Thursday, February 5, 2015

February 6, 2015

"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you are bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."  I Corinthians 6:18-20

To get the full impact of the advice Paul is giving these new believers who are commanded to stand apart from their perverted pagan culture, you should read verses 12 through 17 and then the first section of Chapter seven.

I believe when you read this section in its full context it will become clear that God is not motivated by prohibiting you from sexual expression but rather, He is protecting you from perverting it and depreciating it.

God, through Paul, is telling these Christ-followers, "don't employ sex in this way so you can fully enjoy sex this way"!

There is much to be said here but I want to focus on the concept of discipline because if there is a place where discipline is necessary it is in this area of your sexuality.

Discipline is a much despised and neglected concept in our 21st century culture much as it was in the 1st century Corinthian culture. Like then, we want our pleasure when we want it, and how we want it and we don't like anyone telling us we can't do that!

Let me give you a definition of discipline that could change your attitude toward it. Discipline is saying "NO!" to one thing in order to say "YES!" to a better thing!

No one can have it all and if you want better than what you have say "NO!" to what you have to get something better!

God's Holy Spirit is saying, through Paul, if you want better sex say "NO!" to your ideas of sexual expression and say "YES" to His.

What if you believed God, Who created you and who invented sex, desires for you to enjoy His gift to its fullest extent, would that change how you interpret this Scripture? Would that help you have a more positive attitude toward His Biblical standards?

I think it is pretty obvious that if these Corinthian Christians were enjoying amazingly fulfilling sex lives Paul would not have had to write these directives. So, isn't it safe to assume they weren't?

And doesn't it make sense when something is not working well for you should choose a better way of doing it?

So, if you want to choose a better way of expressing your sexuality doesn't it require you to stop expressing it the way you are now?

That my friend, is discipline!

If you can discipline yourself into a sexuality that honors God but you choose not to, what does that say about you?