Day 39 — Bought at a Price
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, you gave yourself to redeem me and made my body a dwelling place of your Spirit. As I read your word, free me from every false master and teach me to honour you with my whole embodied life. Amen.
Headline
Our bodies belong to the risen Christ, who bought us at the cost of his own body and calls us to honour God with ours.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Comment
Yesterday, Paul called us to live in a way that is “holy and honourable”. Today he explains why our bodily lives matter so deeply. The Corinthians were claiming, “I have the right to do anything” (v.12). Paul does not answer by denying Christian freedom, but by asking where that freedom leads. Is this choice beneficial? Does it build up life and love? Or has my supposed freedom become another master? A desire we insist on obeying can quietly become a chain.
Behind another Corinthian slogan—“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food” (v.13)—lies the idea that sex is merely a physical appetite: natural, temporary and without lasting significance. Paul rejects that reduction. “The body…is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (v.13). Our bodies are not disposable containers for our real, spiritual selves. God created them, Christ claims them, the Spirit inhabits them, and God will raise them.
That future resurrection transforms the present. What we do with our bodies is part of our discipleship because our bodies are “members of Christ himself” (v.15). Paul returns to Genesis: sexual union joins two people as “one flesh” (v.16). He is not claiming that every sexual encounter creates a marriage, but he refuses to treat sex as casual contact between unrelated bodies. Sexual intimacy says something with the body about personal union. When detached from faithful covenant love, the body says more than the relationship can truthfully sustain.
Paul therefore says, “Flee from sexual immorality” (v.18). Sometimes wisdom is not standing near temptation to prove our strength, but leaving. Yet Paul’s words about sinning against one’s own body should not be turned into the claim that sexual sin is uniquely unforgivable, or that a person sinned against through coercion or abuse has become guilty or spoiled. Responsibility belongs to the wrongdoer. Christ’s grace is sufficient for every repentant sinner, and another person’s violation cannot cancel the dignity of someone who belongs to him.
The passage reaches its climax: “Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit” (v.19). God does not merely issue instructions from outside us. His Spirit dwells within his people, making our embodied lives places where God is to be honoured. Chastity is therefore not contempt for the body, but reverence for what God has made his dwelling.
Then Paul says, “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (vv.19–20). These words must never be used by a spouse, partner or church leader to claim control over someone else’s body. We do not belong to them; we belong to Christ. And Christ does not use our bodies for his gratification. He gave his own body for us. The price was his blood, shed to forgive our guilt, release us from enslaving masters and make us his own.
To belong to Christ is not a smaller freedom. If being “my own” means being mastered by desires I cannot govern, secrecy I must protect or approval I cannot live without, then self-ownership has not made me free. Christ’s costly love frees me to receive my body as his gift, to refuse what degrades it and to offer it in loving service.
Why does God want me to hear this today? Perhaps because I treat my body as an appetite to satisfy, an image to perfect or property over which no one—including God—may speak. Paul offers a better identity. My body belongs to the Lord who died for me, will raise me and has placed his Spirit within me. Therefore I can honour God with it.
Reflect
- Where has a supposed freedom begun to master you rather than help you love God and others?
- How does the promise of bodily resurrection change the way you regard your body now?
- What difference does it make to know that Christ bought you by giving his own body for you?
Action
Name one bodily habit that does not fit your identity as someone united to Christ and indwelt by his Spirit. Take one practical step to flee it today. Then choose one positive way to honour God with your body—through rest, movement, faithful affection, practical service or care for someone whose body is vulnerable.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for giving your body and shedding your blood to make me your own. Forgive me when I misuse my freedom or allow desire to master me. By your Holy Spirit, teach me to flee what dishonours you and to receive my body as your good gift. Keep me faithful as I await the resurrection, and help me honour you with my body today. Amen.
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