Isn’t my body my own, to do with as I choose?

1 Corinthians 6:13You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Romans 12:1I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.

When we become followers of Jesus, we dedicate ourselves to the Lord, and that includes dedicating our bodies. Our bodies are no longer truly ours, but are his temple. How we treat and use our bodies is part of being a living sacrifice. In marriage, our bodies also belong to our spouse.

1 Corinthians 6:15Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never!

Colossians 3:17Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Each of us is a representative of Christ. When we sin, we not only affect ourselves—we affect Christ’s witness in the world.

1 Corinthians 7:3-4The husband should fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs. The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife.

Malachi 2:14-16You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows. Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. . . . “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”

Our bodies do not belong to us. They belong to God, and they also belong to our spouse. The choices we make with our bodies are not merely personal choices. Those choices affect others deeply, and they affect the health of our relationship with God.

Leviticus 18:20“Do not defile yourself by having sexual intercourse with your neighbor’s wife.”

Deuteronomy 22:22“If a man is discovered committing adultery, both he and the woman must die. In this way, you will purge Israel of such evil.”

The urgency and strength of these Old Testament laws dealing with sexual activity outside of marriage is related to its devastating impact on families and communities. Such sexual relationships are so damaging because they destroy trust, create confusion in relationships, and tear down a climate of respect. Without those things, there can be no real community among God’s people. Sex outside of marriage always leads to profound harm.