We Are Not Our Own

We Are Not Our Own 　 When I was doing my research for this weekend, I read the scripture in several different bible translations. This time I just felt that The Amplified Bible summed it up the best, so here it is. 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Amplified Bible (AMP) 12Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power. 13Food [is intended] for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will finally end [the functions of] both and bring them to nothing. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but [is intended] for the Lord, and the Lord [is intended] for the body [to save, sanctify, and raise it again]. 14And God both raised the Lord to life and will also raise us up by His power. 15Do you not see and know that your bodies are members (bodily parts) of Christ (the Messiah)? Am I therefore to take the parts of Christ and make [them] parts of a prostitute? Never! Never! 16Or do you not know and realize that when a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? The two, it is written, shall become one flesh. 17But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. 18Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, 20You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body. 　 　 This is the Word of God, for us the people of God, thanks be to God! Let us pray Holy Father, creator of the universe, giver of life. You who brought all things into existence by merely speaking them to be so. We ask that you open our ears so that we may hear Your Word, our minds so that we may remember your Word, and our hearts that we may live Your Word. We ask these things in the name of our Holy Redeemer Jesus Christ, Amen. 　 During his 3 year stay in Ephesus and around the year A.D. 56, Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, because it was an extremely troubled church. Sexual immorality, division into factions who were actually suing each other, and abuse of spiritual gifts were ruining this young church, which would have only been in existence for about 4 years at the time. Just one of these problems is enough to bring down a church, much less dealing with all of them at once. A lot of these problems probably were caused by the church's surroundings in the Greek city of Corinth. Being located between Italy and Asia, it was a major hub for trade during these times. With all of this commerce going on, you also had the influence of many pagan religions being brought in by all of the traders flowing in and out of the city. It was a very decadent existence that most Corinthians lived and was hard for the church members there to give up. Some historians have said that the phrase 'All things are lawful for me' which the Apostle Paul quotes in his epistle was coined by the Corinthians to jusity their immoral lifestyle. In verse twelve of Corinthians chapter six, Paul tells us that all things are permissible for me, but not all things are helpful. Everything is lawful for me, but I will not be to a slave anything or be brought under it's power. Paul was dealing with new Christians in a new Christian church that believed that because of the fulfillment of the Mosaic law in the person of Jesus Christ, that they didn't have to live by the commandments anymore. In their eyes, Jesus had erased all of their sin, so they could do as they wanted. So, if it was lawful in their govenments eyes, it was lawful in God's eyes. I believe that's what you'd all a copout, even in the first century A.D. In our world today, many things are lawful for us to partake of, but they aren't good for us and they definitely morally correct for us. How many times have you heard someone with a drinking problem say "it's legal, I can drink as much as I want', even though it's destroying there work, their relationships, and their health.. Sexual immorality bears the same consequences. Though there's no law against it, look at the possible results of promiscuity. There are the chances of contracting diseases that can affect your life terribly or even end it. There's also the likelihood of never having any solid lasting relationships throughout your life. What a lonely, empty existence that must be. Yes, these things are legal according to the laws of man, but they weren't in God's eyes in 56 A.D. when Paul was preaching against them and they still aren't today. Another agruement the Corinthians gave for their sinful lifestyle, was that physical enjoyment was just as nessecary for the health of the human body as food is. So, since food was essential and gratifying to the body, so was physical pleasure. So, if they were hungry, they ate and if they craved something else, they indulged. Paul had an answer for this misguided thinking though. He tells us that food is made for the stomach and the stomach for food and that God will eventually end the function of both in the end. The use of food in the stomach and the rest of the digetive track are earthly functions, not heavenly. They'll be of no meaning in the resurrection. We won't need them in the kingdom. We're told this in verses thirteen and fourteen: The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but [is intended] for the Lord, and the Lord [is intended] for the body [to save, sanctify, and raise it again]. And God both raised the Lord to life and will also raise us up by His power. These bodies are meant for the Lord's use which is why He gave us rules about food and sexual immorality. Unlike many religions of the world, Christianity is a very physical faith. Our God created all of the universe around us. All of the heavenly bodies we see in the sky, and all of the plant and animal life we see in our world around us. God even took physical form in the person of His Son Jesus Christ who took on flesh and lived among His people before giving Himslef as a sacrifice. We're not a religion of spirits swirling around in the clouds. We're a faith of a very real physical nature, therefore caring for and being a good steward of these bodies that He has given us. Afterall He gave us these bodies, saved them, and sanctified them. Paul goes further here. He tells us: 15 Do you not see and know that your bodies are members (bodily parts) of Christ (the Messiah)? Am I therefore to take the parts of Christ and make [them] parts of a prostitute? Never! Never! As believers, as Christians, we are parts of the body of Christ. When we take part in any kind of immorality with these bodies of ours we're doing the same thing to the body of Christ. When we defile or bring shame to these bodies we are not only doing it to ourselves. A good friend of mine, the truest brother a man could have often says 'It comes back to this. Is what we're doing glorifying Christ?'. Pauls example is this: 16Or do you not know and realize that when a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? The two, it is written, shall become one flesh. 17But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. What he's telling us is this: In Genesis 2:24 God told us; Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Simply put, a man and a woman leave their families and are joined together in the Holy Covenant of marriage and any physical realtions outside of or other than this union instituted by God himself is unholy and immoral. When we join ourselves to someone or something that is ungodly, we become as they are. We become one flesh with them. We make what God meant to be holy and righteous into a harlot. We're not meant to ge joined to anything unholy. When we confess that we are a sinner and tell Jesus we can't live life our way anymore and that we need Him in our lives everyday, we become united with Him in spirit. That's when we become a part of 'The Body of Christ'. That's when the Holy Spirit comes into our heart and lives within us, which brings us to verse eighteen: 19Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, Our body is a temple. We've heard that over and over again, but do we really get what it means? When we submit ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, the Holy Spirit comes to reside within us. That same Holy Spirit that guides us through all of the actions and interactions of our life. This spirit that puts those thoughts in our heads that 'this isn't something we should be doing or this isn't a place where we should be' when we enter in to an old haunt or habit that is a part of our past and not our future. The Holy Spirit reminds us when we start to slip back into being the 'old man' and not the 'new man' that we have been made in Christ. Our body is the residence, the home, the temple of the Holy Spirit and what is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God with us and within us, so when we defile our bodies with something unholy we truly are defiling the temple of God. The scripture goes on to tell us the we are not our own. Verse twenty tells us even more: 20You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body. We were bought with a price. We were bought when Jesus shed His own blood in order to save our souls from destruction. He gave Himself as a sacrifice, took on all of our sins, and went to the grave for us. Our triunal God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were actually seperated for the first and only moment in all of eternity when the only sinless man to walk the earth in human flesh took on the sins of us all and was cut off from God the Father as He died on the cross, because He loves us that much. No, we are not to use these bodies for self gratification, for indulgence in sins, for unrighteousness, of anything ungodly. We are to use them for God's purpose for us. We are to use them to further His kingdom on earth. We are to use them to glorify him. We are not our own! We are his. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.....Amen.