Bulletin
The Body is for the Lord.
The body is for the Lord.
Some people view their own body as a place of divine right for their own pleasure or whim. They might reason this way, “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.” (1Cor. 6:13). Paul seems to be answering this argument for “pleasure to the body - with food or sex”, with the principle that overrides this idea. The body is for the Lord, this is #1. Because the body is for the Lord, food is good to sustain this body. Food pleasure is not the ultimate good.
Paul goes on to say, “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral man sins against his own body.” (1Cor. 6:18). That statement is worth rereading a few times. Why is it that sexual immorality is a sin against his own body? Jesus reminds us that most sins proceed out of the heart. “For from within, out of the hearts of people, come the evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, acts of adultery, deeds of greed, wickedness, deceit, indecent behavior, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the person.” (Mark 7:21-23). When I take my body (which is not actually mine, but the Lord’s), and give in to a sexual immoral behavior, I’m actually taking Jesus’ bought and paid for body and defiling it. This is defiling his body.
Paul therefore, thought of his own body as a body that has been bought and paid for (6:19-20). Paul died with Christ (Gal. 2:20). Paul was not raised up. Jesus was raised up in Jesus’ own bought and paid for body. It’s his body, his temple, Paul is just borrowing his old body for the short term.
What an interesting way to view your own body, a temple, a temple of the Holy Spirit, a temple that is not your own. A temple that if you burnt it down, you have not sinned against yourself, but against the Lord. It is his, not yours. The person who thinks that he/she has the right to do whatever with their own body, is not a Christian. The principle that overrides this is, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God.” (1Cor. 10:31). What did Jesus do with his own body? We should do the same. “whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.” (1John 2:5). Jesus was born in a borrowed manger, rode on a borrowed donkey, buried in a borrowed tomb. But lives on earth in his own paid for body, i.e. yours for the borrowing - for now. Dan Peters
- For_the_LordWORD.docx (9.12 kB)
