I Corinthians 6:12  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.
14  And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
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.
16  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.
19  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.

Corinth was a pagan city. It had idols and the people offered meats to their idols. Some of the pagan religions also used temple prostitutes. This was all legal in Corinth. Paul was directed by God to remind the saints of the pagan nature of the city they were living in. The people needed to understand there was a law that was higher than the local government.
The Greek word translated as “expedient” here means “to help, to bear together”. There were things that the city of Corinth allowed that were not helpful for the child of God. Meat offered to idols was sold in the market at a discount price. It was enticing for the people to purchase this meat since it was less expensive. Paul told the saints this was all legal in their society. However, it was not helpful for them to purchase that meat. There was more at stake here than the money.
There were pagans who were genuinely converted to Christianity. They had been raised to believe in idols. They had been raised to believe in the power of their idols. They were now saved. In their minds, the idolatry was still hovering in the background. It was not helpful for Paul to purchase meat offered to idols if it would cause a new believer to assume that he was supporting idolatry.
The second thing Paul mentioned in verse 12 was that he would not be brought under the power of any. He was not going to allow the idolatry of that place to interfere with his Christian walk. He would not allow that to cripple him in his walk and in his work.
In verse 13, with the context of verse 12 in mind, Paul reminded the saints that meats are for the belly and the belly for meats. We need food to survive. However, God will destroy both of them. When this world is burned up by fire, there will be no meat left on it and there will be no people left here either. In fact the earth will be destroyed by that fire. The point is that these things are temporary and thus they should not control us. We do not live to eat. We eat to live. In North America we have been trained to live to eat. We need to retrain ourselves to eat to live. Thus we can walk away from foods that may taste good, but have negative effects, primarily spiritually but also physically.
Fornication, the sin mentioned earlier in chapter 5, is not for the body. The lust of the flesh suggests that it is, but the Word of God says it is not. The temple prostitutes were there and the state said it was legal to be involved in that corruption. God did not create man to be immoral. Before the fall He stated one man for one woman for life. Jesus reminded the people of this in Matthew 19.
God created man to glorify Him.

Revelation 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

There is also the sin of spiritual fornication. That is also not acceptable to the Lord. Paul stated that the body is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. When a person is saved, they belong to the Lord. This needs to be taught and it needs to be understood by those who are saved. We live by a higher standard than our feelings and desires.
In verse 14 we are reminded that God raised up Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was raised up and given back the glory that had been His prior to His coming to this earth. We are also reminded that God will raise up those who are saved. We are dependent upon Him for spiritual life and also for physical life.
In verse 15 the saints were reminded of something they should have known. In salvation they had been made members of Christ. They had given themselves over to Christ in salvation. That is what true Biblical faith is. It is not giving a piece of ourselves to God. True repentance is a turning completely over to God and trusting fully in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. This was being overlooked by the saints in Corinth. It seems this is also overlooked often in Christianity since that time. We need to check ourselves constantly to be sure we are not fighting against the blessings that God wants us to know. This is not a hindrance to living; it is the way to live.
Even in the physical realm, as we grow up, we learn that there were things we did that were not very good. In fact some were quite dumb and even harmful. We need to understand that our time needs to be better spent.
In verse 15 we see further that because we belong to Christ, it is absurd to give our bodies to a harlot. Not only is it absurd, it is wrong. It is anti-God.
In verse 16 we are again reminded of something we must know if we are saved. The Bible often shows us that New Evangelicalism and ecumenism is anti-God. It is contrary to the way God saved us. The person who is joined to a harlot becomes one body with that person. There are a lot of people who live in a confused state because they have lived very promiscuous lives. There is more than just that short one night stand that takes place when a man and a woman choose immorality. The devil likes that and he is behind all false religion. He loves confusion. Confusion weakens the person and it is much easier to control weak people.
The danger is that often these weak people assume they are strong. They can be quite stubborn, but they are weak in that they have chosen to follow the path of least resistance: serving the devil rather than knowing the true God.
In verse 17 we are reminded that the saved person is joined to the Lord and he is one spirit. This fact again proves the ridiculousness of contemporary Christianity. Where is the oneness in the contradictory doctrines of the emergent church philosophy? That is why doctrine is out the window. The statement: “we will have to agree to disagree” is quite common among most professing Christians. They do not allow that disagreement to interfere with working together. They assume this is such a good thing.
In verses 19-20 we are again reminded of things that we should know if we are saved. The saved person belongs to God. The Holy Ghost dwells in the true child of God. This is important to know. The Holy Spirit is given to the saint as a gift of God. Every true child of God receives the Holy Spirit at salvation. We, those who are saved, do not belong to ourselves. We have been bought with a price. The sacrifice of the Lord is the payment made to God for the saved person. His shed blood and His death were required for salvation. The natural result of God’s salvation is that we need to glorify God with our body and with our spirit. We belong to God in our entirety.
This again, is not an interference in our lives. It does not create a problem for the saved person. It will be restrictive to those who are not saved. True Christians do not dwell on what they cannot do. They learn the blessing of the things they can do in Christ. There are enough things we can do and those things do not bring regrets. They are blessings for the true child of God.
God does not withhold His truth from us. He makes His truth fully known to us. We can be blessed in knowing the truth. I often hear of people who talk of “speaking their truth”. We need to learn and speak God’s truth. That is the only truth. There are people who want to express what they believe and thus it is their truth. However, their truth is corruption. God’s truth is what makes a person free. Jesus Christ is THE TRUTH. God’s Word IS TRUTH. The Holy Spirit is the SPIRIT OF TRUTH. Those who are saved need to embrace the TRUTH and thus know the blessings of the Lord.
Pastor Bartel