He gives lessons, stands on solid ground, and provides a clear moral compass. Flee debauchery, pornography, prostitution β¦ Either the command horripilates because of its moralizing tone, or it reassures, because it provides a clear behavior to follow and adopt.
Whatever reaction one has, it is important to go back to what Paul says, and particularly, how what he says about prostitution and debauchery functions in his general argument. In the first century, any respectable Jew would have condemned porneia , namely debauchery, fornication, and prostitution. This was the sin of the Gentiles, precisely what the Jews did not do. In that regard, Paul remains squarely into his tradition, and one would have been hard-pressed to find a Jew who did not condemn porneia.
Dale Martin writes,. Paul maintains this distinction. They need, as he says in Romans, to be in the world, without belonging to the world Romans 2. Engaging in fornication would put them on the wrong side of the cosmic battle between the world and God. In contrast, thus, with what the Corinthians seem to have understood, or at least with the manner in which Paul represents what they have understood, Paul strongly affirms that the freedom given to the Christ believers is not absolute freedom: all things are indeed permitted 2 to me, but not all things are beneficial.
For Paul, freedom is always oriented freedom; and for the Christ believers, this freedom depends on their lord, Christ. Through their baptism, the Christ believers now belong to Christ. For them the question is no longer what is permitted or not, or what is legal or not.
Rather, they have to orient their freedom in order to embody their new life in Christ. In this new freedom, the body is not bad in itself. Paul is not a dualist who opposes body and soul, or an ascetic who advocates purification. The body continues to play a role in the life lived in the realm of the spirit. It also indicates that, at least in Corinth and according to Paul, some Christ believers understood that freedom in Christ meant that one was free to be a Christ believer and visit prostitutes.
