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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 wherein we are needfully confronted of what it means for the Christian to not be his/her own.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
These verses have been used for everything to the prohibition of tattoos, to a warning against over-eating, to a condemnation of smoking, to a requirement for sexual purity. The final one in the list is the most contextual application, and not just because of the high physical aspect of sexuality but because of the issue of oneness that has been highlighted. Verse 17 reads, …he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. This same kind of uniting, we are told, happens with those who join together sexually, hence the words in verse 18, Flee from sexual immorality which is a biblical term used for any kind of sexual relationship outside of marriage.
But as much as there is a push here that Christians would recognize that their bodies be dedicated to God’s glory, Paul informs the Corinthian church that there is a deeply theological reason that runs underneath this. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. It is the lack of a realization of this, the lack of a willingness to consider what this means, that opens the door for a multitude of sins, sexual and otherwise. Consider what it means to be not your own. The born-again Christian doesn’t belong to him/herself. This is an odd statement, especially in our age of the mighty self, a statement that in many crowds would elicit gasps, frowns, and gnashing of teeth. But if we’re going to be true to the text, if we’re going to be honest, it is difficult to wiggle away from this interpretation. We belong to Christ, not just because He says so (as binding as that could still be) but because we’re bought and paid for with a tender that seals the purchase with an unmatched power whose name is the Holy Spirit. We hear heaven singing, You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9). And we hear the cry of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:13, you…were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. It is the acknowledgment of these profound truths that give weight to the verses at hand that we have bodies that are temples of the Holy Spirit, temples that should not be used for sin.
To understand this text rightly, there must exist within us a deep consideration of our position in Christ, for it is one that leads us to live for His glory. The more clearly we recognize what it means for us to be in relationship with Him, the more clearly we will know what it looks like to follow Him completely, seeking always to glorify God in our bodies, yearning to worship Him in our every motion.
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