Family · for teens

Your body is not disposable

A teaching for teens · 1 Corinthians 6:18–20

¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:18–20 · BSB

Context

Corinth was a wealthy port city, known in the ancient world for sexual immorality. Some Christians there said the body didn’t matter: what counts is the spirit, so what I do with my body doesn’t affect my faith. Paul answers that idea. For him, the body isn’t a detail or a wrapper: it’s part of who we are, God values it, and one day he will raise it.

What the Bible teaches

Our culture tends to say two opposite things about the body. One: your body is yours, do whatever you want, there are no consequences. The other: your body is a display window, it has to be shown off and rated. Paul disagrees with both. He says the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. A temple is a place of honor, where God lives. Your body isn’t disposable or a product.

That’s why he says: “Flee from sexual immorality.” He doesn’t say fight it, negotiate, see how far you can go. He says flee, the way Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife. In practice, fleeing can mean not sending or asking for intimate photos, not putting yourself in situations you know where they’ll lead, watching what you consume on your phone. Sexuality is a gift from God, designed for the covenant of marriage, not something dirty. Precisely because it’s valuable, it deserves protection.

And what if you’ve already messed up? The central line of the text is this: you were bought at a price. Jesus paid for all of you, with the story you have. Guilt isn’t the fuel of purity; gratitude is. Starting over is possible. And if someone touched or exposed your body without your consent, that is not your sin. It’s violence, and you deserve protection.

Take care: If someone touched, photographed or exposed your body without consent, or pressures you to send intimate photos, it is not your fault. Tell a trusted adult and get help: Disque 100 (Brazil; violence against children, teens and older adults) and 190 (Brazil) in an emergency.

In practice

This week, identify one concrete door that leaves you vulnerable (an app, a time of day, a place) and set a clear limit. Tell that limit to someone you trust who can ask how you’re doing.

To talk about

Where does our culture treat the body as disposable, where does it treat it as a display window, and what would it mean to treat it as a temple?

Prayer

God, thank you for my body, which you made and want to live in. Give me courage to flee from what destroys me and wisdom to set limits. Where I’ve failed, wash me with your forgiveness. Where I’ve been hurt, heal and protect me. I belong to you. Amen.