Tuesday 4 April, 2017

12 Some of you say, “I have the right to do anything.” But not everything is helpful. Again some of you say, “I have the right to do anything.” But I will not be controlled by anything. 13 Some of you say, “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food. And God will destroy both of them.” But the body is not meant for sexual sins. The body is meant for the Lord. And the Lord is meant for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead. He will also raise us up. 15 Don’t you know that your bodies belong to the body of Christ? Should I take what belongs to Christ and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 When you join yourself to a prostitute, you become one with her in body. Don’t you know this? Scripture says, “The two will become one.” (Genesis 2:24) 17 But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one with him in spirit. 18 Keep far away from sexual sins. All the other sins a person commits are outside the body. But sexual sins are sins against their own body. 19 Don’t you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? The Spirit is in you, and you have received the Spirit from God. You do not belong to yourselves. 20 Christ has paid the price for you. So use your bodies in a way that honors God.

I have a special connection to this passage. Pleasure is a good thing, but God in his perfection has ensured that only pleasure in the right dose and in the right conditions is good. Outside of these bounds, pleasure becomes corruption and leads to death. Ultimately pleasure will master me if I give it a priority in my life.

I’ve always loved pleasure! And I have rebelled against the idea that I should control the lust for pleasure. That is why this passage is so special to me. It tells me there is a consequence to the unbridled pursuit of pleasure. It tells me that even though I may have lived like that, I am now free because God paid a very high price so that I could be bought back from that other, corrupt master. It tells me that now God fills me with his Spirit, not just a little bit, but I am now his temple.

Come on! This has got to be one of the best promises in all of history!!

Lord thank you, that even though I was once enslaved and mastered by lust, you have set me free and made your Spirit fill me! Thank you for paying the highest of prices for me! I have been freed; my heart has been set on a greater pleasure than any that could be found on the earth. Thank you Lord!

Written by Andrew Mellor