“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.1 Corinthians 6:12-14

1 Corinthians 6:12-14

Appetites. We eat because we are hungry. We eat because we enjoy food, but most of our lives have not been destroyed by a natural appetite for food. But when Paul mentions food in verse thirteen of the sixth chapter of 1 Corinthians, he’s speaking to another appetite that can destroy. In fact, Paul will invest most of the rest of chapters six and seven addressing a Scriptural approach to sexuality and marriage, because God’s plan to help people flourish is often ignored or rationalized away.

I think Paul’s reference to food is helpful because we all know what it means to have an appetite for food, but we also know the danger of eating too much or eating what is not good for us, right?

In the same way, sexuality was a gift of God from the very beginning, but sexual, no. Paul reminds us that for the follower of Christ, “the body is not meant for sexual immorality.”

In our culture today, sexuality is idolized and perverted in any number of ways. The truth is that immoral sexual activity is nothing new, but something we should all avoid. Let’s start here and then consider what Paul has to say in the next verses.