SERVE WITH YOUR BODY
Opening Prayer
Father, you are the God of my times, my days, my years. It is a great comfort to me to know my times are in your hands.
Read 1 Corinthians 6:12–20
Sexual Immorality
12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, 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.”[a] 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.[b]
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies.
Footnotes
- 1 Corinthians 6:16 Gen. 2:24
- 1 Corinthians 6:17 Or in the Spirit
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Many of us tend to put ourselves at the center of our world. Let’s be honest with God about this. Ask for his help to refocus now.What we do with our bodies really matters, says Paul, because they matter to God (v 13). Jesus had a body – that’s how he saved us. So as Christians, we too use our bodies – along with everything else that we are – to serve God, not ourselves.
Maybe we think that death will be the end of our bodies, but notice the astonishing news in verse 14. One day God will raise them up to create something gloriously new that will last forever. So we can’t just use and abuse them any way we like.
More hard thinking required! Somehow all we are – including our bodies – is not just part of us, but part of Jesus (vs 15–17; John 17:20–23). How might this challenge us about how we use our bodies, and especially how we use them sexually? The Holy Spirit lives within us with all his holiness (v 19), so we’d better make sure his temple – our body – stays holy too. After all, God paid a very high price to set us free from anything that enslaves us (v 20), so that we can bring glory to him.
Apply
‘All to Jesus, I surrender all; humbly at his feet I bow. Pleasures of this world I would gladly trade; take it all, Lord, take it now’ ’All to Jesus I Surrender,’ Judson W. Van De Venter 1986.
Closing prayer
Mighty God, you love me just as I am, but you also see me as I can become. Help me see what can happen as I trust in you.
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