The Christian's Body

THE CHRISTIAN’S BODY

SCRIPTURE: I Corinthians 6:19

INTRODUCTION

There was something amazingly wonderful and special about the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. What was it? Did it radiate with light as He walked among men? Could it be in two places at one time? Did a halo hover over His head? No, it was none of these things.

Was it different from the bodies of other men? Not really. Just like our bodies, it was "fearfully and wonderfully made." His body had two feet, two hands, two ears, a nose, a mouth and one heart.

Yet it was different.

What was special about the body of the Lord Jesus Christ? It was special because the Son of God assumed it to dwell among men. It was through a body indwelt by the Holy Spirit and dedicated to the will of God that Jesus carried on His ministry. The body of our Lord was also special inasmuch as it was not tainted by sin. There was no sin in Him, neither was there guile found in His mouth. At the time of His birth the power of the highest overshadowed Mary and the infant Jesus was born sinless.

In similar fashion, every Christian’s body is special too. No, we were not conceived without sin. Neither do our bodies glow in the dark. They cannot last very long without food and water. They cannot Jump 10 feet into the air or skip 30 feet. Neither can they pass through closed doors or be in two places at the same time. But, they are special. Apart from being fearfully and wonderfully made, our bodies belong to the Lord. This is what makes them special.

Jesus has bought us with a price, the shedding of His own precious blood. When you became a Christian by trusting in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the Cross, the Holy Spirit entered into your body. At that moment your body became the temple of God. So your body is sacred. That is what makes it special.

What does Paul say about our bodies? How are we to use them? How can we best glorify God in them? Can we use them or abuse them, as the case may be, as we please? In our text, Paul answers these questions for us:

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s" (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Paul’s words suggest four things:

FIRST PAUL’S WORDS SERVE AS A REMINDER

"What? know ye not?" This expression is used by Paul eight times in this first letter to the Corinthians. Again and again he had to say to them, "Didn’t anyone ever tell you about these things? Haven’t you been informed? Don’t you know it’s wrong to pit one preacher against another, wrong to organize yourselves into cliques and be constantly at war with each other? Don’t you know that such spirits are disrupting the harmony of the church and creating deep feelings of hostility? Don’t you know that drunkards, fornicators, adulterers, and sex perverts shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t you know that your body was purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, that you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that God wants to use it for His Glory?"

Could it be that the Christians at Corinth did not know better and had to be informed? After all, they had been saved from gross heathenism, dreadful superstition, and loose moral living. Perhaps they really didn’t know how to behave as Christians.

Or it could have been that the Corinthians were ignoring certain information given them. They knew what was expected of them but they were doing nothing about it. They were not living up to their potential in Christ. They were not growing because they were not obeying Christ. I am convinced this was their problem. They were living too close to the world. They were being attracted by its allurements. Their separation was not complete. The world, the flesh, and the devil still had a hold on them.

Sometime ago I read of a woman who was 45 years of age and had the body and voice of a child. Spiritually speaking, the Corinthians were like that. Their souls had not kept pace with their age. They had been Christians for years, but they had been stifled in their growth. Paul wanted to feed them with the meat of God’s Word, but he had to feed them baby food instead. They had not grown up as Christians. They refused nourishment. Consequently, they were underdeveloped as believers in Christ.