A couple of questions every Christian should ask himself periodically is, how is my life glorifying God? And, what areas of my life do not glorify God?

Now, I don’t mean to suggest that we should go down a checklist to see if we’ve been naughty or nice. This is more in keeping with the same attitude we should have with prayer, for example, where Paul says to pray without ceasing, which means we should be in constant communion with our God and having a sense of His constant presence in our lives.

And in a similar way we should be aware of our spiritual walk with the Lord so that we can begin to measure our growth in Christ. After all, we are told that "those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son..." (ROM 8:29)

EPH 1:4 "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight."

And when it comes right down to it if you want to know what God’s will is for your life, this aspect of our ability to faithfully represent Christ in this world is on top of God’s list for our lives. That’s exactly what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians.

Even Jesus, during the last days of His life, before going to the cross, prayed to the Father. And one of the very last things He prayed for was that we might be able to represent Him in this world as His ambassadors to the glory of God.

JOH 17:15 "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth."

Our sanctification, or our being set apart to be holy unto the Lord, was so important to Jesus that He prayed specifically for you and me that we might be able to walk in our new life in Christ.

You see that prayer before the Father wasn’t just for the disciples of His day. It was meant for every believer who would ever live.

JOH 17:20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

It may be subtle when we first read such a passage, but upon closer examination it stands out with crystal clarity. Notice again what Jesus says in that prayer. "May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

This is directly tied to our sanctification, our actual walk with the Lord, that stands out in such a way that the world cannot help but take notice that we are one with Christ and the Father. And in that walk people are compelled to consider our message of life in Christ by the very way we follow Christ.

Who wants to listen to a message you hear from someone who isn’t willing to walk in the truth of that message themselves?

How believable is it if a political candidate delivers a message of lower taxes and yet his entire voting record on such things is more spending and making laws which create more taxes?

At what point do you label such a person a hypocrite? And at what point does the world label Christians hypocrites who speak of a new life in Christ and yet themselves don’t walk as new creatures?

Do you see what Jesus was praying for? He was praying that we might be sanctified in the truth of God’s word so that our lives would be conformed with the new life we have in Christ and that the world can taste the fruit of our lives and see that the Lord is good.

But if our lives are not being conformed into Christ’s image, or if we’re not willing to give up parts of our former lives for Christ, this too will send a message to the world that evidently Jesus doesn’t mean that much to us.

And if that is the message we send the world, should it surprise anyone that the world scoffs at Christianity? My wife has been reading a book recently which is about the lives of present day martyrs; people who are being persecuted and in many cases being put to death for their faith in Christ.

One of the accounts she shared with me from this book is about a man who was continually tortured by certain guards. But instead of returning evil for evil he purposed to pray for his enemies and to love them instead. One of the guards simply couldn’t understand how this prisoner for Christ could act in such a way.

He demonstrated the love of Christ. He proved himself a follower of Christ. His life shined for the Lord as Jesus lived through him. And this guard was compelled to want to know this Jesus who could change a man from the inside out and promised eternal life. The guard became a believer.

Does the way we live for Jesus, or not live for Jesus, make a difference? It can make an eternal difference. And this is the message of Paul to these Corinthians.

1CO 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me" - but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me" - but I will not be mastered by anything."

This is on the heels of the passage we saw last week where Paul exhorted the church to consider their past lives outside of Christ and what they used to be, but now that they have life they have been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit.

But what does Paul mean by everything is permissible for me?, or as the NASB and the NKJV puts it, all things are lawful for me? Well, obviously he certainly cannot mean anything goes. In fact, some commentators suggest that this was a slogan for the church in Corinth and that Paul was just using their slogan and now is about to correct it.

Keep in mind that in the ancient Greek world the flesh and the body were seen as tools to get you from point A to point B. In other words, the body was just a vessel to carry your soul to the next world. The important part of you would live on after the body was put in the ground.

And so, consequently, the body was seen as luggage. Some saw the luggage as something which you could throw around, while others saw the luggage as something which had to be tamed.

And so, the two extremes were to deny the body any pleasure so as not to be satisfying that evil part of you, while others saw the body as something to be used in any way you wanted, since it wasn’t coming to the next world anyhow.

And since these many of these Corinthians were Greeks this philosophy of life was something they grew up in and were now bringing into their experience with Christ. And so, the slogan, all things are lawful was a segue to get to the heart of the matter with these people.

Paul is going to correct their faulty thinking on what it means to be sanctified or set apart for Jesus Christ.

1CO 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me" - but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me" - but I will not be mastered by anything."

