Wednesday, September 19, 2018
This is my body

1 Corinthians 6:18
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

Very often the real battle lines of the ages are drawn in our own bodies. Not in some far-flung place where traditional beliefs in ancestral spirits are confronted by Christian missionaries. Not in some university philosophy department where an atheist professor is terrorising his freshman students, upending all that they were taught in Sunday School. And certainly not in some research laboratory where the results from the last tests on mice seem ready to shift our understanding of life and death.

Self-denial, and the personal faith that must inform it, and the personal discipline that must maintain it, is the foremost challenge that we face in an age of instant gratification and personal freedom. We are driven to satisfy the self in every possible way, but primarily, with sex and substances.

When I go into pharmacies in Georgetown these days, the majority of the real estate at counter level, below and behind the glass, is taken up with sex products, mostly prophylactics and aphrodisiacs. The stuff once referenced only in whispers with pseudonyms like ‘French Letter’ or the more informal ‘Frenchie’, are now openly sold openly in all varieties that might well be beyond the scope of this devotional.

There are good reasons for the wide and ready availability, one such is family planning (in most cases this has no family context, it is just to avoid a pregnancy). Another is to exploit the prophylactic properties and avoid the spreading or contracting of a sexually transmitted disease. At the heart of this, most often, is a desire to satisfy the body’s base desires, and the mind’s raw lusts, without the natural consequences given that we are operating outside of the security of family.

Where there is no self-denial we are living in outright rebellion against God who laid out the rules for living. This rebellion is at its peak when we are focused selfishly on our own needs, wants and immediate gratification. Pleasure for the sake of pleasure reduces the body to a mere sex object without commitment or restraint.

Abortion is another battle line in the body that exemplifies the nature of our rebellion. Women have been rallied to the protest lines on the argument that they should have the right to determine what happens with their own bodies.

The freedom to have sex with whomever you want whenever you want and abortion are similar in that they both represent an assertion of our rights to do what we want with our bodies. These rights have been advocated for and protested for in almost every capital of the world. The spread of legislative changes, to allow for these freedoms, continues to follow the protests wherever they go.

We Christians were not called to assert our rights, rather, we were called to be righteous. Rights and righteousness are not in that way related. Righteousness often requires that we give up what others would quickly define as their rights. Sex (and abortion) is one of the principal areas in which we establish righteousness.

We are sexual beings, designed and equipped for sex. Attraction, and stimuli, very quickly trigger our sensual and sexual appetites. Opened appetites demand to be satisfied and it usually takes discipline, and strength of character, and faith to deny them.

As we saw yesterday, the apostle Paul takes this matter up with the promiscuous Corinthians. Paul’s assertion to them flies in the face of the assertion of today’s culture and philosophers to us. Today we are told that it is our bodies, “do what you want,” Paul said the opposite, “your body is not your own.”

This is the battle line, who’s body is this? Paul teaches that we were “bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:20. For Paul, every temptation and enticement must be weighed against body ownership. We deny ourselves, because, as good as we may feel, this body is not ours to do with whatever we wish.

Paul also made the point earlier that we cannot take what is not ours and give it to someone else. “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 harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” 1 Corinthians 6:15-17

Use of our bodies for selfish pleasure in illicit sexual engagements is high crime. It may be fun while it lasts but it is taking what’s God’s and giving it to someone else. Use of our bodies for selfish pleasure in illicit sexual engagements is disrespectful. It is taking that which is holy and making it unholy.

Taking your body like it’s yours to do what you wish is to remove God from the centre of your life and steal what’s his and use it in ways for which it wasn’t intended.

Think on these things:

1. Think about your sexual history, are there any instances in your past where your sexual decisions and activities were determined by your desire for pleasure and not for pleasing God?
2. Have you made any decisions about your body that were based on the idea of your ownership rather than the principle of God’s ownership of your body?
3. Does your church commit adequate time to teach on issues of sexual purity and helping members to remain faithful to God in a community that urges them to do otherwise?

Prayer focus:

Let us pray today that we would remain focused on God’s ownership of our bodies whenever we confront sexual temptation or enticements.

In His Grace
Pastor Alex