No Body Is for Sale

Content note: this sermon discusses sexual harm, sex work, and a Bible verse that has been used against LGBTQ people.

Purity culture taught that bodies matter because they can be ruined. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul says bodies matter because God raises them, lives in them, and has bought them. Pastor Anthony walks through the whole chapter: siblings with money dragging each other into court, a list of the unjust that ends with "this is what some of y'all used to be," and men who think they can buy a body. Along the way he looks at how the word "homosexual" first entered an English Bible in 1946, what the Greek words malakoi and arsenokoitai can and can't tell us, and why Paul confronts the buyer and never blames the woman.

The market says everybody has a price. God walked into the market too, and what God has bought, nobody else gets to own.

Part two of a two-part Hot Takes conversation on 1 Corinthians 5 and 6.

If this sermon touches your story: DC Rape Crisis Center, 24/7: (202) 333-7273 The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386, or text START to 678-678 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988

To report misconduct at The Table Church, use the link at the bottom of thetablechurch.org. Reports go to all the elders at once, bypassing Pastors Anthony and Tonetta.