(continuation
from Meditation 88)
Prostitution in the Corinthian church (see also Meditations 78 and 87)
As we wrote in Meditation 78, prostitution was an integral aspect of
Greek culture. Moreover, Corinth was a port city with many brothels. It also
had the temple of Aphrodite (the goddess of love) with its 1,000 temple
prostitutes.
In Meditation 87 we read Paul’s keynote on sexual immorality to the
Corinthian Christians who lived in this den of iniquity: “Flee from sexual
immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins
sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple
of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not
your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your
body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
God’s Word mentions two kinds of prostitution: (1)
prostitution as a ‘carnal sin’, (2) prostitution as a ‘spiritual sin’ or
a ‘sin of the heart’.
(1) Prostitution as a ‘carnal
sin’
At Mount Sinai, after God delivered Israel
from bondage in Egypt (14th century B.C.?), He made the Mosaic
Covenant with His people. In some laws of this Covenant, God strictly forbade
prostitution:
--
“Do not
defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled
with promiscuity and detestable wickedness.” (Leviticus 19:29)
-- “The
(Jewish) priests must not marry women defiled by prostitution ..... for the
priests must be set apart to God as holy.” (Leviticus 21:7)
-- “If a priest's daughter becomes a prostitute,
defiling her father's holiness as well as herself, she must be burned to
death.” (Leviticus 21:9)
-- “No
Israelite man or woman may ever become a temple prostitute.” (Deuteronomy
23:17)
Why did God give His people such rigorous laws at Mount
Sinai? In Meditation 87 I mentioned two main reasons. I will repeat them here:
a.) The apostle Paul says about God’s Mosaic Law: “The
Law was our guardian and teacher to lead us until Christ [the Messiah] came...”
(Galatians 3:24)
In other words, the Law prepared us for Christ’s coming. The
Law kept us on track towards Christ’s future.
Paul explains to the Christians in Rome:“No one can ever
be made right in God's sight by doing what his Law commands. For the more we
know God's Law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying it” (Romans 3:20) or as the New
International Version translates:“... through the Law we become conscious of
sin.” It is through the Law that we come to understand what ‘sin’ is in
God’s eyes. And it is also through the Law that we become aware of the need for
the sin offering of God’s Son at the cross of Calvary to reconcile us with God
the Father.
b.) God used His Law as both guardian and teacher to lead
His people until the Messiah would come, He also used it to separate His
people from the lifestyle and customs of the nations around them.
We can read in Exodus 19:3-6: “Then
Moses climbed the mountain to appear before God. The LORD called out to him
from the mountain and said, 'Give these instructions to the descendants of
Jacob, the people of Israel: 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You
know how I brought you to myself and carried you on eagle's wings. Now if you
will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from
among all the nations of the earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you
will be to me a kingdom of priests, my holy nation.' Give this message to the Israelites.'”
Furthermore, God says in Leviticus 20:22-26: “You
must carefully obey all my laws and regulations; otherwise the land to which I
am bringing you will vomit you out. Do not live by the customs of the people
whom I will expel before you. It is because they do these terrible things that
I detest them so much. ... I, the LORD, am your God, who has set you apart from
all other people. ... You must be holy because I, the LORD, am holy. I have set
you apart from all other people to be my very own.”
* * *
About 1,300 years later, in his
letter to the church in Corinth, the apostle Paul shows the implications
of prostitution as a ‘carnal sin’ in the
New or Messianic Covenant. As we know, the characteristic of the Messianic
Covenant is the rebirth by God’s Spirit after one’s conversion to Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Paul explains to these Christians in Corinth who endorsed sexual
liberty (see Meditation 87):
-- “Our bodies were not made for sexual
immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.”
(1 Corinthians 6:13)
-- “Don't you realize that your bodies are
actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ,
and join it to a prostitute? Never!” (1 Corinthians 6:15)
-- “And don't you know that if a man joins
himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say,
"The two are united into one" (Genesis 2:24). But the person who is
joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” (1
Corinthians 6:16-17)
-- “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits
are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom
you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honour God with your body.” (1
Corinthians 6:18-20)
It
is clear that these directions for individual followers of Jesus also have
significance for the entire local church which is the Body of the Messiah and
the Residence of God’s Spirit. If someone in the church does not obey God’s
commands and consequently brings the entire church into disrepute, God will
certainly interfere. By mouth of His apostle, God warns the church in Corinth
and everywhere else: “Don't you realize that all
of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God's temple is
holy, and you Christians are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
At Mount Sinai, where God made the Mosaic Covenant
with His people Israel, He promised them: “If you obey me fully and keep my
covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although
the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6)
When the apostle Peter specially addressed the
non-Jewish followers of Jesus who had entered into God’s New or Messianic
Covenant with the Jewish followers of Jesus, Peter quoted God’s Words to Israel
at Mount Sinai (see Exodus 19:5-6), saying: “You are a kingdom of priests,
God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the
goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful
light. Once you (non-Jewish Christians) were not a people; now you are the
people of God. Once you received none of God's mercy; now you have received his
mercy. Dear brothers and sisters, you are foreigners and aliens here. So I warn
you to keep away from evil desires because they fight against your very souls.
Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse
you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will
believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world.” (1
Peter 2:9-12)
In this meditation we have reflected on God’s
abhorrence of prostitution as a ‘carnal sin’. As we read in 1 Corinthians 6:18,
God wants Jesus’ followers to flee from sexual immorality. That leaves me with some questions
for me and my church:
--
Am I aware of the fact that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in
me and whom I have received from God at my conversion and rebirth?
--
Do I know that I am God’s very own possession, that I was bought by God from
the slavery of sin at the price of Jesus’ blood? Is it for that very reason my
intention to honour God daily with my body? Do I know what that implies
practically?
--
Does my church realise that all our church members
together are also God’s holy temple and that the Spirit of God lives in us?
-- Does my church understand that all our members
together are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation and his very own
possession to show the goodness of God to our unbelieving neighbours?
-- Sexual immorality is a gigantic worldwide
problem. Therefore, members of our churches might easily be involved in
prostitution. If so, how does my church respond to this need? Does my church
cover up such situations? Does it try to restore ‘fallen’ members in a spirit
of love and compassion? Does my church have ‘awareness programmes’ to fight
sexual immorality by church members? Is my church prepared to use Christlike
church discipline to deal with unrepentant members? (see Meditation 88)
-- To summarise it all, does my church pursue
Christlike holiness (1) so that the
transforming power of God’s Spirit may attract those around who search for God
and for the true meaning of life? (2) so that my church will be ready as a
‘pure virgin’ (2 Corinthians 11:2) for the glorious wedding day of Jesus
Messiah?
In the next meditation we will reflect on prostitution as a
‘spiritual sin’ or a ‘sin of the heart’.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20, Exodus 19:5-6, are quotes from the New International Version. All other
quotes are from the New Living Translation.
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