AS GOD'S PROPERTY WE THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD
1 CORINTHIANS 6:12-20
(February 9, 2020 – SUN p.m. – MBC baesa)

     God search for clean and sterile instruments.
     Some believers still becoming defiled with the worldly things. The perspective of holiness and passion for righteousness were lost by these believers.               Actually, some of this carnal believers look like with the world more than they did as people of God. Therefore, Paul writes to correct them.
     As God owns the believers as His property so they must be responsible to glorify God with their bodies and souls.
     It is God’s desires that each believer look and act like as one of God’s clean instruments since God saved and cleansed every believer. Many people in this church were self-centered and sinful, and the Corinthians church whom Paul addressed to was full of corruption and carnality. This Corinthian church had lost the ultimate goal of each church and that is to reflect the glory of God.

     When we glorify God as God’s property there is:
I- PROFIT THAT BENEFITING US – v.12a
1 Corinthians 6:12a “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”
     Notice the word “expedient” in KJV translated “profitable” in NASB which in Greek “συμφέρει (sumpherei) indicates do profit, beneficial and means to collect or to conduce; especially advantage. (Strong’s Greek 4851)
     Every believer who wants to give glory to God will indulge in something primarily that is profitable not just because it is lawful. Don’t misinterpret this Paul statement, he does not saying sinful things is lawful for the believer, Paul was saying the all things that are not sinful are allowable for the believer.
EXAMPLE: When the government highest officials signed and allowed some laws to be legal like abortion, same sex marriage, divorce, etc.
Paul wants to teach these Corinthians that even though all types of things are lawful for the believer they may not be advantageous or useful for the believer.
     These Corinthians believer don’t care if something will caused their brother to stumble (1 Corinthians 8:9) or whether it will edified a brother (1 Corinthians 10:23). Paul has an attitude bringing into captivity every thought (2 Corinthians 10:5). God-glorifying believes will always ask if certain thing is profitable.

     When we glorify God as God’s property we ask first if there is:
II- POWER THAT DOMINATING US– v.12b-13
1 Corinthians 6:12a-13 “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.”
     Notice the word “under the power of any” in KJV is translated “mastered” in NASB, in Greek ἐξουσιασθήσομαι
(exousiasthēsomai – Verb, Future indicative Passive – 1st Person Singular) means to exercise authority over or power, to control, to be ruled, be held under authority. (Strong’s Greek 1850).
     A Believer who glorifies God will not allow himself to involve in something because it is lawful but he will examine whether it will dominate him. A believer will not be mastered or be brought under the power of anything.
     Paul gives two specific things that will dominate, control or rule the life of the believer if left unchecked namely food and sex.

     When we glorify God as God’s property there is:
III- PURPOSE THAT IS DESIGNED FOR US – v.13-14
1 Corinthians 6:13-14 “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.”
     A believer who glorifies God will not only examine if it is beneficial or dominating, but will also ask what is the purpose of God.
     A. God’s purpose for the Body is for food – v.13 a
1 Corinthians 6:13“Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.”
     Paul says “Meat for the belly, and the belly for meats:” God put stomach in the body with a specific need of food so food literally is for the stomach.
God’s thinking of eating food is acceptable or reasonable while gluttony is not acceptable or reasonable. There is nothing wrong to eat food but it is wrong to be dominated by food.
     Notice the words “but God shall destroy both it and them.” When food dominates a person it means he is being dominated by something that will not last because the stomach and the food will both eventually pass away.
     B. God’s purpose for the body is not for fornication – v.13b-14
1 Corinthians 6:13-14 “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.”
     The Corinthians made a big fleshly errors by equating the satisfaction of the appetite for food with sexual appetite.
     Look carefully the phrase in verse 13 “the body is not for fornication.” and in verse 14 “God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.” God’s designed for creating the body is for God’s glory and not purposely to be involved in sexual immorality.
     Notice Paul says in verse 13, “but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.” The stomach is not sacred but the body is sacred. People will do very strange or unusual things when they were dominated or mastered by sexual immorality.

     When we glorify God as God’s property there is:
IV- PARTAKING THAT IS FORBIDDING US – v.15 
1 Corinthians 6:15 “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.”
     Notice the word “members” mentioned in verse 15 three times. It has a reference to a limb that is part of the body.
     Paul says, “shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?” it explains that the believer involves God in sexual immorality when himself involved in sexual immorality.
     When one member of the whole body is in sin, therefore the whole body is affected. Did you realize that this sin of immorality caused God to send people to hell – 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Revelation 21: 8.

     When we glorify God as God’s property there is:
V- PRACTICAL UNITY THAT MUST BE RESISTED BY US – v.16-18
1 Corinthians 6:16-18 “What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”
     The holy thing and the holy God is uniting when the believer gets involved in sexual immorality. Within marriage of husband and wife, sex is not obscene or dirty because it is sacred in the sight of God. However, we must resist and fight against some sins and flee sexual immorality. In the eyes of God, the most extremely damaging, serious and degrading sin, that will always bring the judgment of God is sexual immorality.
1. Sexual immorality has a greater effect or outcome than other kind of sin.
2. Sexual immorality only demand a misuse of the body unlike other sin demands external circumstances.
3. Sexual immorality can damage the body that cannot be done by other kind of sin.
4. Sexual immorality goes outside of the body for the sin but a person does not keep within the body the sin.

     When we are purchased by the blood of Christ we become the:
VI- PROPERTY OF GOD THAT DESCRIBES US – v.19-20
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
     Notice Paul says in verse 19, “your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost” It means the body of every believer is the sanctuary of the Spirit of God because every believer is God’s property as Paul continues, “which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
     God owns us as His property because every believer has been bought by the precious, priceless blood of Jesus Christ as Paul writes in verse 20 “For ye are bought with a price:” – Acts 20:28; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-19
     Hence, Paul concludes by saying, “therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Because we are bought by the blood of Christ our purpose therefore is to glorify God. We must be pure and clean as God’s instrument who reflects the glory of God.