There are many differences between what the Bible says and the Greco-Roman culture, which continue to influence much of our contemporary world. How we think about, and manage, our deep inner desires is one example. God has implanted all of our appetites as natural instincts to enable us to regulate our energy levels, temperature, social interactions and reproduction. However sin has corrupted all of them in human beings.
 
Consequently, we may believe that satisfying an appetite is either a biological function or a moral right. But God, who knows our sinful nature, knew we needed restraints. So He gave laws in order that we might know what is right and what is wrong. For example, the instinct to make a home and have work is good, but stealing in order to do it is bad. Intimate relationships were only for a man and woman who had been given to each other in marriage. Eating is essential but gluttony is wrong. All these restraints were God's kindness to His people enabling a community with social cohesion to worship Him and enjoy His gifts - as the people obeyed and honoured their Creator.
 
But the Corinthian church was stuck in the city's culture and influenced by its philosophers. They did not understand the connection between faith and how they should use their bodies. So Paul explained that the way we use our bodies is an expression of our faith and not to indulge our own appetites outside of God's restraints. Our bodies will all be destroyed when we die, but what we have done in our bodies has eternal significance – providing evidence of faith, which will be rewarded when Jesus Christ returns.
 
Alas, much of our previously Christianised world has tried to mix Christ with a secular version of the Greco-Roman culture. That has left a spiritual vacuum that only the gospel can satisfy, but has put the church at risk of collaborating with the culture rather than being distinctively Christ-like. The message of 1 Corinthians is a message for us, wherever we are living in the world today. Our bodies are given by the Lord and are designed to be used to glorify Him and not indulge ourselves. What we do physically inevitably expresses what we believe. It is time to wake up and repent.