(12) All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. (13) Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. (14) And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
There is some difficulty in apprehending the Apostle's immediate design in the former part of these verses. Probably it might refer to somewhat personal, respecting the Corinthians. But there is no difficulty to understand the Apostle's beautiful allusion to Christ, and his mystical body, when he saith, the body of a believer is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Christ's mystical body, which is the whole body of the Church, was given him by the Father before all worlds. Jesus delights to speak of this body upon every occasion; highly prizing it on his Father's account, as well as his own, and to whom he promised the Holy Ghost, John 17:6-10; Psalms 21:2; Song of Solomon 7:10; John 14:17-18. And it is by virtue of this union, and oneness, between Christ and his people, that the bodies of the redeemed will be raised up at the last day. They will not arise as the unredeemed will, brought forth by the naked power of God, but from an union with Christ. So Paul speaks. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you; he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by his Spirit that dwelleth in you, Romans 8:11. Even in the grave, and dust of death, there is an union of the bodies of Christ's redeemed, to the Lord their Head, by virtue of which, at the great day they will arise; and as the Lord Jesus said because I live, ye shall live also, John 14:19.