In 1 Corinthians 6 Paul is talking about the things that have control over us. He starts off by saying “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful, everything is permissible, but I will not be brought under the control of anything.” This sounds at first like a sin free-for all, but what Paul is communicating is that the condition of the heart is what causes sin. When a desire becomes more than a desire it will lead us. This becomes problematic because we are following Jesus, but when we have an unchecked desire, that desire will pull for control and lead us. We are no longer being led by Jesus because we have allowed something else in and that thing is now leading us. This is dangerous ground because it can lead us far enough away that we don’t come back. We have all seen this happen in the big things like drug and alcohol abuse, and in this chapter, Paul uses food as the topic because that was a big deal with the Jews because of all their forbidden food laws. The point is anything that has enough pull on us can be harmful. Even the act or desire for control itself is a powerful thing because we are no longer being led by Jesus. We have taken the wheel and are attempting to control what cannot be controlled. It’s an illusion in our minds to think we can control other people or situations, or our circumstances and yet, this is one of the most controlling forces we will ever fight against. In fact, I think the desire to control is one of the most universal struggles that we all share. This is why we have to keep an eye on anything that pulls us and submit it to Jesus immediately, before it gains too much ground. The deeper we allow it to pull us, the harder it is to get out. Paul takes this further when he gets into sexual immorality. He explains how our sexuality joins us to the person we are involved with because sex was designed for marriage, and it joins us to the person we marry. If we are immoral with our sexuality, we are joining ourselves with that immorality and when we are in Christ and we try to sin in this way Paul raises the question: “Don’t you know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit?” If we are joined in marriage with Christ, our dabbling into sexual immorality brings prostitution into our marriage relationship with Jesus. Not only do we sin against God, but we violate our own body when we sin sexually. Paul distinguishes a firm point that anything else we do is outside of our body, but sexual sin is a violation against both God and ourselves.
