Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from 1 Corinthians 6. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- In the Old Testament lesson we read of the first calling of God to Samuel. We can remember our youth and resonate to the naiveté and innocence of this young man. In the Gospel reading Jesus calls some of His disciples, and refers to Nathaniel as “an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.” The beginning of Jesus’ ministry was also a time of great wonderment and optimism.
- For those of us who are older, we too remember growing up in an age of optimism and wonderment – and also naiveté. The world around us seemed sophisticated – and as it ends up, hell-bent on losing all innocence and groundedness in God’s foundation for genuine love and decency. The real principle that drives this ongoing plunge into the “anything goes” mentality is pure selfishness and self-pleasuring. There really is nothing good or sophisticated about this!
- The consequences of following such mentality is negative – enslavement to food, drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, all of which leads to addiction, obesity, divorce, abortion, all manner of heterosexual promiscuity, and finally to the legitimizing of homosexuality and the redefinition of marriage. All of these have a very negative effect on human health and happiness – as the apostle Paul notes in our text.
- Unfortunately, we continue to be bombarded with the principle idea that we should always do things that maximize our pleasures and enjoyments – and this resonates to our common sense and sinful nature. We all want to have a comfortable, enjoyable, and exciting life.
- But the evils of sin within us and the wicked world around us lure us into thinking that so long as there is enjoyment in a thing it can’t be wrong or harmful. But Paul warns us about this in our text – and experience bears him out, that there is much spiritual and physical danger in the world that can do us much harm. And this is important, for to God “YOUR BODY MATTERS.” First we must consider that:
I. God Is Love, And Therefore His Word And Instructions Are Words Of Love, Wisdom, And Health
1 John 4:8 “God is love.”
John 3:16 “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
John 8:31,32 “If you continue in My Word you are truly My disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
Statement: Stop to consider that God created us, and with His power and wisdom surely He knows better what is best for us than we do. The world is His creation, and everything in it; we too are created and belong to Him, including of course our bodies. They matter to God, just as every creature matters to Him. He loves us and wants only the best for our bodies.
Application: The unbelieving world has no understanding of this – so it should not surprise us that they don’t make their decisions as to what is good out of deference to God’s Word, but rather only in regard to what pleases them. And it should not surprise us that they think we are quite odd and quirky to order our lives according to God’s Word – repenting when we violate it, finding joy in His forgiveness, and reorienting our lives to conforming to God’s Word. But as believers who know that God is love, especially knowing His love for us in Christ Jesus, there should be no doubt that His Word provides us with sound instruction! So let us hear what He says about the things that pertain to our physical bodies. First, that:
II. All Neutral Things, Eating And Drinking, Are Lawful – But Not Everything Is Helpful, And Some Things May Be Addictive And Enslaving
Text: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.”
A. We Are To Take Care Not To Become Enslaved By Anything
Text: “All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything.”
B. If Something Becomes Harmful To Us We Should Avoid It – For Our Bodies Belong To The Lord
Text: “The body is meant for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. . . . he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.”
Statement: We tend to think of our relationship with God as completely within the realm of the “spiritual” and “mental,” and that our physical being doesn’t really matter all that much except insofar as it impacts our spiritual nature and life – which we think is very little. Nothing could be further from the truth! God loves your body – it is part of you, part of what He created you to be, a wondrous gift of God! He treasures all of you – every part of your being. “YOUR BODY MATTERS” to God. And just as physical and natural laws govern and impact Your body, so also there are spiritual dynamics that apply just the same to our bodies – consequences for what we do with our bodies.
Application: So even in matters that we are free in, things that are neutral and therefore “lawful” for us, we are to pay attention to what we are doing with our bodies, for “not all things are helpful.” If we are obese, or are physically damaging our body by what we eat, we should cut back and avoid harmful foods. The same with our consumption of alcohol – we must not be enslaved to anything, especially not if it is bringing harm to us. We could put exercise into the same category – and some exercise is actually harmful to us, especially as we grow older; and exercise itself can become addictive.
Transition: But there are even more serious concerns in regard to how we use our bodies, for:
III. There Are Some Things The Body Is Not Meant For – Particularly Sexual Immorality, And These Things We Must Never Engage In
Text: “The body is not meant for sexual immorality.”
A. Since Our Bodies Belong To God, Are His Temples, Sexual Sin Brings God Very Close To Involvement In Sin
Text: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’”
B. So Also, Sexual Sin Is Against One’s Own Body
Text: “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
Statement: These are the negative effects of using our bodies to participate in sinful activities, especially immoral sexual behaviors. It is horrific to even consider that we should bring God so close to this kind of sin. And there are negative physical consequences as well.
Application: Obviously, God Who is love does not desire that we should suffer any of this, or involve Him in this kind of activity. With sexual immorality we not only hurt ourselves but also the other person – and so regardless of the pleasure we might think this would bring, and despite the fact that human beings can minimize the evils of sexual immorality by self-justifying excuses, such sin is always dire and horribly contrary to God’s nature and His will.
Transition: Your body does matter to God, and should matter to you. So Paul encourages us to:
IV. Remember That Our Bodies Are Members Of Christ
A. He Has Redeemed Us To Be His Own
Text: “God raised Him up. [After He was crucified to redeem us from sin and bring us back to God.] . . . You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”
B. He Will Raise Our Bodies Up On The Last Day
Text: “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.”
C. So We Are To Glorify God In Our Bodies
Text: “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.”
Statement: So you see how much our bodies do indeed mean to God, how He cherishes our bodies even more than we do. What the perversion of sin makes to seem very pleasant – over-indulgence, addiction, and sexual immorality – are really unhealthy, damaging, dangerous, and completely contrary to the love of God.
Application: It is an added bonus to our relationship with God that He loves us and blesses us with good physical health even in the midst of aging and death, and that He promises us that there is physical reward in conforming to godly behavior. It is His will that we grasp and rejoice in His intimacy with our physical bodies, and that we allow Him to direct us to those pleasures which are truly healthy for us!
Conclusion: Though all of this is counter to the way that the unbelieving world looks at human bodies, and what people are supposedly “free” to do with their bodies, we should know better, and we should know better than to trust worldly opinions. We know that God is love, especially in His gracious forgiveness and salvation in Christ Jesus. We know He would never steer us wrong! So let us rejoice to commit our bodies also to God, to welcome His presence, to rejoice that our bodies are the members of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and to glorify God in our bodies! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.