality. Sin has corrupted the good gift of God and destroys us in the process. And our sin grieves the heart of God. God is grieved at our sexual failures not because he is disgusted at us but because he loves us. Sex supposed to point us to him and glorify him. God is the point, not sex.

In the passage that we read, Paul is telling us to use our body and sexuality to glorify God. Let me give you a bit of context first. Corinth was a city known for its sexual immorality and sexual indulgence. Every night, thousands of temple prostitutes would come down from temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, to practice their trade. The mantra of Corinth’s culture was, “If its feel good to you, if you desire it, then do it.” It sounds extremely similar to the mantra of our culture. “If it feels good and right to you, what stop you from pursuing it?” And to this sex-crazed culture, Paul is telling them, “There is a better way for you to live your lives. And I am writing this to tell you to use your sexuality and your body to glorify God.”

I separate the sermon into three parts. Wrong views on sex; Christian view on human body; Christian hope.

Wrong views on sex

1 Corinth 6:12-13a – ¹² “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “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.

There is a popular slogan in the church of Corinth that is based on Paul’s teaching that says, “All things are lawful for me.” And Paul affirms it. Indeed, all things are lawful. Christian is saved by grace alone and not by law. God has set us free from the bondage of law and set us free to live in his grace. We are free to do anything. We called this Christian liberty. Do not let anyone take this freedom for us. For freedom, Christ has set us free. However, Paul quickly adds that even though we have the freedom to do anything we want, there is a way to use our freedom that will lead us back to slavery. That is why Paul says that even though all things are lawful, not all things are helpful. Even though all things are lawful, we should not be dominated or enslaved by anything. Therefore, in the way we use our Christian freedom, we need to ask ourselves two questions. First, “Is what I am doing helpful for others?” Am I building them up in their faith and their walk with Christ? Second, “Am I enslaved by anything?” Is the thing that I am doing with my freedom is my servant to serve God or are they my master that I must serve? And Paul is using these principals in the issue of sexual immorality and attack Corinth’s wrong views on sex and human body.

The first view that Paul attacks the view that says that sex is just physical. The people in Corinth liken sexual desire with appetite for food. What do you do when you are hungry? You eat food. What do you do when you feel sexy? You have sex. They wrongly believe that at the end of the day, human body is worthless. God will destroy the body. What is important is your soul. So it does not matter what you do with your body. And this is exactly what our culture is saying. “If you have desire for sex, go for it. If you have desire for same sex relationship, go for it. No one should be able to stop you from satisfying your appetite. It is only normal and right for you to have the freedom to fulfil your appetite. It is your appetite and it does not hurt anyone. It is just physical.” This is what our culture tells us every day. But is it true? Is sex just physical? Let me ask you few questions that I ripped off from Andy Stanley.

If sex is just physical,

• Why is it that when a child is sexually abused and when they are adult and finally connect the dots, they can’t just move on and simply forgive and forget? If sex is just physical, then once any physical damage was healed, that would be the end of it. But is it?
• Why is rape so much more devastating to a woman than being mugged or beaten up? Women will report physical abuse to the authorities more often that they will report rape. Why? If sex is just physical, why the trauma?
• Why do husbands and wives feel so betrayed when their spouses have sex with someone else?
• Why is it that most people’s greatest regrets involve something sexual? Whenever someone came up to me and said, “Yos, I have to tell you something I have never told anyone before,” 99% it’s sexual. Why? Why do people carry sexual secrets so long?

Sex is indeed physical. But it is so much more than that. And you know this. We all know this intuitively. If sex is just physical, if it is just an appetite, why do we get very upset at child sex abuse? After all, the penetrator is just following his or her appetite. Yet we are bombarded everyday by our culture that sex just physical. And we believe it! Or rather, we want to believe it. That’s why we close our mind and shut down our emotion to the consequences of sex. We want to believe that our culture is right despite knowing fully well that it can’t be right. Sex is not just physical.

