Monday after Trinity 7 1 Corinthians 5:9-6:20
The devil, world, and our flesh want us to believe that our bodies are our own so that we use them for our own purpose and pleasure. The pro-abortion slogan, “My body, my choice” is the sinful flesh’s slogan for all forms of self-indulgence, especially sexual self-indulgence.
St. Paul teaches otherwise. “Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” God hasn’t given us our bodies to use for our personal pleasure and gratification. The body is for the Lord and His service. Sexual immorality of any kind is especially dangerous because “he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.” This sin is insidious because it turns the sinner more and more upon himself so that he worships his desires and in unable to love and serve others. It is ultimately a form of self-idolatry.
The body is for the Lord, not only because the Lord made our bodies but because He has made the bodies of believers temples of the Holy Spirit by faith. The Holy Spirit dwells in all who believe to sustain their faith and to bear His fruit in them, especially the fruits of love toward others and self-control of the mind and body. The Holy Spirit dwells in believers to guide them into good works and defend them from every temptation that assails them from the world, the devil, and the wicked impulses of the sinful flesh.
With this in mind, flee sexual immorality as something dreadfully harmful. Pursue chastity in thought, word, and deed as something profitable and useful. Use your body to serve others in selfless love and thereby glorify God with your body and spirit since you were bought with the price of Christ’s precious blood. The Christian’s slogan isn’t “My body, my choice,” but “My body for God’s service.”
Let us pray: Grant us Your Holy Spirit, O Lord, that we may glorify you with our bodies and be chaste in our thoughts, our words, and our behaviors. Amen.
