Flee unchastity!

1 Corinthians 6.15-20.

CHASTITY 'tʃæs.tə.di noun. The state or practice of abstaining from nonmarital or illicit sexual intercourse.

2. The state or practice of abstaining from all sexual intercourse.

[Chaste tʃeɪst adjective, unchaste ən'tʃeɪst adjective, unchastity ən'tʃæs.tə.di noun.]

Yep, today’s bible passage has to do with sex, and if the subject offends you, stop reading. But bear in mind I write these articles to explain what the apostles would’ve thought, given they lived in the first-century Roman Empire. If you’d much rather hear preachers guess what they thought, based on their own beliefs, prejudices, and hangups—conservative or liberal—okay, go find a church where the pastor never, ever challenges your beliefs, or a bible commentary which does likewise, and enjoy your blissful ignorance. Me, I’d rather grow.

So, chastity. Most English-speakers are more familiar with the second definition I listed above, and assume chastity is the very same thing as celibacy. It’s not. One can be chaste and sexually active. Chastity has to do with proper sexual activity, and by “proper” I certainly don’t mean what society thinks is proper; I mean within the very few limitations God has put on human sexual activity. And contrary to certain repressed Christians, he hasn’t put many! They have, because their parents have, because their grandparents have, and so on back till they’re entirely sure their tradition originates with God, not men.

True, when the apostles object to πορνεία/porneía, “unchastity” (KJV “fornication,” NIV “sexual immorality”), yes they largely are reflecting Pharisee custom. (Paul grew up Pharisee; Ac 23.6 Sosthenes, if he’s the same Sosthenes who was Corinth’s synagogue president, Ac 18.17 was definitely Pharisee.) And Pharisees actually didn’t define chastity as the Law of Moses prescribed it… because the Law accommodated the polygamous culture of ancient western Asia, which included multiple wives and concubines. Yep, in the Old Testament, men could have multiple wives and multiple girlfriends, and it wasn’t considered adultery. This fact still regularly blows Christians’ minds. Totally true though.

So why did Pharisee custom differ? The Greeks. Alexander of Macedon had conquered the Persian Empire by 330BC, making Judea now part of his empire. Judea was ruled by Greek-speaking empires and Greek-speaking kings ever after—some of whom had heavily adopted Greek culture. And a big part of Greek culture was monogamy. True, often it was serial monogamy, with divorce after divorce; but polygamy quickly became a no-no among Judeans who feared offending their Greek-speaking overlords. By the time Pharisees showed up after the Maccabean revolt (165–60BC), Judeans had been largely monogamous for more than a century. So monogamy (and, unfortunately, frequent divorce) was now part of Pharisee culture too. Adultery and chastity was now defined by that standard. Not—yeah, this is still mindblowing—the bible.

Although since the apostles wrote the New Testament, now monogamy is biblical; now adultery and chastity are based on monogamy. If you wanna be in Christian leadership, you gotta be “a one-woman man,” Tt 1.6 or one-man woman; you can’t be unchaste; you can’t be promiscuous. And if every Christian’s gonna strive for spiritual maturity, that’s the standard we have to strive for. That’s the standard the apostles expected Corinth to strive for. But, to their irritation, Corinth was still full of spiritual infants, and they were still—as we know from today’s passage—merrily fornicating away with temple prostitutes. Among other things.

Didn’t you know all sex is marital?

Now we get to the part which regularly gets me in trouble with conservative Christians. Which is weird, because you’d think this is even more conservative than they are! But here y’go:

1 Corinthians 6.15-17 KWL

15Didn’t you know your bodies are bodyparts of Christ?

So, taking up the bodyparts of Christ,

can I make them the bodyparts of a temple prostitute?

16Or didn’t you know one who’s glued to a prostitute is one body?—

for it says, “The two will be one flesh,” Ge 2.24

17and one who’s glued to the Master is one spirit.

If the word “glued” strikes you as weird, it’s because it’s rare you’ll find English-language bibles which use it. They tend to translate the word κολλώμενος/kollómenos, “one who’s glued,” as one who’s joined, or united, or holds fast. But I translated it literally. When you’re a woodworker, glued is often how things get joined. And anyone who claims they simply can’t give up whoring, is pretty much glued to their unchaste practice.

But the apostles point out, using a proof text from Genesis, that if you have sex with a temple prostitute, you’ve become one with them.

Genesis 2.21-24 NKJV

21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

23And Adam said:

“This is now bone of my bones

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man.”

24Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

The Septuagint translated the word דָבַ֣ק/daváq, “cling,” which the NKJV translates “shall… be joined,” as προσκολληθήσεται/proskollithísete, “will be glued together.” So yeah, the apostles weren’t inventing any weird new metaphor; they were loosely quoting the same Greek translation the Corinthians used. And bluntly, they were saying a man and a temple prostitute had made themselves one flesh. Same as a husband and wife become one flesh.

Wait, what about a marriage ceremony? In our culture, if you haven’t said marriage vows, or at least signed some paperwork, you’re not married. True in popular Christian culture too! But I remind you there were no formal marriage ceremonies back then. The couple would declare their intent to be married; the groom would throw a wedding feast; the marital couple would have sex, and they were married. What made ’em married? Believe it or not: The sex.

Y’know why popular culture insists sex doesn’t make you married? Because of what that’d do to all the people who cheat on their spouses, or to all the people they’ve cuckolded. Because of what that’d do to promiscuous people who’ll sleep with anybody. Because it’d mean we have to stop looking down upon, or have to stop quietly disapproving of, all the people who sleep together or live together, but won’t get married—because in fact they are married. In God’s eyes they’re married.

It means illicit sex is a much bigger deal than you mighta thought. But our popular culture—both pagan and Christian!—don’t want it to be that big a deal. That’s too big! Married to all the people you’ve coupled with? Yikes.

But yep, that’s totally what the apostles are saying here. And they’re saying it to deter the Corinthians from treating sex so casually. Sex is a much bigger deal than you’re treating it. A much bigger deal than you think. You’re becoming one with all the people you sleep with. That’s gonna affect you in ways you’re not imagining. And it’s also gonna affect the church in ways you’re not imagining. (I could speculate about how, but nah. That’s enough mindblowers for today.)

You’re damaging your soul.

Let’s wrap up this chapter:

1 Corinthians 6.18-20 KWL

18Flee from unchastity!

Every sin a person might commit is outside the body,

and an unchaste person sins into their own body.

19Or didn’t you know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit inside you?

—whom you all have because of God.

You aren’t your own person,

20for you are an expensive purchase.

Now honor God with your body.

{And with your spirit, which is God’s.}

That last line was added by the Textus Receptus, which is why it’s in the KJV and NKJV, but not the oldest copies of 1 Corinthians.

When the apostles say “every sin a person might commit is outside the body,” they aren’t talking about the body of Christ. I’ve heard various Christians use this verse as a proof text to say so, and of course they’re misinterpreting it. A Christian’s sins affect Christendom as a whole. Hopefully in very small, minor ways… but you know pagans regularly point to the bad behavior of our fellow Christians, and use it to claim we’re all hypocrites, and use it to justify staying away from us and from Christianity—and, much as they claim they respect him regardless, from Jesus.

Nope; the apostles are talking about sins that affect your insides as well as your outsides. And yeah, you might try your darnedest to keep away from the sort of sins which affect your soul; the sort of sins which Roman Catholics call deadly. But unchastity is always gonna affect your soul. That’s why I translated verse 18 “sins into their own body” instead of “sins against their own body”—it’s about a sin you take into yourself, not a sin you’ve committed against yourself.

Solomon ben David put it thisaway:

Proverbs 6.28-32 NKJV

28Can one walk on hot coals,

And his feet not be seared?

29So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.

30People do not despise a thief

If he steals to satisfy himself when he is starving.

31Yet when he is found, he must restore sevenfold;

He may have to give up all the substance of his house.

32Whoever commits adultery with a woman lacks understanding;

He who does so destroys his own soul.

If you’re in dire need you might be able to justify theft, but you can’t justify adultery, prostitution, and meaningless promiscuity. The sex drive isn’t a dire need! And we’re meant to control ourselves, and that includes sexually.

Christians are the Holy Spirit’s temple, which means we can’t just do whatever we please with “our” bodies: Technically they’re not ours! They’re God’s. If you wanna do stuff with your body, you need God’s approval. Can’t just put all the food you can stuff into it. Can’t just have sex with anyone you please. Can’t just get any tattoo you want. Every Christian who wants cosmetic surgery really oughta be asking God if he wants them to do that; there are sometimes really good reasons for it, but I’ve seen some people who look just plain wrong after their “improvements,” and I can’t imagine any wisdom was applied to the decision-making. And wisdom should always be applied to everything in our lives.

We were an expensive purchase. 1Co 6.20 We cost God his son. We should always take him into consideration. So, like the apostles said, flee unchastity—it’s a fleshly practice which reveals we don’t consider God at all, and don’t care about how it ultimately affects us for the worse.