Walk

318. Honor God with your body

1 Corinthians 6:9-20 says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful to me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have of God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Ephesians 5:3 says, “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints.”

There is more to be said on this subject than time and space permit. We need to focus on the fact that we no longer own our bodies, but they were purchased by God and are for exclusive use as His Holy Temple. Look at the Old Testament and you will see how particular God is about His Temple!

This Scripture not only covers sexual sin, but eating habits as well!

These commands are not options. Believers must choose holiness as their lifestyle. We are not talking about some legalistic set of rules. What we are promoting is that we need to make daily choices to conform our lifestyle to the life that has been inserted into us; the very life of God.

If we do not attempt to live a clean life, we are rejecting God’s commands.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 says, “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”

As we live, we will fail and make mistakes. The issue is not that we failed, but that we should hate our failures and repent. When we do, the promise is that the power of God in us will take over and live the God’s life by His power! It works!

Every believer must practice self-control, which is really the control of the Holy Spirit. His power enables the believer to choose to obey God instead of choosing self-gratification.

Galatians 5:16-24 says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

The fruit of the Spirit is the character of Jesus; that is our goal.

Fruit is not tied onto a tree, nor produced by the farmer, it is a result of the branch abiding in the vine or on the tree. Fruit is produced by God but we must cooperate and walk in the Spirit. We must walk in repentance and be aware of those things that are not pleasing to God.

Jesus gave us the formula for bearing fruit in John 15. He said that it depended upon our abiding in Him and His Word abiding in us. We abide in Him by obeying His word. So everything is rooted in the Word of God.

John 15:1-10 (KJV) says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.”

I noticed that most believers who live a “loose and worldly life” do not value the Word that much. Either they spend very little time in it, or they do not approach it honestly and allow it to shine and illuminate their sin as it should. The Word of God is the seed for the fruit God wants.

Mark chapter 4 tells us how to tend to the seed that is sown in our heart, and it tells us how Satan tries to make the seed unfruitful and/or steal it.

Mark 4:14-20 says, “The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

“And He said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Then He said, To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade” (Mark 4:26-32).

Remember, your pattern is Jesus.

He is the One who gives us our example. Do not compromise your morals or standards. Keep looking at Him, keep confessing your lack, keep planting and tending the seeds of the Word in your heart.

This is God’s promise that you have been conformed to the image of His Son Jesus. It is our job to believe it and walk it out. It is God’s job to provide the power to the promise. Romans 8:29-30 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestinated, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

Also do not get discouraged if you keep trying and keep failing. Remember later on in Romans 8:31-34 God says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

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