Friday 25^th January

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

So often when we are expecting visitors in our house, we scurry about, tidying, cleaning, polishing, hoovering and making sure that our house is tidy and presentable for our guests. When we know that someone is coming to our house, the first thing we think of is, is our house clean? It’s like an automatic pilot mechanism in our minds that is set to run around our house checking all is well for our guests.

One day as I was in this mind set, I stopped and thought; if I am putting this much effort into making my own house clean for my guests, how much effort am I putting to into making my Spiritual body clean where the creator God lives. Our bodies are the temple of God. So often we neglect to take care of God’s dwelling place. We focus so much on ‘soul cleansing’, which absolutely essential, yet we forgot that Jesus actually laid down His physical body for us too. If we are to realise that God lives in our bodies, then we too should also care for our bodies.

Paul addresses this issue here in 1 Corinthians 6. The Corinthians thought that because they had been set free from the law through grace, they had a license to do with their bodies what they willed. However, this is a letter written by Paul to emphasis much the opposite and rather warn against such thinking.

Sexual immorality was much the centre of Paul’s focus to church in Corinth. He was warning them against this dualistic mentality, ‘that one could do what he wants with his body, for it is perishable’. Paul immediately in verse 13, makes it plain that God values and cares for our bodies. He strongly opposes the idea that one can do what he pleases with his/her body. Although our physical bodies may die, just as God raised His Son from the dead, so will He raise us on the blessed day. God values and cares about our body and so should we.

Paul then proceeds in comparing the joining together of a man and a prostitute, and a union of Christ and His church. Of course they are both extreme examples yet the essence of what Paul is saying here is clear. In short when a man and woman come together in sexual union, they unite in the spirit, becoming one body. Hence Genesis 2:24 ‘a man will leave his father and be united with his wife and they shall become one’. Likewise when we accept Jesus in our lives, we are joined together with Him in Spirit. Much like Jesus, when He said that ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30), ‘He is in me and I in Him’ (John 14:10). Of course Jesus was emphasising the point that He was both God and Human whilst in His earthly ministry; (this is not to say that we can be God but rather that God lives in us, His temple). Yet the emphasis of this point is made all the more clear in verse 19.

Paul warns about sexual immorality and its devastating effect on both the believer and those around. In fact he highlights that sexual sin cannot be hidden for it corrupts the body and character and has evidential consequences. Both furthermore, he points to the fact that our bodies are vessels of the Holy Spirit. They are His dwelling place, His home. In fact Paul highlights that in fact our bodies are not our own. Who among you, if you borrowed something of someone, would not look after it? In the same way our bodies are given to us by God, therefore we must honour His gift and honour Him. Paul closes with a strong warning and one that must have convicted the Corinthians as it convicts me today….”You were bought with a high price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” (verse 20).

Our bodies are temple of God, bought with His precious blood and designed by a creator God. Next time you host a guest and clean your house to make it presentable, check if your house for the King of Kings is in order!