The Temple

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

THE TEMPLE

1 Cor 6:12-20

12 "Everything is permissible for me"-but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"-but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."   17 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

NIV

It seems inconceivable those believers still continued to visit prostitutes as a normal part of life. But it would also seem this is directly what Paul is addressing here. It would also be absolutely inconceivable that any believer today would engage in any activity with prostitutes, yet we have seen famous preachers catch in that very act. So then it would be possible this type of behavior is present in the church today. Still, the larger issue is not just this type of sin, but all sin that deals with some sort of physical pleasure. Paul mentions the stomach as though gluttony may also be an issue we should concern ourselves with, although Paul pretty much stays with the sexual immorally problem that existed then and might possibly still exist today. To what extent we do not know nor should we. This is for each believer to deal with in a personal way and determine if any behavior that may be permissible is beneficial. It is for every believer to determine if they are mastered by any attitude or behavior. There is this underlying truth that everything in this physical world will be destroyed and that will include any of the physical pleasures we indulge in, of whatsoever sort they are. This is shown to us in how Paul puts it in that he says, “food for the stomach and the stomach for food”. The fact is if we are united with Christ then we should not be united with the things of the world, the pleasures of the world, in this case. The problem is that we should be able to define what the pleasures of the world are. Is there a diffident hardline, or is it a bit fuzzy? It would seem the line is defined between the sins that are committed outside our body, such as greed, anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, or any other sin that we are aiming toward another and those we do within our body, such as sexual sins, which could be defined in several ways, both in our mind and body, even as the lust of our eyes. Because our bodies are the temple of the Lord, we should be united to Him and therefore not united with the things that cause us to sin within our bodies. So then we should honor God with our body, keeping ourselves pure in mind and body, like a temple.