THE KING’S BUSINESS
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Jesus: My Body belongs to the Lord. That truth will save everyone who believes it from all forms of physical impurity. But not only is the body for the Lord, but “the Lord is for the body.” The salvation Jesus brings is for the body as well as the soul and the spirit (1 Thess. 5:23). The Lord then will redeem the body from its pas sions and excesses and bring it into har mony with the will of God and make it the instrument of His work (Rom. 12:1, 6, 13, 19) and ultimately He will glorify the body (Rom. 8:11, 23; 1 Cor. 13:35-54). Even now before our bodies are redeemed by the resurrection, our “bodies are members of Christ,” not only our spirits but our bodies. This being the fact how can anyone use his body for impurity. The one who is joined to a harlot becomes one with her. How horrible, then, to think of a body that belongs to Christ being used for such impurity. While he who “is joined to a harlot is one body” with her, “he that is joined to the Lord” is one spirit with Him. Fornication is something from which a Christian, must flee as from a pestilence. There is a depth of glorious meaning in Paul’s words, “he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” that words can hardly express (cf. Phil. 1:21). Compared with fornication, every other sin is without the body, but this sin enteres the body itself. No other sin brings the frightful physical consequences and the utter and disgusting ruin to the body that impurity does. Friday, October ip. I Corinthians 6 : 19 , 20 . Paul now brings in another glorious truth , to show how terrible this sin of impurity is, viz., “your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” Is there any other religion or philosophy that puts such honor upon the human body? How pure we should keep that body! How we should cherish it for the Lord! How careful we should be to keep it wholly for H im ! How many Thursday, October 18 . 1 Corinthians . 6 : 15 - 18 .
Wednesday, October if. i Corinthians 6 : 12 - 14 .
A true follower of Christ will not ask . merely what is lawful or permissible, he will also ask what is expedient (that is profitable or helpful). There are things against which there is no law, they are permissible, but they are not profitable (or helpful) ; so a believer in Him who came to profit and help and save others will not do them. There are also things which are lawful in themselves but they bring the one who indulges in them under their power, and so a child of God whom Jesus has made free (John 8:36) will not indulge in them. So then before engaging in any kind of action we ought to ask, is it “law ful?” If it is not I will not indulge in it. We ought further to ask, will this bring me under its power if I do it? If it will, I will not do it. How easily the prin ciples here stated settle the question of so many who are asking, about the proper observance of the Lord’s day, about theater , going, card playing, dancing, moderate drinking, immodest dressing, attending the movies and the other questions that con front a young Christian in our day. Paul says, or rather the Holy Spirit says through Paul, that foods are for the belly and the belly for foods, and a Christian is not under law about what he shall eat and drink (cf. 8:8; Rom. 14:1-3, 14-17; Mark 7:18; Col. 2:20-22), but this is not the sphere of the Christian’s thought and desire. These things belong to the perish able “God shall bring to nought” both the belly and the foods. There were those in Corinth, and also there are those in Amer ica today, who extend the argument about the belly being made for foods, and there fore, it being right to eat nny and all of them, to the body being made for other sensual indulgences and it therefore being right to indulge in them. This horrible thought Paul sternly repudiates. He argues “the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord." O, that these solemn and glorious words might sink into the heart of everyone who professes faith in
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