|
by
Doug Ward |
Our culture today aptly can be described as "sex-saturated."
We face a constant media bombardment of sexual innuendoes and images, which
creates a special challenge for those who strive for chastity and self-control.
In
battling with sexual and other temptations, we know that we can turn for help
to Jesus, our high priest, who "in every respect has been tempted as we
are, yet without sin" (Heb 4:15). We also can draw strength from the
examples of those who have gone before us, people like Joseph the son of Jacob.
As
we read in Gen 37 and 39, Joseph in his youth was sold into slavery but quickly
rose to a position of responsibility in the household of Potiphar, captain of
the guard of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Although separated from his family and alone
in a strange land, Joseph remained faithful to Potiphar and to God, steadfastly
resisting the advances of Potiphar's wife (Gen 39:1-12). Rejecting her attempts
to seduce him, Joseph asked, "How then can I do this great wickedness and
sin against God?" (v. 10).
Joseph's
virtue has long been admired and celebrated among the people of God. This was
particularly true during the Second Temple period. For example, the book of
Fourth Maccabees (first century A.D.) praises Joseph as one who was able
"by mental effort" to attain mastery over his emotions and desires (4
Macc 2:1-5).
Joseph's
strength of character receives special emphasis in the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, a fictional work from the first or second century B.C. that
pictures the deathbed advice of the sons of Jacob to their descendants. The
Testaments give a highly dramatized account of Joseph's conflict with
Potiphar's wife, portraying his victory over temptation as the defining episode
of his life. In the Testament of Joseph, Joseph describes how Potiphar's wife
tried to lure him into adultery by (1) giving him gifts; (2) offering to follow
his God; (3) offering to poison her husband; (4) threatening to kill herself;
(5) disrobing in his presence.1 Joseph
follows a regimen of prayer and fasting to thwart these temptations.
While
Joseph urges his children to emulate his example of self-mastery, his older
brother Reuben warns against giving in to lust, as Reuben had done with Bilhah
(Gen 35:22). "Flee, therefore, fornication, my children," Reuben
cautions (T. Reuben 5:5).
These
words attributed to Reuben remind us of the apostle Paul's exhortation in 1 Cor
6:18: "Flee from sexual immorality." Here Paul may well have been
quoting the Testament of Reuben. In any case, scholars agree that Paul had
Joseph's example in mind as he wrote to early Christians in Corinth, given the
topics he addresses in verses 12-20.2
Although
Paul does not say explicitly what prompted his remarks in 1 Cor 6:12-20, we can
identify the main issues from what he does say. Apparently some Corinthian
Christians had been visiting prostitutes and believed this practice was not a
problem (see 6:17). They may have reasoned that sex is a natural function, like
eating and drinking. Since Paul was advocating flexibility in some dietary
matters (see chapter 10), shouldn't such flexibility also be appropriate in
sexual matters? After all, our physical bodies are temporary (6:13).
Paul
gives a forceful reply in 1 Cor 6, making a strong case that sexual morality is
a critical issue. In his argument, Paul makes several points based on
scriptural themes.
First,
God is the Redeemer and Master of his people and so ordains how they should
live. When God freed the Israelites from Egypt, they exchanged masters. No
longer slaves to Pharaoh, they became God's treasured possession (Exod 19:5).
At Sinai, they received instruction in how to live as God's redeemed community.
Similarly, Christians are "bought with a price" (1 Cor 6:20),
redeemed through the blood of Jesus. As Jesus was resurrected, so God will
resurrect and transform our bodies (see v. 14 and 1 Cor 15). As a result, our
bodies belong to God and are to be used to serve and glorify him (vv. 13,
19-20).
Second,
God's relationship with his people is an intimate marriage relationship. The
prophets describe Israel as God's bride (Jer 2:2; Ezek 16; Isa 54:1-8), and the
Torah calls upon Israel to "hold fast" or "cleave" to God
(Deut 10:20;11:22) as a husband and wife cleave together in marriage (Gen
2:24). Similarly, the Christian community is pictured in the New Testament as
the bride of Christ (Rev 19:7; Eph 5:22-33). Christians are "joined to the
Lord", united to Christ with "one spirit" (1 Cor 6:17).
Third,
prostitution compromises that exclusive relationship. In the Hebrew Scriptures
the act of turning away from the true God toward other gods is described as a
kind of spiritual prostitution (Deut 31:16; Judges 2:17; 8:27,33; 1 Chron 5:25;
Hosea 4:12; 5:4). Moreover, the literal prostitution that was part of Canaanite
worship was one thing that led Israel to idolatry (Num 25, e.g.). In the Greek
Septuagint translation, the word porneia is used for both physical
prostitution and unfaithfulness to God.
Paul
also identifies a connection between prostitution and unfaithfulness to God. In
1 Cor 6:15-18 he argues, based on Gen 2:24, that sexual immorality (again porneia
in Greek) is an especially harmful sin because it creates a lasting "one
flesh" bond that is incompatible with the exclusive union between
believers and Christ. According to Paul, a person who makes such an
inappropriate, irreversible bond "sins against his own body." Earlier
in 1 Cor 6, he states that those who practice sexual immorality will not
inherit the kingdom of God (vv. 9-10).
Pauline
scholar Brian S. Rosner3 observes
that Paul's exhortation in I Cor 6:12-20 "places him in line with the best
of Israel's prophets." Most notably, Paul follows in the footsteps of the
prophet Hosea. At God's direction Hosea takes back his wife Gomer, who had left
him for a life of prostitution. After paying to redeem Gomer from servitude,
Hosea forbids her from engaging in prostitution again (Hosea 3:1-3). Similarly,
Paul urges Christians, who have been "bought with a price," to
"flee sexual immorality."
Paul's
argument in 1 Cor 6 makes clear that sexual morality is a serious matter
indeed, one that affects the health and future of our relationship with God.
Having studied it, we are now in a position to better understand why porneia
is a "sin against God," as Joseph said in Gen 39:10, and why ancient
writers portrayed Joseph's resistance to Potiphar's wife as an epic confrontation.
Joseph and Paul also give us extra encouragement to continue our own battles
for sexual purity, given how much is at stake in the outcome.
1The Testament of
Reuben (4:9-10) adds that Potiphar's wife "summoned magicians, and offered
him love potions."
2On this point, see
Brian S. Rosner's Paul, Scripture, and Ethics: A study of 1 Corinthians 5-7,
Baker Books, 1994, pp. 137-143.
3Paul,
Scripture, and Ethics, p. 137.
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