1 Corinthians 6 (Pt 5)


1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV)
[19] 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, [20] for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
In our world where finding your self and following your passion is considered the ultimate good, the words of this chapter in 1 Corinthians stand out in sharp contrast. Our passions do not define us. Our relationship with Christ defines us. Our passions lead us to drag God into unrighteousness because he dwells within us. Our body no longer belongs to us. It is now the holy temple of the Holy Spirit. Our highest call is not to follow our passions, but to glorify God.

So much of what is driving the political agenda today, so much of what is driving the moral agenda of our day, so much of what we hear, read, and see today is based on the faulty premise that we must be ourselves and follow our passions. We even argue that God made us this way so it must be right. But that argument is destroyed by 1 Corinthians 6:13 where the Corinthians argue, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” But the text responds, “and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”

In Psalms 11:3 the Psalmist asks, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” It seems to me that Christians have been arguing for moral behavior while the Enemy has been chipping away at the foundation. We have been trying to secure the ramparts of the moral castle while the Enemy has been beating down the door. We are still arguing for moral behavior, but we have too often bought into the lie of pursuing our passions and “I’ve got to be me.” We now couch that in biblical terminology all the while missing the fact that it is not the behavior that is the problem. It is the philosophy of life underlying the behavior that is the problem.

It is time we understand that our passions, our desires, and our past does not define who we are. It is time we recognize that, as believers, we are not our own. We are bought with a price. We are the holy temple of the holy Spirit of God. It is time we confess that we have bought into the lies of the Enemy even while trying to defend biblical morality. It is time we realize who we are in Christ. It is time we realize that our highest call is not to follow our passions, but to glorify God.

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