Episode Synopsis:

It has been said that prostitution is the world’s old profession.  In reality, tending a garden and naming animals is.  But if you lived in first century Corinth you lived in a city well-known for its prostitutes and rampant sexual immorality.  This creates a difficult situation for Christians who live there and who have been taught by Paul that sexual relations are limited to marriage.

Paul has learned that some in the Corinthian church justified using the services of prostitutes by contending that Christian liberty allows it–the same excuse some were giving for eating food sacrificed to idols.  Yes, the temptations Christians faced were real and many engaged in such behavior before their conversion.  But as Paul has taught them, Christians must break with their pagan past and resist the pressure to continue to give into all bodily desires and urges.  Yes, Christians are free from law-keeping as a means of justification, but such freedom entails freedom to obey the commands of God, not freedom to indulge in seeking to satisfy every bodily urge.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that they have been bought by a price (the shed blood of Jesus Christ) and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  A Christian is no longer a slave to sin and now is a bond servant of Jesus Christ.  Their bodies belong to their creator-redeemer.  Paul asks, “how can someone in union with Jesus Christ unite themselves in a sexual union with someone who represents pagan religion and spirituality?”  Such a thing is unthinkable for Paul.

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/