1 Corinthians: Not in VainSample

'Why would God care what I do with my body? It’s my body anyway!’ 

Maybe you’ve heard that sentiment expressed by others, or perhaps you’ve had similar thoughts. 

In our passage today Paul engages with a particular slogan that the Corinthians were using to defend their behaviour: ‘All things are lawful for me’ (v. 12 esv). It’s the attitude of ‘I have a right to do what I want’. Sometimes this is backed up by appealing to God’s grace: ‘I’m forgiven anyway!’ In Corinth there was an additional line of reasoning being used: what does it matter how I behave, it’s just my body and my body is going to perish one day anyway (v. 13). In effect the Corinthians had drawn a great thick line that divided what is physical from what is spiritual. In their mind, being spiritual was completely disconnected from what you did with your body. 

But that’s to completely miss the point of our bodies. Our bodies are ‘for the Lord, and the Lord for the body’ (v. 13). God created our bodies – and they’re part of us. He didn’t make us brains in machines. Spirituality is about living our whole lives in devotion to God. In Christianity, a church building is not our temple. Rather, our bodies are the temple of God: that’s where God dwells by his Spirit (v. 19). What we do with our bodies shows whose we are. 

In particular, Paul reminds the Corinthians that just as God physically raised Jesus’ body, God will also raise us with our bodies. In other words, because we’re united with Christ, our future resurrection is inherently bodily, just as it was for Jesus.

Reflection

Do you act or think like Christianity is limited to religious acts in a particular building? 

Do you ever stop to think that your body will be part of eternity – albeit in a transformed form?