Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Sexy chicks
1 Corinthians 6:18
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
During the last few years, it’s been a joy and a privilege for me to work with the legendary Dave Martins of Tradewinds fame. I have been listening to and enjoying Dave Martins and the Tradewinds since boyhood days, so you could just imagine. Dave Martins is one of the most powerful and effective storytellers of the modern era in the Caribbean.
Dave and the Tradewinds have a song from the 60s/70s named Mr Rooster. This song is about a man who had 16 chickens that wouldn’t lay and so he buys a rooster to help him overcome the problem with the chickens. The chickens, on seeing the rooster, got excited and started chasing after him. That gave us the chorus, “If you see the rooster runnin / Sixteen sexy chickens chasin him / Round and round the corner / If you see the rooster running / Sixteen sexy chickens chasin him / He bawlin for murder.”
The chickens cornered the rooster and talked with him “Well they trap the mister / And they started advancing / We have not seen a rooster since October / We will treat you nice and bring you food / You will live just like a king / History books will call you the Chicken Cassanova.” Apparently, the rooster fell for it and died.
Whenever I hear this song I have a good laugh and then I reflect on Joseph in the Bible who ran when he was offered sex by his boss’s wife. We don’t know if the apostle Paul had Joseph in mind when he was writing to the church at Corinth but his choice of words does make it likely. “But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.” Genesis 39:11,12.
Getting guys to run in the face of good offers of sex is not exactly easy, I know this personally, I had some very good offers and opportunities recently. I remember one particular offer where the person making the offer, convinced that I was focused on my faith, sought to challenge me on doctrine. The lady said, essentially, that “you preach that if we confess our sins God would forgive us, what then was the big deal, let’s do what we want to and then ask God for forgiveness.” Phew! I fled.
That incident caused me to reflect on a friend of mine who, over the years, got into several sexual trysts. As a consequence of his failure to flee when opportunities for sex were presented or created, he was being judged, and disciplined, by the church leadership and was barred from some expected roles in ministry. He protested that he was being “unfairly treated” because “all sin is sin” and people who had committed other sins like lying and so on were not being treated the same way.”
This is a popular argument, that there is no hierarchy of sin, all sin has the same ultimate consequence. Paul seems to confirm this when he gave this list. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9,10. Sexual sinners and other sinner are all outside the kingdom together.
The guys who don’t flee stop reading right there. Paul, however, goes on in verses 12 to 20 of this very chapter 6 of first Corinthians to make the argument for why sexual sin is actually worse than others. Here is the crux of the argument in our key verse, “Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
Joseph, in his discourse with Potiphar’s wife, outlined how illicit sex with her would undermine his relationship with men and compromise his relationship with God, “There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9.
Paul, in his letter, unpacks for us what is at work in sexual sin, and gives us the real basis for sexual purity. For the Christian, sexual purity is to be driven by God’s perspective of our bodies.
First of all, God is interested in our bodies and intends to raise them up in the future. “Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.” 1 Corinthians 6:13, 14.
Secondly, the idea of becoming one flesh with another is not a mystical union in a marriage ceremony, it is a practical sexual act, “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” 1 Corinthians 6:16.
Thirdly, body ownership, our bodies were bought to be temples of the Holy Spirit, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19,20.
When tempted by sexy chicks, run Mr Rooster!
Think on these things:
- How do you handle sexual temptation and propositioning?
- Have you treated sexual sin just like any other sin?
- How does your church restore members who were guilty of sexual sin?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today for the Holy Spirit to help us to manage our sexuality to honour God.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
