“Honour God With Your Body!”

“Honour God With Your Body!”
I am reminded of what has been termed the “seven deadly sins,” which include pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth.”
Lust is our focus because today’s focus is on sexual immorality. We have often harped on sexual immorality than lust, whereas sexual immorality is the outcome of lust.
Lust is defined as “a strong sexual desire;” although it is used loosely as “a strong desire” for anything. One cannot contain sexual immorality if one has not overpowered lustfulness. This explains why Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mtt.5:27). Imagine therefore the daily sexual immoralities that are committed by the majority!
Paul reminds us in strong terms that “the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Our bodies are members of Christ himself.
Paul was addressing a specific context, the Corinthians where prostitutes were dedicated to the service of the goddess Aphrodite and they served in her temple as such. However, it is a universal concern in that in each culture there is a certain sexual orientation which is not in line with the gospel. Converts from each culture are often tempted to carry along that cultural sexual orientation into Christianity without seeing anything wrong with it.
Paul condemns all such orientations imperatively: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body,” for ” your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God.” As Christians we are no longer our own. We have been bought with a price. “Therefore honour God with your body” (I Cor.6:12-20). No doubt the admonition seems to be directed to the men, but lustfulness and sexual immorality are not the preserves of men alone. This speaks to both sexes.
Let us flee from sexual immorality. And to do so we must strive to flee from lust.
Prayer: O Lord create in me a clean and pure heart, free from lust and do not take your Holy Spirit away from me. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!