This is why sex outside of marriage is extremely harmful. You are giving all of you to a person who is not fully committed to you. You might say, “But we love one another deeply”, “But we are committed in our dating relationship”, “We are engaged and about to get married”, or he might sing “All of me wants all of you.” Praise God for all of it. He can love you, date you, engaged to you and sing John Legend to you morning and night, but unless he is married to you, he always have the option to back away! Sex outside of marriage is like you saying to your partner, “I’m not willing to commit all of me yet but I want all of you, especially your body!” C.S. Lewis had a great analogy for this. He said that the guy who wants to have sex with a girl without marrying her is like how bulimic feels about food. Bulimic is someone who vomits food after eating them. They love the taste of food and the pleasure and comfort that come with it, but they don’t want the calories and fat that come with it. So they vomit it out after tasting it. That’s what sex outside of marriage looks like.

The second view that Paul attacks is the view that sex is everything. The idea that we won’t be satisfied unless we fulfil our appetite. The lie says that in order for us to have the best life, we need to have the best sex. In our culture, sex has become a god. They believe that the key element to the best life is best sex. That’s why our culture encourage us to have different sexual encounters with different people in order for us to be sexually compatible with our partner. That’s why a 50 years old man leave his wife and family behind to be with a younger woman who offers him a better sex. That’s why people commit adultery. That’s why pornography is one of the world’s leading business. And while we are on this subject, this does not apply to men only.

Ladies, can we talk for a minute? 50 shades of grey? Really? Is that your idea of romance? How many of you read or watch 50 shades? Don’t raise your hand. But really? Since when has soft porn become romantic? This kind of novel and movie does nothing but elevate the value of sex to a god. It brainwashes you to think that this is what’s acceptable and this is what you should crave for. But let me ask you one more time. Is this what you want? Just for the sake of clarity, I did not watch or read 50 shades. Our culture tries to tell us that sex is everything and the key to have the best life is to have the best sex. But it does not work. Those who are sexually active and keep changing sex partner every night can testify to you that it does not work. Solomon, who had 1000 women to have sex with every night, writes that all of those sexual pleasures are vanity. The appetite for sex cannot be satisfied. Why? Because sex is only a signpost. It points us to something much bigger. The most rapturous sex is simply an echo of the joy of knowing God fully. But then Paul gives us such a revolutionary powerful truth about our body.

Christian view on human body

1 Corinth 6:13b-18 – The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴ And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. ¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” ¹⁷ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. ¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

These verses are breathtaking. Paul is telling us not to use our body for sexual immorality because our body was designed for something much more glorious. Let me define the word sexual immorality first. It comes from the Greek word, “porneia” from which we have the word pornography. But it does not simply mean porn. The word porneia refers to any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage between man and woman. For the sake of clarity, that includes pre-marital sex, masturbation and homosexual activity. Paul is saying, “Don’t give your body to sexual immorality. Your body is meant for someone much glorious. Your body is for the Lord! Your body is not for sexual gratification but it is an instrument by which you glorify God.” It is not our body and sex that is ultimate but God. The way we used our body should communicate the glory of God. Our body is created by God for God.

But then Paul continues with a glorious statement. Not only the body is for the Lord, the Lord is for the body. Let that sink in for a bit. The Lord cares for the body. He put premium value on the body. He designed the body and he knows how the body function best. He wants the best for the body. Contrary to the belief that our body does not matter, God put eternal value on our body. In the future resurrection, we won’t be spirits without bodies. Our body may decay for a season in the grave but it will be raised, restored and renewed. We will have glorious body for eternity. The Lord is for the body. Why would we use our body for any other purpose than for the Lord?

It gets even better. Not only the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body, Paul says that our bodies are members of Christ. Wow! It means than when we put our faith in Christ, we are united to Christ in such a way that our physical bodies are the extension of Christ in the world today. Our hand is how Christ moves his hand and our leg is how Christ walk. What a glorious view of our physical body. Should we then take this glorious body that are united to Christ and become one with a prostitute? “ME GENOITO!” (Never). If our body can speak, it would say, “Please don’t do this to me. I belong to Jesus. I am a part of Jesus. Jesus put such a supreme value on me. He cares for me. Don’t make me become a member of prostitute. I am meant for someone much better and glorious. Please do not destroy me.”

