The Invisible Man – Rewind

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18  NASB

Flee – Paul is quite direct in his instructions to believers when it comes to the sexual atmosphere in ancient Corinth.  Run away!  Don’t try to take a stand for what is right.  Don’t try to fight for upholding the Torah.  Don’t think you can handle this.  Run as if your life depended on it.

Why?  It might seem obvious to us.  Sex is just too powerful for human beings to handle.  At least that’s what we usually think.  It’s too overwhelming to properly control.  It’s too intimate to maintain perspective.  And once it gets started, it’s like trying to put out a forest fire with a glass of water.  No, better to run.

But Paul’s reasoning doesn’t seem to follow this line of thought.  He tells us that the reason we need to run is because this sin is different from all other sins.  How is it different?  It is a sin against my own body.  Now that sounds reasonable since sex is very much a bodily action, but if you think about it, so is eating, sleeping, drinking, touching, smelling, seeing.  Wouldn’t it be right to say, “Run away from over-eating because over-eating is a sin against one’s own body”?  Couldn’t we say the same thing about alcohol?  Isn’t drinking too much a body-sin?  What about taking drugs?  That clearly alters the body.  In fact, any addictive kind of behavior is first and foremost an internal collapse and typically has consequences for the body.  So why does Paul say that this particular sin is a sin against the body but all the rest aren’t?  The answer is in the word Paul chooses for “immoral man.”

First we need some cultural background.  The Greek word “immoral man” is porneuōn.  Literally, it means, “prostitute” or “commit fornication” (sexual intercourse between people not married to each other).  In the culture of Corinth, this involved temple sexual worship.  The ancient Greek culture did not have the same ethical stance that the modern West espouses.  “. . . since intercourse is regarded as just as natural as eating and drinking, extramarital affairs are permitted for husbands. Yet excess is censured, and Plato defends intercourse with harlots only as long as it is secret and causes no offense. Sparta maintains stronger sexual discipline but is also the home of homosexuality.”^[1]  This general attitude was combined with acceptable sexual intercourse with prostitutes in pagan temples for fertility worship.  This is the culture Paul must address.

Secondly, Paul knows Israel’s history. The sexual overtones of the covenant are clear. Cultic prostitution was always associated with idolatry and the prophets portray unfaithfulness to God as an act of adultery. God’s relationship to His people is like a marriage.  Sexual promiscuity is a sin that affects all the community, both horizontally and vertically. Furthermore, the history of Israel demonstrates the power of sexual misconduct in stories from the Genesis saga.  Far too often sex plays a role in the generational dysfunction of Israel’s forefathers.  Maybe Paul is overly forceful in his admonition because his own people have such a tainted and dismal history of failure when it comes to sex.

Finally, like drinking and eating, sex is a “built-in” disaster zone.  I don’t have to take drugs (at least behaviorally I am not forced to).  I don’t have to gamble, or shop, or over work, or get angry.  But I have to eat.  I have to drink.  And, yes, in at least one sense, sex is essential.  The race goes extinct without it.  But it isn’t instinctual propagation that gives sex its power.  Sex is a part of self-identity.  Perhaps that’s why Paul considers it an internal sin, a body-sin.  How we handle this insistent force really determines who we are.  In some ways, sex defines us.  That might be what Paul has in mind since his audience in Corinth was saturated with the Greek “natural” view of human beings slightly above animal desires.  Paul’s Hebraic view of what it means to be human starts from a completely different place—a little less than angels, not a little more than apes.

Topical Index:  sex, immorality, flee, Corinth, 1 Corinthians 6:18

^[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (918). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.