Honor God in Body and Spirit
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ~ “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 were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with
your bodies.”
God
created us - mind, body and soul. God died for us literally to save us spiritually
and eternally. God made us part of His body by redeeming us and it is He that
dwells in our bodies as it is where He has chosen to reside among all of His
Creation. We need to recognize how great and distinction this is- to have the
sovereign God of all eternity choose to pick us from before the foundations of
the world (Ephesians 1). There are a few distinctions that need to be pointed
out in the syntax and grammar here. The word “you” and “your” are plural. Paul
is addressing believers or an entire congregation while simultaneously making each
individual believer understand the God resides not only within each individual
but also as a body. It behooves us to understand the entire body can be
negatively affected by the wrong-doing of one rogue agent in the body.
The
bottom-line is that our bodies regardless have been given to bring glory to
God, not shame. It is why we are exhorted not to bind them to a prostitute. God
is present at the site of all our sins as He is within us wherever we go. That would
include if we go into a whorehouse or brothel. In the entire context of this
passage we see an imperative to not indulge in sexual immorality. Sexual
immorality not only compromises the body of the individual it also affects the
well-being of a congregation because it puts the entire congregation in a poor
light in front of the world. What we do as Christians as part of a Christian
body of people reflects on everyone else in that body.
We must
realize there are eternal consequences for unrepentant sexual immorality. Those
that pursue these sins cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven (therefore be in
the presence of holy God). The two are incompatible. In the end it is the
saving grace of God that pulls the sinner from these sins. In pulling them from
those sins He makes a new creation that is not like the old. One must then ask
a question. If I have not repented and not changed and am not a new creation…then
what am I? I certainly cannot be a Christian then, can I? If we pursue our sins
and enjoy them this cannot be of God…it is of us. If the sin is of us then we
are not fully His, are we?
Be Filled With the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 5:18 ~ Do not get drunk on
wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit…
Charles
Haddon Spurgeon once said that if we allowed God’s word to rule in our homes
that if
An angel(s)
actually visited us in our homes, once there they would not be out of their
element. When God’s word rules in our life, His Spirit rules and strives in us.
The problem is that in many homes, even those of professing Christians, it is
not God or His word that rules in us…it is the world that rules in us. Instead
of angels in our homes it seems we are visited by demons and the consequences
are horrid. We too frequently see divorce, broken homes, sexual immorality, abuse
physical and psychological rule homes. These are not homes ruled over by the
Spirit of God. Even homes that look good from the outside are often homes that
are dysfunctional and disconnected on the inside. The members of the family may
not be literally divorced from one another but emotionally and psychologically
they couldn’t be farther apart.
The
answer is to allow the Word of God to rule in all our lives and to have unity
in Christ Jesus. We need to not inhibit the Holy Spirit from doing His work in
our lives.
Ephesians
4:4 ~ “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one
hope of your calling…
Romans
8:5 ~ “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the
flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their
minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is
death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The
mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s
law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot
please God.”
Romans
8:12-14 ~ “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not
to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the
flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of
the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are
the children of God.
1
Corinthians 3:16 ~ “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and
that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?”
…and just
like we have seen above in Honoring God
in Body and Spirit, the correlation of the individual making up the
plurality and communal aspect of the Body of Christ is a critical symbiotic
relationship too. If we do not have the Spirit and Word of God reign in us we then
have broken or dysfunctional families within the church. We then begin to see
the breakdown of the family units that form the bedrock of the Church. These
building blocks of family need to be laid firmly against the Cornerstone Jesus
Christ to have the rock-solid basis to remain spiritually strong. It follows
that as the churches erode…so does society…and this is exactly what we have
seen occur over the last century. Inductive reasoning then tells us that if we
remove God from society we go horribly astray rapidly. People stand in the
streets wondering why things have gotten so bad. Since many will not believe in
the spiritual aspects to the downfall of the society they will choose the next
obvious place to blame: other people. The Republicans, the Democrats, the youth,
the aged, etc. All the meanwhile, the answer to the problem lies within. Or
should I say that the answer to the problem does NOT lie within as there is no
Spirit of God in them? When God is on the “outs” in our lives and families we
as individuals and community are being decimated. Subsequently or societies are
being effectively being destroyed.
We are called to love God and each other as we love ourselves. There is a clear reason for this-we are a communal being both with God and other humans. This is the basis for the Kingdom of God which eventually will be spiritual and physical at least in terms of a spirit body. If we do not then it shows just how little we love or care for others and our God. This is the root of separation, alienation, apathy and ambivalence. The best way to reflect the Kingdom and therefore God's will is to show a true loving relationship to other humanity. We must never forget that if the Kingdom is anything, it is relational. That relation starts with God and all other things fall out from that in our human relations. Look at it as spiritual networking. A lack of this love manifests itself in a failure to evangelize, preach the Gospel, tell truth of Scripture (even when it stings) and not obeying the commands and statutes of Scripture. Commands that at times...are commonsense.
So be
filled with the Holy Spirit. You are not being asked. This is an imperative or
command. God expects obedience here. Otherwise, expect the decimation of the world
around in judgment that befalls those that disobey en masse. What are those
judgments?
Deuteronomy 28:18 ~ The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the
crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
[We have generation after generation being cured with debt they cannot absolve
themselves of]
Deuteronomy 28:20 ~ The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in
everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you
have done in forsaking him.
Deuteronomy
28:25 ~ The Lord will cause you
to be defeated before your enemies. You
will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. [Even in military superiority we will be undermined]
Deuteronomy 28:27 ~ The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which
you cannot be cured. [Afflicted
with incurable diseases]
Deuteronomy 28:28 ~
The Lord will afflict you with
madness, blindness and confusion of mind. [In other words, people will be lost in their sin because
people have abandoned the truth of God]
Deuteronomy 28:29 ~
At midday you will grope about like a
blind person in the dark. [In other words,
people will be lost in their sin because people have abandoned the truth of God]
Deuteronomy 28:30 ~ You will build a house,
but you will not live in it. You will
plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. [Astronomically high foreclosure rates and homelessness]
Deuteronomy 28:32-33 ~ Your sons and
daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes
watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand. A people that you
do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing
but cruel oppression all your days. [Our debt to
foreign nations like China has indebted our children’s generation to another
nation like debt/wage slaves. It is a form of financial exile]
Deuteronomy 28:41 ~ You will have sons and
daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.
[As above our children are in
debt to East Asian countries]
Deuteronomy 28: 43 The foreigners who
reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower
and lower. [We see
the reproduction rate of the west decrease as we see the adherents of Islam and
the like dramatically increase. By mere offspring alone we will be overtaken by
foreign Gods sooner than later. Our abortions and failing families will exacerbate
this issue.]
Deuteronomy 28: 44 ~ They will lend to you,
but you will not lend to them. They will
be the head, but you will be the tail. [This one should be self-explanatory]
And so the list
goes on in Deuteronomy for thirty or forty more verse. The parallels to modern
America should rattle people but apparently it doesn’t. Why? I believe it is because
the Spirit of God is not filling nor dwelling in fewer and fewer Americans.
I suggest that we
are not pleasing God in this country and it can only bring wrath and judgment on
the unrepentant (and even some of us). We are not only an embarrassment to the
name of our predecessors, we will also be an embarrassment to our descendants.
As such we will become slaves to foreign powers.
Deuteronomy 28:46-49 ~ They will be a sign
and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. Because you did
not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time
of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and
dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you.
He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
The Lord will bring a nation against
you from far away, from the ends of the
earth, like an eagle swooping down, a
nation whose language you will not understand…
Yeah…we’re not
pleasing God. I think it’s obvious.
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