Listen to this. There is no such thing as casual sex. Paul does not say, “Do not have sex with a prostitute because you should only have sex with someone you love. It is degrading to pay someone for sex.” He does not say that. But the reason you should not have sex with a prostitute is because whenever you have sex with someone, you become one with that person. You become one flesh. There is a scientific study being done on the effect of having multiple sexual partners does to your brain. It actually rewires your brain in a way that makes genuine, lasting, selfless relationship much more difficult. This is what they say, “The individual who goes from sex partner to sex partners is causing his or her brain to mould in such a way that eventually accepts that sexual pattern as normal… The pattern of changing sex partners therefore damages their ability to bond in a committed relationship.” It is like a tape. Unused tape has a strong sticky factor. Sex was designed to be sticky, to unite two people into one permanently. But if you apply, remove, reapply and remove a tape, it begins to lose its sticky factor. The same thing happen with sex. Every time you have sex with different partner, you apply, remove, reapply and remove and sex begin to lose its stickiness. Sex begin to lose its significance.

But it works totally the opposite within the context of marriage. In marriage, sex makes two person stickier than before. I’m not married so I can’t testify to this but Edrick told me that he has this special ability to know exactly what is on Ellis’ mind without her even saying a word. Not all the time though. He wishes it works all the time. Life would be less complicated. But there are time that Edrick finds himself in a situation where something happen, and in a split second, Edrick not only have his own instinctive way in dealing with the situation, but he also immediately know what Ellis would do and say in the situation. And he has a choice to make. Whether to follow his way or Ellis’s way to deal with the situation. It is basically a choice whether he wants to leave with a smiling wife or a quiet wife. What happen? Let me tell you what happen. They became one flesh. Sex is making them stickier and stickier. Sex is glorious and beautiful in the context of marriage. But when we misuse sex, it works backward. When we give our bodies to someone without giving all of our self to them in marriage, it destroys us.

Paul goes on to say, “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” Christians, you are joined to the Lord! You become one spirit with Christ. This is massive. So we are not only members of Christ’s body, but we become one spirit with Christ. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us that makes us one with Christ. That is why Paul then commands us to “Flee from sexual immorality.” I love that. The word flee is a present imperative which mean that it is not a onetime command but a habitual continuous action. Continue to run and flee from sexual immorality. Because every other sin is committed outside the body but sin of sexual immorality is committed against one’s own body. It does not mean that sexual sin is the worst of all sin but sexual sin is a unique kind of sin. That is why Paul is not telling us to reason or rationalise with sexual sin. Because it is not going to work. When your body crave for sexual pleasure, you lose your ability to rationalise. You will always find reason to justify your sexual sin. I have been a pastor for almost 9 years now and I can tell you that no sin has more destructive effect than sexual sins. It has broken many marriages, shattered many families, and destroyed many more lives than any other sins. That is why Paul is commanding us to flee! Run! Don’t trust yourself. Stay as far away as possible.

Christian hope

1 Corinth 6:19-20 – ¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

This is the hope that we have in our battle with sexual immorality. First, our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. This is a glorious truth. Paul does not say, “If you keep your sexual integrity then the Holy Spirit will come and live in you.” That is not the gospel. Paul says that the Holy Spirit is living in you already. So do not turn the temple of God into a brothel! Wherever we go, we are the bearers of the Holy Spirit. We are the temple of God. God dwells in us. Throughout the Bible, God always has a dwelling place on earth. In Genesis, God dwelled in the Garden of Eden. In the days of Moses, God dwelled in the Tabernacle. In the days of Israel as a kingdom, God dwelled in the temple. In the days of Jesus, God dwelled in Jesus. And today, God dwells in us. We are God’s tools to showcase his glory to the nations. We have the third person of the Trinity within us. We are not without hope in our battle with sexual immorality. There is the resource and the power of God inside of us who enable us to live a life that is pleasing to God. God has not leave us on our own to do it.

