Image from singac.com
Hear the devotional here: http://bit.ly/3i7XTaW
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. (1 Corinthians 6:12-20 The Message Bible)
Happy Wednesday, dear ConCafe Family! May blessings and wonders abound in your life, dear Friend! May all that comes our way today help us say, "Praise You, Lord God!" Pastor Matt continues to improve slowly, but in the right direction, and for that we can rejoice, but he is still in some pain and with no sense of taste, that makes it hard for one to eat. Pray for his complete recovery! And for all who battle Covid and other maladies. Pray for one another. Pray for yourselves.
One thing that a child learns quickly is the word mine and what it means. Most of you know exactly what I mean, having perhaps experienced such behavior in your own homes. And making it more difficult are those grandparents that easily and wholeheartedly reinforce that in our precious, darling grandchildren, who can do wrong at all! Am I right? Eventually, some children do outgrow the "mine" phase. Some don't. From mine, they do graduate to "I can do this myself," to "I can do whatever I want," in whatever forms those may take in their lives. Ownership of things and the ownership of self sometimes linger well into adulthood. If left unchallenged, it makes for some difficult times in later years, especially in relationships and onto marriage. The person who never learned to share will have some difficulty in adapting to living in a shared home with a spouse; sharing resources and assets becomes a daily battle in some cases. And it is precisely this that the Apostle Paul is addressing in this letter. He witnessed and preached this message to those who lived in such a prosperous city such as Corinth; all the wealth and goods from the known world would come to its ports and with it those who would glady take it from their rightful owners. When the oil boom came to this area not too long ago, hotel prices skyrocketed to big city prices, and the development of housing areas called mancamps sprung up. And with the mancamps came teenaged prosititutes and drug problems; and the church was asked to minister to all, in ways that would help all to remember that God was still present and interested in all people.
The person who said what Paul quotes in verse 12, especially worded in more classic ways, such as found in the New International Version translation of the Bible, "All things are lawful for me," truly believed that she or he could do whatever they felt like doing, and that would be perfectly fine. To them, Paul says, "Just because something is technically legal doesn't mean that it's spiritually appropriate," adding, "If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I'd be a slave to my whims." One of the most difficult counseling sessions with a young couple had to do with intimacy. The bride-to-be believed that all things intimate were proper; she was not one to believe in waiting until marriage. The groom-to-be was old-fashioned and had not had any intimate encounters. Once they started dating, she was pressuring him to be intimate with her, and he resisted. I had to admit that usually one expects the opposite to be true. She was very vocal about her beliefs and did not like to be challenged; he was the opposite. And the Apostle also encountered those who held beliefs about eating that were not in keeping with decency, thus his quoting a more modern saying, "Some eat to live, and others live to eat." Abusing intimacy and dining are things that Paul addressed in person, and through this letter as reports from that church reached him during his travels.
Who owns your body? Who owns your life? I love the modern way verse 13 says, "Since the Master (Jesus) honors you with a body, honor him with your body!" Paul reminds his readers and us, "God honored the Master's body by raising it from the grave," and God will do the same for your body "with the same resurrection power." But until that time comes, we are to remember that our bodies are created with the same dignity as the Lord's body. How could we take His body to places where we know it does not glorify God? The gift of sex is a wonderful thing that our scriptures teach is part of a spiritual mystery, and not to be treated as a fleshly thing. If the Bible believes "two become one," and we seek to become one with God, how can we pursue activities that are not God-centered or God-led? We cannot violate or deviate from the sacredness of our bodies; our bodies were created for "God-given and God-modeled love, for 'becoming one' with another." The body is the temple of God, we are taught; ours were bought at a great price paid by Jesus, how can we dare squander it just for a moment or two of fleeting pleasure? He states and we should believe, "God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body."
PRAYER: Loving Father; make right in us that for which we were created. Remind us often, that we were created for You and You desire intimacy with us in ways that honor and glorify You. Bless us as we live to be those who inspire faithfulness; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Let, as the Apostle said, people see God in and through your body!
Receive my blessings of love and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
