09/27/2022
Let’s consider our bodies today, and ask ourselves if we protect and honor them in the ways we share them. First of all let’s ask ourselves who, or what, we should share our bodies with, and ask ourselves if by doing so we remain holy in the process. There is scriptural mention of seven specific ways that one can share their bodies… physically with their spouse, with someone whom they are not married to, someone of the same sex, an animal, and then three spiritual ways… with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who come to abide within us. Three of these ways are sinful, and four are sanctioned by God. So let’s ask ourselves who we allow ourselves to become one with? With whom, or what, do we share our bodies, which we know are the temples of God?
“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.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.”
1 Corinthians 6:16-17 ESV
This is a hard lesson to discuss because it involves human desire, both physically and spiritually. When we look at the acts of sharing our bodies either sexually, or spiritually we are looking at something very personal, something that has a mighty draw on us, and is so intimate that it is seldom spoken of openly in civil conversation. We speak of it in hushed tones, and language fraught with innuendo, and nuance. Scripture describes sexual contact through the use of passages containing phrases like “cleave unto” and “one flesh”. An example of this can be read here in the description of marriage, and marital sex we find in Genesis…
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
Genesis 2:24 KJV
Of all the PHYSICAL ways a person can share their body only one is sanctioned by God, and allows us to remain righteous… sexual relations with our spouse. Most of the references we read in scripture regarding sharing ourselves physically have to do with having sexual relations with our spouse, or its antithesis… with having adulterous sex with someone to whom we are not married. Both culminate in the two becoming one flesh, but adultery is an act that results in our becoming the very embodiment of sin.
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
1 Corinthians 6:18 ESV
The other ways of PHYSICALLY sharing one’s body, like homosexuality, and fornication with animals, although both sins and abominations, are quite easily identified as wrong, and are practiced much less commonly in society, and are mentioned far less often in scripture. So we will move on, and speak now of spiritually sharing ourselves.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
John 15:4 ESV
Jesus speaks directly of His abiding in us, and we in Him. In this way we are sharing our body with Him, and in as much as God already abides in Jesus, He also abides in us, and we also know that both God and the Spirit abide in us when we read scripture such as this…
“Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”
1 John 3:24 ESV
Each of these spiritual ways in which we share ourselves is righteous, and holy. Sharing ourselves with God in this way is not sinful. And easily identified as being good, and sanctioned by God.
So, how do we share our bodies? In as much as they are temples of God, purchased by by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, are we treating them as holy? Are we resisting the desire and temptation to sinfully share them? When we disrobe, and leave our shoes on the floor, and share ourselves, do we realize we have entered bodily into a Holy place like none other?
Prayer:
Father, Thank you for the act of marital sex that leads to the cleaving of a man and woman to one another as one flesh, and thank you for the gift of procreation that comes from it. Thank you Father for removing the shame, abomination, and sin we bear in the other forms of physically sharing our bodies, and for allowing us to be made righteous in this holy, and loving, union of a man and woman in marriage. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who abides in us, and becomes one with us, even as you do with Jesus. Praised be your name for the earthly spouse you have provided us, and for your Son Jesus, the spiritual groom of the Church. Merciful are you for sending your Son Jesus to prepare us in this way to become His heavenly bride. Wash us clean in His blood, and transform us into His image. Forgive us our sin Lord, and as we stand before you in judgement, see us as one in Jesus, and call us worthy of eternity with you. Let there be no trace of bodily sin found in us, and renew our old bodies by making them to be bright, glowing, and eternal, give us resurrected bodies.
“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.”
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV
Rich Forbes