"Everything" is not all inclusive. For example, the list Paul gives in verses 9 and 10 could not be included here. He isn’t saying that fornication is permissible, or that being an idolater or adulterer, nor a homosexual or thief and so on, is permissible for a child of God.

And yet, there is a sense in which Paul is conveying the idea that these things may be done by carnal believers, but they could never be construed as being helpful to the cause of Christ.

There is also the sense that in Christ we have been set free from the law, and therefore, we have certain liberties in Christ. But the point Paul is making is that whatever would not promote the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His church is something which is not profitable, no matter how free you see yourself in Christ.

And so, what Paul is trying to do is to get these people not to be so self-absorbed and to be more Christ absorbed where His cause and His life is seen to be the most important thing.

To only have self and its desires as the focal point in our lives is to prove ourselves not to be free, but to actually be slaves of this world and self.

Verse 12.... "but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me" - but I will not be mastered by anything."

There are things in our lives which we feel are permissible or lawful. But the truth of the matter is that some of those things are actually not beneficial to us or to the cause of Christ.

The word beneficial in the Greek is a word which means "to collect or contribute in order to help." The obvious point Paul is making is that fornication and so forth cannot help the cause of Christ, but neither can certain things which may seem harmless enough to us and yet may be a stumbling block to many people in the church, as well as those outside the church.

This doesn’t mean we all agree on a list of do’s and don’ts, it simply means that we each should weigh the greater good for the gospel so that Christ may be exalted, and not give the opportunity for anyone to be repulsed by our behavior so that the gospel is not even given a chance to be heard.

But now Paul begins to bring to light the personal aspect of our new life in Christ and what that means on a practical level. "I will not be mastered by anything." Again, this is in reference to those things which would dishonor Christ.

The word master in the Greek means to have power or authority over something. And what Paul wants to drive home here for these Corinthians is that the flesh and the sinful nature should not hold that place of power and authority over their lives to where it directs their desires.

GAL 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature (Or the flesh); rather, serve one another in love."

Some of these people were using their freedom in Christ to be self-serving, not serving others. And they also used this freedom as an excuse to sin, thinking, ‘that it will be covered anyhow by the blood of Christ, why not just indulge myself?’

Why not? Because it will not be profitable for the kingdom of God and you prove yourself to be ruled by your fleshly appetites, not by the love we should have for Christ. You see we are set free not to sin, but set free to serve God.

And in this case before us these Corinthians are not serving God, but self. And the reason they are not serving God is because they have not learned to bring this sanctification to bear on their lives as they submit to the Holy Spirit and His word, desiring to please Christ.

It takes discipline to walk after Christ. It takes a commitment to serve the living God. It doesn’t come naturally because the flesh always wants to do its own thing. And yet, being new creatures in Christ we have new desires, and a new power and a new ability to be able to love and serve God.

But, if we will not be mastered by Christ, we will be mastered by something. Paul understood the struggle and the need to commit to going forward with this challenge to glorify Christ with our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit.

1CO 9:25 "Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.
27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

Does that sound like Paul was passive in his pursuit of representing Christ in this world? I don’t think so. I don’t think it was any easier for Paul, when it came to being mastered by the Lord, than it is for us.

Paul had to struggle with the flesh, but he never hoped that the feeling of holiness would jump on him and then he walk in that holiness. Holiness was a reality based on the gift of salvation that Christ gave us. He simply took that gift seriously enough to be disciplined to follow after the Lord who gave it to him.

He was not going to let his flesh be his master, not after knowing that his Lord and true Master gave His life to purchase this gift for him.

I mean, notice the imagery and the use of action words Paul uses in different passages when dealing with this struggle.

COL 3:4 "When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry."

"Put to death" is not a passive approach to our pursuit of faithfully representing Christ in this world.

2TI 2:22 "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

Flee the evil desires of youth, pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. There is a spiritual war going on and unless we want to become a casualty then we need to be involved in this war as we actively pursue our Master who is leading us.

All of these things require choices on our parts. And the choice Paul wants us to make is the godly choice as we consider that we have been delivered from the master of this world who had dominion over our lives, as we chose to go our own way, instead of God’s way in Christ.

But now that we are new creatures in Christ we have the power and ability to please the Lord and to be used of Him to His glory. In fact, that’s really the point of this entire section of our text.

1Co.6:20 "For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body." (NASB)

But it’s having a proper understanding of what our body is to be used for and the way in which it can bring glory to God. As I mentioned earlier, many of the ancient Greeks felt the body was just a vessel to carry the soul around.

