1Corinthians 6:13 “The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”

If you love the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday February 2nd was a dream that came true. Once we started winning playoff games by coming from behind and exploding in the second half, we felt that this was the year. And if you are like me, this year is the beginning of many years to come. Over 102 million people watched our Chiefs win this year’s Super Bowl, of which there were millions of children and young adults.

Halftime was unusual since weren’t behind. The commentators were predicting the usual explosion by the Chief offense in the second half. But there was no warning what was about to hit us at halftime. I never really heard of Shakira (I just gave away my age), so her performance with Jennifer Lopez was nothing like I expected in a halftime show. With America’s cultural obsession with sex, I should have known better.

I cannot remember when a female entertainer had ever spent so much time shaking her crotch at the audience. I felt embarrassed for her. I don’t understand why someone with such a beautiful voice needed to use her body in such a sex-charged way to entertain people. I can only think that our culture has gotten so fixated on the physical gratification of sexual expression that we are bored with listening to a melody.

The next day, the Washington Times, a secular newspaper, featured the response from Christian Pastor Franklin Graham, and provided their own assessment of Shakira’s and Lopez’s performance: “Worldwide Christian evangelist Franklin Graham sent out a scathing criticism on Facebook of the NFL’s halftime Super Bowl show, accusing the pertinent players of outright ‘sexual exploitation’ of women and children. He’s right.” It is worth the time to understand when both Christian and secular groups agree on something.

The article goes on to expose the hypocrisy in the sexual immorality of the show: “It’s such a curious matter that women spent all those decades trying to achieve equality with men — only to wear thongs and dance in super-sexualized manners all in the name of female empowerment. But how is setting oneself as an object of sex an act of empowerment? Female empowerment should come from brains, not body. Or if it comes from body, it should be due to athleticism, or ability to overcome great physical odds, climb great and strenuous heights, and so forth and so on. Not due to looking good in a bikini — or being able to swing high from a stripper pole” (referring to Lopez’s part in the pornographic imagery of their performance).

Franklin Graham made it clear that this wasn’t a Christian bash against secularism – it was a criticism of our overall loss of moral decency: “I don’t expect the world to act like the church, but our country has had a sense of moral decency on primetime television in order to protect children. We see that disappearing before our eyes. This exhibition was Pepsi showing young girls that sexual exploitation of women is okay. With the exploitation of women on the rise worldwide, instead of lowering the standard, we as a society should be raising it.” Once again, the secular newspaper not only agreed but added to Graham’s point.

“Here’s the main matter: Child sex trafficking is a real thing. Human sex trafficking is a massive money-maker for evil. Pretending as if performances on national television that are sexually charged and played during prime time isn’t a damaging message to minors, or a disgusting sign of cultural decay, is delusional.”

In one of the earliest letters written to the growing Christian churches, the apostle Paul urged the church in the city of Corinth to think about why their obsession with sexual immorality was never God’s design for their bodies. It was exactly the opposite – the human body is designed as the dwelling place for God Himself, designed to bring glory to the One who made us. In our verse for this week, Paul is explaining God’s purpose for creating people with a body – our bodies belong to Him, meant as His dwelling place.

In verse 15, God asks a simple question to the early church members: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” In verse 19, God follows up with a second question: “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?” These two questions from the Lord are timeless. They are His precursors to His answer in verse 20.

You were bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

We who follow Jesus Christ do so because He redeemed us at the Cross by paying the ransom for our sins. So we can’t use our bodies anyway we want. The main question for Christians is not “How far can I go before I have sinned sexually?” That’s what the world tries to figure out. Our question is “To whom do I belong?”