Body

We are making our way through a letter Paul wrote to Jesus followers in Corinth. Today, Paul reminds us who is really in charge.


1 Corinthians 6
12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything” - but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. 15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.


Body. We you become a Jesus follower, you (your future, your family, your talents, your finances and your body) no longer belong to you. You belong to God. That is so easy to forget when our default mode is a selfish one and when we are constantly encouraged to do what we want because “we deserve it” or because “it feels right”. It’s like we need a new “app” (iPhone owners know what I am talking about) for our heart ... a filter that helps us discern if something is beneficial and honorable (or not). Actually, if you are a Jesus follower, God has already given you one ... the Holy Spirit. You won’t hear an audible voice ... more like an “internal nudge” that encourages you to do something beneficial and discourages you from doing something dishonorable. It can be difficult to experience those “internal nudges” when there are so many external “voices” in your life. I have found that when I turn off those external “voices” I can “hear” the “internal nudges” more clearly.