Honoring God with Our Bodies

“…The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:13-20 ESV

When you read through the Scriptures, have you ever noticed how often this subject is talked about? Have you ever noticed how sexual immorality, impurity, and sensuality are at the top of most of the lists of sins? In the New Testament alone, immorality is mentioned 32 times, sexual immorality 31 times, impurity 9 times, and sensuality 8 times (at least in the ESV version). And sexual immorality is mentioned 7 times in the book of 1 Corinthians and 9 times in the book of Revelation. 

Now, I know this is not a subject most people want to hear about or talk about, but it is probably the number one sin infecting and impacting the church, marriages, families, and other relationships today, including or most importantly people’s relationships with God and with their spouses and children. And it is probably the number one sin destroying the church today and people’s lives and their futures and their relationships with Jesus Christ. And so, unpleasant as it may seem, it needs to be addressed.

Now sexual immorality is not just physical. It begins in the mind first, it is entertained in the mind, and then it is acted out in various ways. And it isn’t confined only to the act of sexual relations between two people not married to each other. For Jesus said that to look at another lustfully is to commit adultery with that person in one’s heart (Matthew 5:27-28). And adultery is mentioned 20 times in the New Testament. And this can include the viewing of sexually explicit videos and movies and what goes along with that.

Now, if we are married, this sin is not just against our spouses, but it is against the Lord and our marriage relationship to him, too. For when we believe in Jesus Christ with God-given and God-persuaded faith in him, we are married to Christ, but much like the Jewish marriage of old where the couple get engaged, which is a contractual marriage, but to where their union is not consummated until the groom goes and prepares a place for them and then he comes and takes his bride to be with him.

So, we are not only to be faithful to our spouses and to not commit adultery against them in any fashion, even if just in the mind, but as followers of Christ we are to be faithful to our Lord and to not commit adultery against him, which is more than just through sexual immorality, but through all willful, deliberate, and habitual acts of rebellion against him and against his commands. For we are to have purity of relationship not only with our spouses but also with the Lord in our marriage relationship to him.

Now, it isn’t only that those who behave in such a manner as this are committing adultery against the Lord and against their spouses, but that they are uniting in mind and/or in body with a prostitute, with what is sexually promiscuous, and for his or her own sinful pleasure. This is one of the most selfish sinful acts there is, in my opinion, for it is not only thinking only of self, but it totally disregards how one’s sins will impact all other relationships, especially those with God and with spouse.

And we can’t be one with Christ and with spouse and be one with “the prostitute” at the same time. And I don’t mean necessarily a literal person who prostitutes himself or herself for money, but all acts of sexual immorality which separate us from our relationships with God and with spouse, in which one commits adultery via the mind and/or the body. You can’t be “one flesh” with your spouse if you are regularly committing adultery against him or her via sexual immorality in its various forms.

For when we marry our spouses and when we marry the Lord, by genuine faith in him, we become one with them, if, indeed, we are not already in the act of being one with “the prostitute,” i.e. the “other lover,” whatever that may entail. For both our marriage to spouse and our marriage to Christ are a lifetime commitment of sobriety, moral purity, faithfulness, honesty and a love relationship that surpasses all other love relationships in our lives. And God knows if our commitment is genuine or not.

And then it says here that we are to flee from sexual immorality, for every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Not only is sexual sin against one’s spouse and against the Lord, both of whom we are to be married in the purity of relationship, but it is sin against one’s own body, too, which can be done and have its effect in many different ways. And for one, because our bodies are to be for the Lord and for our spouses and not for selfish sensual pleasures.

And the problem does come in when one considers one’s own body as solely for him or for her without regard for God, and without regard for spouse or for whoever else may be affected by one’s own selfish and greedy acts of sexual immorality. But as those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, our bodies belong to the Lord, and we are to be those who honor God with our bodies in more ways than just with being morally pure, too. For our bodies are to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, for we are not our own. We were bought with the price of Christ’s blood. So we are to honor Christ with our bodies.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Sometimes the Lord puts in my mind a secular song which is a prayer of a man pleading for the life of a young man, that God would let him live. And we need to be those who are praying to God for the lives of those who are wandering far from the Lord, and who are trapped in sexual addiction and all other sinfully addictive behaviors which are destroying their relationships with God and with other humans who they are sinning against. And we should be praying that God will bring them home to himself so they will live.

Bring Him Home

By Alain Boublil / Claude Michel Schonberg / Herbert Kretzmer

God on high

Hear my prayer

In my need

You have always been there…

You can take

You can give

Let him be

Let him live

If I die, let me die

Let him live

Bring him home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXnRf3TQcpk

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