Read 1 Corinthians, chapters 5-7
This Week’s Topic: Sex
“There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, 'The two become one.' 17 Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never 'become one.'
There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. 19 Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit?
Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. 20 God owns the whole works. So let people see God in
and through your body." 1 Corinthians 6:16-20 (MSG)
Reflect
1. Does the above passage shed new light for you on the issue of sex?
2. Did you know that the physical part of you and the spiritual part of you are inseparable?
3. Did you know that you can do nothing spiritual that is not embodied, that there is not a“spiritual part of you”, there is only a “you” who belongs to God.
4. How many people is a person built to become one with?
5. If sex is for oneness, then what does the kind of sex that “can never become one” do to a person?
Prayer
Lord, help me to see your purposes for sex and your reasoning and how it plays out in life so that I’m not stuck on my or others’ opinions, rather I want to know everything I can about why you have set things up for human relationships as you have. Amen”
Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourself to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you are as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God: one has this gift another that...It is better to marry than to burn with passion. I Cor. 7:5-9.
ReplyDeleteSounds like Paul is making a concession to sex not glorifying it. He'd prefer to not have to discuss it. I hope that Paul's scriptures on sexual relations do not distract us from our gifts, prayer, true discipleship or the Gospel message. I'm apparently blessed to have relatively few moments when either my wife or myself is burning with passion.
Lord--help me to stay mindful of you, live in your grace and know your will through your son Jesus Christ.