From Paul’s letter to the believers at Corinth we read,
- “Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body.” (I Corinthians 6:13 – NASB)
Sexual “immorality” has been and always will be a problem in this world in which you and I live. The Corinthian church was made up of believers that had come out of culture that was heaped in immoral practices (6:9-10). The pull of the flesh is strong, and there is no sin like sexual sin that pulls so powerfully on the human “body.” The temptation to return to the immoral practices that they were involved with before they came to Christ were plaguing the believers in Corinth. We need to understand that this was no easy matter for them to deal with.
The apostle Paul writes them with a great concern, attempting to have them understand that they are not what they once were, they are not to practice what they once practiced (6:11). He counsels them that “the body is not for immorality, but” rather it is “for the Lord.” He seeks to remind them of what they had been taught,
- “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?” (I Corinthians 6:15 – NASB)
Paul speaks to their profession of faith in Christ and what they have learned in Him and then in turn asks them, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” He says, “Do you not know” this? Should “I then take” this body I am in and join it to “a harlot?”
- “May it never be!” (I Corinthians 6:15 – NASB)
Emphatically the apostle condemns such an act, and then reminds them,
- “Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, ‘The two will become one flesh.’” (I Corinthians 6:16 – NASB)
The sexual relationship between a man and woman is a very sacred one, a spiritual one, and the redeemed need to understand that,
- “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (I Corinthians 6:17 – NASB)
If you are “joined . . . to the Lord” you are “one spirit with Him” and so you are not to “join” that which has been “joined . . . to the Lord . . . to a harlot.”
- “Do you not know that your bodies are member of Christ? . . . do you not know that one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? . . . do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?” (I Corinthians 6:15-16, 19 – NASB)
- “Do you not know . . . that you are not your own?” (I Corinthians 6:19 – NASB)
- “Do you not know . . . you have been bought with a price?” (I Corinthians 6:20 – NASB)
Oh brethren, we “are not (our) own,” we “have been bought with a price.” In this sexually immoral world in which you and I live today we need to have these Scripture ingrained in our hearts and minds. We should not have the Lord asking us, “Do you know” but rather we should be responding, “I know . . . I know Lord” that . . .
- “(I) . . . have been bought with a price . . . that (I am) not (my) own . . . therefore (I will) glorify God in (my) body . . . (and I will obey You and I will) flee immorality.” (I Corinthians 6:18-20 – NASB)
Have a good day brethren . . . and don’t have the Lord asking you if you know but, because you are in and of His Word, let your response be that you know what His will for you is.
