1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
More and more young people are indulging in pre-marital sex today. The "sexual revolution" that began during the hippie years has not stopped. In fact, as the population increased, so did the frequency of it among young people.
Sad to say, the same thing is happening among Christian young people. One of the most common "prayer requests" that young people bring to the Lord is to have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. At the least it is a desire that is given to the Lord, that they may meet someone whom they can love.
And the moment God does answer their prayer they will claim that their boyfriend or girlfriend is a gift of God. But then things get out of control. They cannot control their fleshly desires. What begun with holding hands now becomes fondling, which eventually leads to having sex.
Because of their love, their uncontrolled emotion, one partner gives in to the desires of the other, and they surrender their bodies to pleasure.
What happened?
I think it is important for young people to understand that the falling into sexual sin did not happen last minute. And, also, the solution to sexual sin does not happen at the last minute. It must happen way before - in the heart. The foundation of the heart of a Christian must be so strong, that whatever temptation that comes our way we will be able to say "no" to it. Especially to sexual sin.
The understanding and belief in the passage above, quoted again below, serves as one of those important foundations in the heart of a Christian young man or young woman.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
The moment we are born again we are given a gift. Not a spiritual gift, but a gift - the Holy Spirit Himself. He indwells us, lives in us. And because of this we become a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Many Christians make the mistake of thinking that this refers only to the experiences that a Christian has with the Spirit - of being lead by Him, of knowing His presence, His power in our life. These are essential workings of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but this is not the only reason why He indwells us.
Notice when Paul teaches that we are a temple of the Holy Spirit, the first thing he writes is "YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN". The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us is about ownership. He owns us now. We are not our own anymore! Our flesh is not ours to please anymore. Our minds are not ours to fill with physical or sexual pleasure anymore. Everything that our bodies do are to be actions that are in submission to the One who owns us now.
We were bought at a price. That price was Jesus Christ's death on the cross. He paid the price so that we would not be slaves anymore to sin, but now slaves to righteousness. Some Christians think that being "set free" means that we do what we want, what our bodies ask for. No. We are set free from the hold of sin so that now we can be free to obey Christ!
So, since we are now a temple of the Holy Spirit we are not our own, we have been bought at a price. Therefore, we are to HONOR GOD WITH OUR BODY.
This is the foundation that every young person should bring in their hearts when they are blessed by God with a boyfriend or girlfriend, who should be looked at as a future husband or wife. For some reason many Christians think that the moment they have a boyfriend or girlfriend they are free to use their bodies to express their "love" or their emotion. This is a deception that the world has taught us. We see it in television shows and movies - that to show we love someone we have to hug, kiss, cuddle, hold each other in every part of the body! That's what the world does. And a Christian should not be following this automatically.
Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. We should honor God with our bodies. What we should be asking, praying about, is whether or not we should be holding, touching, kissing or whatever it is that our flesh is asking us to do. If we are a temple of the Holy Spirit we will only do what we believe honors the God who live in us!
The bodies of our boyfriend or girlfriend are also a temple of the Holy Spirit. So take care how you treat it. Are you supposed to be touching, holding, fondling and caressing a body that belongs to the Holy Spirit, that has been bought with the blood of the Lamb, that should be honored by you?
The reason why many young Christians have fallen into sexual sin is they have not prepared their hearts with this foundation in their hearts. We are a temple of the Holy Spirit, He lives in us, He owns us, bought us and should be honored at all times!
It is so surprising how Christian partners will go from holding hands to holding other delicate and private parts of the bodies, how we hug and caress as if the body we are touching is ours to freely do that to. No! Our body, the body of our partner, is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Honor it young people!
Some of you know this truth already, but it is overcome by our emotion! We "express" our love through our touch. Again, this is a deception of the world. We do not have to express our emotion through touching and hugging, which eventually may lead to our being tempted to have sex. We express our love through the working of God in our hearts.
The only time that a body becomes ours to freely caress and love is when we are married. That's the ONLY time. This is why a Christian waits for marriage, to enjoy the freedom to enjoy the body of our spouse (1 Corinthians 7:2-5). And even as our spouse we are to treat their bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Before that, single young people, be sure to use your body only for God's honor. Be sure to treat the body of your boyfriend/girlfriend as a temple of the Holy Spirit, honoring Him, honoring his/her body as someone who has been bought.
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