Second, we were bought with a price. Do you know what it cost God to buy us? 1 Peter 1:18-19 – ¹⁸ knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. My friends, we are not cheap. Our bodies are not cheap. It costs Jesus his life to buy us. We were not bought with gold and silver but we were bought with the precious blood of Christ. All of us were sinners. We deserve eternal condemnation from God. We were created for God but we rebelled against God. All of us chose to live to satisfy our own desire. We prefer creations over the creators. But for reason unknown to us, Jesus loves us. Not the perfect have it all together us, but us in all our weakness and sinfulness. He loves us. We were adulterers but Jesus pursues us. He is determined to make us his. We kept running away from him but he would not let us go. He left his throne in order to pursue us and he sacrificially gave his life in order to make us right. It costs Jesus his blood to make us his. He loves us to the cross. And that’s not the end of the story. If put your faith in Jesus, you are not only forgiven of all your sin, but something spectacular happen. The moment we take his hand, everything about us changes. We become one with him. Suddenly there is no more impurity in us. There is no flaw whatsoever in us. We are all together beautiful and flawless. We are transformed into a perfect spotless bride. “How can this be?” we ask. And he answers, “Because the moment you took my hand, you became one with me. My beauty became yours. My perfection is yours. There is no more flaw in you because we are one.” You are not your own, you belong to Christ. You have been bought with the blood of Christ and you are one with Christ. My friends, this is the gospel. This is what sex ultimately is all about. It’s about the joy of becoming one with Jesus. That is why Paul says that now you know that you belong to Christ, “So glorify God in your body.”

Applications

Three quick words to different groups of people and I am back to my seat. First, to my Christian brothers and sisters. Flee from sexual immorality. Run as far away as possible. Don’t play around with fire. Some of you right now are flirting with the thought of sexual immorality. Some of you are one decision away from sexual immorality. I heed you to flee from it. Do whatever it takes to be as far as possible from it. Don’t ask the question, “How far is too far?” but ask the question, “How can I glorify God with my body? Is what I am doing helpful for others? Am I enslaved by anything?” If you are married, don’t think that you are exempted from this. You are as prone to sexual immorality as those who are single. All it takes for you to destroy your marriage is one single glance. That’s it. So heed the word of God today. Both marrieds and singles, flee from sexual immorality. And in our days and ages, we don’t have to look sexual immorality. They come looking for us all the time. They bombard us through internet advertisements, movies etc. What steps are you taking to flee from sexual immorality today? Because if you are not fleeing, it won’t be long before you are caught in it.

Second, to my friends who are living in an unrepentant habitual sexual sin. I love you and I am going to speak the truth to you. Unless you repent of your sin, you are only lying to yourself in thinking that God is for you. I am not talking to those who struggle with sexual sin. I am talking to those who lived in sexual sin. You might feel bad but you have no desire to repent. Do not mistake repentance with feeling bad. You can feel bad about sin but not repent. To repent of sin means to turn from sin and run to Christ. But if you are living in sin, hear this strong warning from the word of God. Hebrews 12:15-17 – ¹⁵ See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; ¹⁶ that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷ For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. According to God’s word, there will come a time where it is too late to repent of your sexual sin. The longer you live in sin, the more harden your heart become so that you may come to a point of time where you won’t be able to repent anymore. You might cry and seek it with tears but your tears are not tears of repentance. So I beg you, if the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart tonight, do not delay his call. Do not harden your heart. Turn from your sin and run to Christ before it is too late.

Third, to the sinners who seek repentance. Know this. When you turn to Christ, your past no longer define you. You are not a damaged good. Christ loves you and he can heal you. He will receive you with open arms. And never think for once that because you messed up, now you are in God’s plan B. No, God does not have plan B. God is not re-writing your past but he will use your past as his plan A. God is an expert in making something beautiful out of your mess. Calvary is the proof of your worth to God. God knew what he was buying when he bought you. You cannot surprise God. He knew all your flaws and your sins and he bought you anyway. He loves you anyway. And he promised to turn you into a spotless perfect bride. That is the gospel. The gospel breaks the power of sin and set you free. The message of the gospel is not “Stop sexual sin” but “Behold your Saviour.” So, look to Jesus. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Discussions:

1. What sort of picture does the Bible paint on sex? Why is it important for us to know and understand what the Bible teaches on sex?
2. What does it mean for “the two shall become one flesh”?
3. There are two wrongs views on sex. Sex is just physical and sex is everything. Can you see how these views are being communicated to us in daily basis? Give some examples.
4. What is so radical about Christian view on human body?
5. What is the meaning of the word “porneia”? Give as many examples as you can think of.
6. Why is it important to only have sex in the context of marriage? Explain why casual sex is destructive.
7. “FLEE from sexual immorality.” Why is it important for us to flee from sexual immorality? Give daily life applications on how we can do this. Try to be specific in your applications.
8. Is sexual purity possible? What is our hope in pursuing sexual purity?