One commentator quotes an ancient Greek philosopher by the name of Epictetus who said, "I am a poor soul shackled to a corpse."

Unfortunately, many Christians have the same attitude about the body as though it’s just a necessary evil in their lives. And I can certainly understand why at times. The body grows old, it gets sick, it fails to work the way it was designed to due to any variety of ailments.

But our bodies are not necessary evils, they are not corpses housing our spirits. Our bodies are special vessels to be used by God. You see you can’t separate the physical body from the spirit as it’s used by God in this world.

Remember, we were created in the image of God and that includes our physical bodies. It’s true that God is Spirit and has no body, but it is through the body that we express those characteristics of our God.

And yet, after Christ’s birth into this world as He took on flesh, we can no longer say that God is without a body in one sense. Jesus Christ rose from the dead with His glorified body. That part of Christ which was physical went down into the grave and it was that same physical body which defeated the grave.

After His resurrection He appeared to His disciples after having appeared to two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were discussing the resurrection of the Lord when Jesus suddenly appeared to them.

LUK 24:36 "While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
38 He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?
39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.
41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?"
42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
43 and he took it and ate it in their presence."

Jesus Christ has not taken on flesh for a season. He has chosen to take on the same flesh you and I have, and now in His glorified state Jesus still has His glorified body and will for all of eternity. Does this look like Jesus treats the body with disdain or that it’s unimportant?

Absolutely not! Jesus Christ, the Son of God, after His incarnation, was, is and will continue to be fully God and fully man for all of eternity. And our bodies also will one day be like Christ’s as we are resurrected unto glory.

1CO 15:41 "The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body."

This same Jesus is the one who desires for us to be sanctified in the truth. That sanctification involves our entire being which includes our physical bodies in this world. And yet, our Lord wants us to realize that though we have a physical body it is a body that was always meant for God’s glory not our own desires.

1CO 6:13 "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food" - but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."

Paul does a play on words here in this verse. He begins by saying, Food for the stomach and the stomach for food. But at the end of the verse he essentially turns it around and says, the body for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

It’s important to keep in mind here that Paul wants us to realize that though there are aspects of the body that will not remain the same it doesn’t mean that that discounts the proper use of the body.

He begins with "food for the stomach and the stomach for food - but God will destroy them both."

What’s Paul mean by this? Keeping the context in mind Paul is saying that our bodies serve a particular function just from a physical stand-point. But to limit our understanding of our bodies to only the flesh is to miss the beauty of God’s creation found in human beings.

In this world we need to eat and drink to stay alive. When God created us for this world He built into us all of the things we need to stay alive. Paul says, food for the stomach and the stomach for food. He could just have easily have said, the blood for the heart, the heart for the blood. They need each other.

But as important as these things are, we need to look beyond what God has in store for us in this world alone. You see, there will be a day when the stomach and food will no longer be a consideration for our existence. Both will be destroyed. That word destroy in our text actually means to render inoperative or unnecessary.

We need stomachs here, but we won’t need stomachs in heaven. But this doesn’t mean that simply because our present physical bodies are designed for this world that they are unimportant or that we can use them anyway we want.

By the way, you might be wondering since our resurrection bodies don’t need to be nourished with physical food, why did Jesus eat food after His resurrection? Well, it had nothing to do with needing nourishment. It had everything to do with showing His disciples that He was not only God, but was still truly man, even though it was a glorified body fit for eternity.

By the way, there is a reference to a feast in which all of the saints will partake in the future kingdom, and if feast infers the same thing we think of when we feast here then in all likelihood food will be involved.

MAT 8:11 "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven."

But the point Paul is making in our text is that despite the limitations our physical bodies have and despite how this is not our final state as we look forward to the eternal in glorified bodies, don’t lose sight of the fact that we have an obligation to live unto the Lord today.

Verse 13.... "The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."

It is God who created us and it is God who has deemed our very existence, including our bodies, as good. If we have been created by God then He has designed every aspect of our existence to ultimately glorify Him.

And now, more so, in light of the fact that Jesus Christ has purchased us. We don’t belong to ourselves any more. Our bodies and spirits are to bring Him glory. That’s what they were originally designed to do, and now that we are new creatures in Christ we have been restored to the ability to do just that.

We have been redeemed and purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Our bodies are for the Lord and the Lord for our body.

REV 5:9 "And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation."

May He take the highest place in our lives and may the power of His Spirit enable us, as we submit and humble ourselves before Him, to glorify Him with our bodies. No more excuses to satisfy the desires of our flesh. Jesus Christ is our new Master and with His grace and strength we can show this world that we belong to Him to His glory.

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