Run from Sexual Temptation - 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Paul and the Corinthians—Part Seven [1]
Paul wrote,
12 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the King, and the King cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. 15 Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of the Savior’s? Should a man take his body, which is part of the Savior, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. Once upon a time, I was in really good physical shape. It obviously took a lot of hard work (hitting the gym twice a day, eating better and consuming a ton of protein!). In other words, it took discipline.
Any dude knows that discipline is required to do anything worth doing (fitness, sports, business, music, etc.). Yet, those same dudes do not place their sexual desires under the same discipline they apply in other areas of life…and yes, it takes discipline. What I have found over the last quarter century of ministry is that men discipline their minds. They must not only focus their thoughts on what is truly productive but also flag what is dangerous. If a sinful thought enters a man’s mind, he must immediately label it as such. He must note it and immediately confess it silently to God. The identification of sexual temptation and the willingness to tag it for what it is—treason against your King—is a discipline! One must train the mind with the same zeal one trains to become a scratch golfer, snag six pack abs or maintain a home. This is a discipline, gents. Get to it, your King demands it!
[1] For the sake of time and space, I will rarely post my own translation along with the blog post from here on out. CCC members can snag them at church or message me and I will send them the translation.