Reframing Paul on sexual ethics, part III
What if it's all about the goodness of the body & eschatological ethics are for all of us?
Gentle reader,
Welcome new readers! I’m so glad you’ve joined us here at the Church Blogmatics community!
Welcome also to the third and final installment in my series on reframing the way we understand Paul’s teaching on sexual ethics. You can find part I, here and part II, here.
In part I, I argued that Paul and Jesus stand in continuity on sexual ethics, and that Paul is a faithful and pastorally sensitive interpreter of Jesus’s teaching. Paul and Jesus teach us that sexual ethics are not about perfectly following rules but about the flourishing of human beings as beloved children of God. In part II, I looked at Paul’s emphasis on singleness and the way that emphasis relativizes the biological family for the sake of the ecclesial family.
In this third installment, I’ll talk about Paul’s sexual ethics in the big picture. Those ethics are about pneumatology (Christian belief about the Holy Spirit) and eschatology (what Christians believe about the last things).
Paul’s sexual ethics stem from his understanding that the Spirit indwells our very bodies. Said indwelling is key to sexual ethics because it is key to how we understand ourselves and our bodies.
Those bodies are good. Those bodies matter to God. We bear witness—in our very flesh—to the goodness of God.
For Paul, what is the link between pneumatology and eschatology?
It’s the body.
Photo by Anna Nekrashevich via Pexels
God has good intentions for our bodies both now and in the future.
Right now, we are indwelt by the Spirit, and in the future, these same, Spirit-led bodies will be fully redeemed, when we come to share fully in Jesus’s resurrection; “for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in its own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).
The body as we know it now is the sōma psychikon, the body as led by the sinful self, but the body as it will be raised from the dead is the sōma pneumatikon,1 the body filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. The body now and the future body are the same body (sōma), but the future body is also transformed from selfishness to holiness as it is united with the Spirit (psychikon becomes pneumatikon).
But, for Christians, present and future are never quite as neatly separate as I just implied, because, for Christians, God’s future is already becoming our present reality. Our bodies are not yet fully free from sin and death, but our bodies are already indwelt by the Spirit and being transformed.
Our bodies are eschatological bodies, kingdom bodies.
Photo by Angela Roma via pexels
In chapter six of 1 Corinthians, Paul claims that sexual sin is serious because it is within the body itself, within which the Spirit dwells and which has a purpose: glorifying God.
The body is meant not for sexual immorality but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun sexual immorality! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
(1 Corinthians 6:13-20, NRSVUE)
Notice how Paul’s reasoning, here, hangs on the resurrection. The purpose of the body is a resurrection purpose, and we are people who look forward to the day where God “will also raise us by his power.”
Many folks would read Paul’s warning against sexual sin as an anti-bodily ethic, as if he were grossed out by sex and the other functions of the body and wants us to pretend to be creatures of pure spirit, who don’t have arms and legs and genitals. This could hardly be further from the truth.
What Paul gives us here is a pro-body ethic, an ethic which takes the body with the utmost seriousness and rightly recognizes that, because we are embodied creatures, what we do with our bodies is going to be very significant to who we are, to the way we approach discipleship, and to our relationships with God.
Sexual sin isn’t bad because it’s bodily. Sexual sin is bad because bodies matter.
Photo by Khalid Khan via pexels
It’s popular to suggest that parts of Paul’s ethics don’t really apply to us today, because Paul made a silly mistake. The mistake he supposedly made was thinking that Jesus was coming back soon.
And so, Paul gave us an eschtological ethics, one that assumes that the time has grown short,2 that we should keep awake,3 and that matters like marriage might be dispensible because the kingdom is so very near. This is a nice way to explain away Paul’s advice about remaining single. It isn’t for us, because, unlike Paul, we know that Jesus is far away.
But Paul wasn’t wrong. Jesus is near. The time has grown short. We must keep awake. Matters like marriage might be dispensible, because the kingdom is the nearest reality we know.
I’ll never forget the great scholar of world Christianity, Andrew Walls, addressing a crowd and questioning our assumption that it’s been a long, long time since Jesus was around. Walls said something like this: “never forget, we may be living in the very earliest days of the church.”
Indeed, we are.
The day of the church is the same in the first century and the twentieth century. The day of the church is the same as it will be if we’re still waiting for Jesus in the fortieth century.
It’s that short space between the first and second comings of Christ. It’s that space where our bodies matter and what we do with those bodies can be filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s that day when our bodies are kingdom realities.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Grace & peace,
BFJ
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The terms are from 1 Corinthians 15:44 and are often translated in English as “physical body” and “spiritual body.” That’s a really unfortunate translation, because it suggests that the transformation we know in Jesus is one from materiality to immateriality, when—in fact—both bodies are physical bodies, but the body is being transformed in relationship to the Holy Spirit.
“I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none…” (1 Corinthians 7:29).
“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42).
Hi, Beth,
I'm enjoying your series. Some good insights here.
BTW, the text doesn't fit into my email frame and clicking on "view in browser" results in a page of code. You might let your webmaster know.
Thanks,
Pam