Dearly loved by God in Christ Jesus,
Protective guards on machinery do much to protect workers from injury, especially the loss of hands and arms. These safeguards prevent many deaths as well. They are there for our protection.
God’s Word is a safeguard for our souls. God’s Word also protects my body by showing me how I am to use my body and its members as God’s child. The Word protects the way I live from injury and death the skeptical and immoral culture in which I live may cause.
The gospel has changed our lives from unbelief to faith. It has changed our will. “One with him in spirit,” we want to use our bodies for the Lord rather than for sin. God’s Word is a safeguard. The Word reveals the great price Jesus paid to redeem our bodies, and that our bodies now are “temples of the Holy Spirit.”
The Apostle Paul described for the CorinthiansSafeguards for Threats Against Body and Soul. Know the difference between liberty and license; avoid the danger of self-destroying sin; fulfill the purpose of a ransomed life.
We guard our lives in Christ first by understanding the distinction between liberty and license. Many in Corinth had lost this understanding. Christian freedom means I can do what God neither commands nor forbids. The other thing I must consider is how it will affect others. An act of Christian freedom may be permitted but I will avoid it if it does not benefit my neighbor.
There is no Christian freedom for things God clearly forbids. There is only slavery to them. God clearly forbids sexual immorality in all forms. The Corinthians were confusing their liberty to eat certain foods with their slavery to committing sexual immorality. The apostle answered this issue directly, “the body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
Confusion between liberty and license today comes in arguments such as these. I do not have to worship on a certain day. Therefore, I do not have to attend public worship at all. I am free to eat and drink all things, therefore I am free to overindulge in food and drink. I can date and marry whomever I want, so I can have sexual relations apart from marriage.
Liberty in Christ is my freedom to use my body and soul for things that benefit others and glorify God for his forgiveness of all my sins. License is sin’s mastery that misuses forgiveness, and makes it an excuse and justification to continue in love for a particular sin.
Another safeguard for threats against body and soul is to avoid the danger of self-destroying sin. Paul mentioned the sin, pornia, from which we get our English word pornography. It is a broad term for sexual immorality of all kinds. This sin involves the body. We commit sexual sins not only with others but also against ourselves.
Paul makes his point well. When a husband has sexual relations with his wife, they become one flesh in God’s creation of marriage. To have such relations with a prostitute, or apart from marriage, is that oneness apart from marriage, which is offensive to God. The man or woman takes what is holy and turns it into wickedness. There are many threats for such wickedness that attack our bodies and souls in today’s immoral culture.
Our bodies are members of Christ, Paul reminds us. He has high regard and future plans for us that we see already in Jesus’ resurrection. Our bodies are destined for eternal glory. Christ will raise them from death or change them on the last day.
Therefore, we do not want to degrade them with immorality. Our intimate relation with Christ gives our bodies dignity. God has set our bodies apart for service to him. With our bodies, we are to honor God by using them according to his will. We are to safeguard our eyes and ears, hands and feet from anything that desecrates them in the sea of filth that threatens to drown us in moral corruption.
Paul commands, “Flee from sexual immorality.” Be like Joseph who fled Potiphar’s wife who tempted him to commit adultery. Avoid media and music that encourage sexual immorality. Hold marriage and preparation for marriage sacred. Keep our thoughts and words pure. “Therefore, honor God with your bodies.” This is why God redeemed our bodies.
Knowledge of liberty and flight from soul destroying sin are safeguards for threats against body and soul. Along with those, we safeguard ourselves by fulfilling the purpose of a ransomed life.
“Do you not know that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you received from God? You are not your own.”
God willing, we will dedicate our new sanctuary to worship and other holy uses. God dwells here in his presence and in his Word. In the same way, the Holy Spirit also dwells with in our bodies. Our bodies now are living temples dedicated to worship and other holy uses.
No longer dare we consider our bodies our own. We cannot use them as our sinful nature sees fit. My body belongs to God. I have no right to choose how to use my body, or what to do with another’s body. Christ redeemed my body from sin, death and Satan that I should be his own. He paid no less a price than his holy blood.
Jesus purchased us with his holy life and sin bearing death. He did not ransom just half of me. He purchased not only my soul for eternity but also my body for eternity. We no longer lives for ourselves, as Paul wrote in his second letter, but we live for him who loved us and gave himself for us. We would not use this building or our new building for something God forbids. We would not use it for something that has gained mastery over us to the harm of others. Therefore, we do not use our bodies in those ways either.
We need safeguards against things that threaten our bodies and souls. The Holy Spirit has given us these words of Paul through inspiration as those safeguards. Enjoy your Christian liberty, avoid sin that destroys, and fulfill the purpose of your ransomed life.Amen. <SDG>