Blessed God of all days, may this day be blessed for this dear reader; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text for today comes from 1 Corinthians 6: 12 Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims. 13 You know the old saying, "First you eat to live, and then you live to eat"? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that's no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body! 14 God honored the Master's body by raising it from the grave. He'll treat yours with the same resurrection power. 15 Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master's body. You wouldn't take the Master's body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not. 16 There's more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, "The two become one." 17 Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever - the kind of sex that can never "become one." 18 There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. 19 Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. 20 God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body. (The Message)
We're good at playing games. We're also quite good at rationalizing things. As the New Year's countdown approaches, we get out a slip of paper and a pen and we write that which we resolve to do, and usually the majority of people resolve to do something related to the body. Then at about this time of year we realize we did not have the willpower to continue the resolution and we give up. And that's when the games begin; What matters most is what's within. God doesn't judge me by my looks; it's what's in my heart! And so on. We sometimes play the game of keeping the spirit clean even though we're messing with the physical. This version of the Bible goes into deeper detail than most of us are used to. In fact, uses words that we would not be comfortable hearing from a pulpit. Yet, it is a clear picture of that which is rationalized for us in the movies or on television shows, that sex has nothing to do with our spiritual lives. A recent magazine headline said something to the effect that Christian teens are no longer waiting to engage in sexual acts. Paul knows as we should know, that God owns the whole thing, the body, the mind, the spirit; everything that defines who we are. Paul stresses what we know God's word to say, Glorify God through your body. Let everything we do reflect the presence of God in and through us. God owns the whole thing.
PRAYER: Loving God, help me to do away with the games. Let me be honest with me. You own the entire me, and no part of me does not belong to You. Forgive me for what I have rationalized in some of my actions, and help me to reflect You alive and present in me. I ask this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
God
