Flee Sexual Immorality

18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

Thoughts: Flee sexual immorality.  That means when the semi-pornographic site pops up on the ad that you didn't ask for, you x it out.  When you get an unsolicited invitation to a bad site- turn away.  As Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife, we need to flee from sexual immorality.  In our day- it is extremely hard.  You can be sitting in your own living room and it comes to you on a commercial after 10 PM.  You don't even have to ask for it, and an adult channel pops up.  But fleeing sexual immorality means turning the channel, looking away, x-ing out, and walking away from a bad and tempting situation.  Part of our problem today is that there is so much really horrible stuff out there, that we water down what we accept as okay.  Today the standard for much of sexual immorality is a betrayal of feeling rather than a betrayal of commitment and trust.  We should listen carefully to what the scriptures say are sins.  We should not only stop before it gets too bad, we shouldn't start- to flirt with a bad situation or to play around with adultery.
    Sexual sins unlike others, are risky physically.  So sexual immorality is a sin against our own body with risk of Sexually Transmitted Diseases like AIDS.  I have done the very sad funerals of several who have had AIDS.  It is heartbreaking.  Corinth was full of people with the wounds of STDs.  It was as epidemic then as it is now.
     Our bodies are temples of God.  This is not simply a verse (to be taken out of context) telling us to exercise and eat right.  Our bodies are the shell of the Spirit of God.  They contain God- within- us when we believe.
     We are not our own to do with as we wish.  The saying, "It is my body" does not apply to Christians.  We are God's body and soul.  Christians recognize our bodies and our souls are gifts from the Maker.  The One who made us also came to redeem and save us.  We are not our own- we have been bought with a price- the price of Jesus Himself.  Jesus came to die for our bodies and souls in both this life and the life to come.  So we should guard our souls and guard our bodies- they are precious gifts to be reverenced.  We are to honor God with all we are- body and soul. 

Prayer: Lord, give me grace and strength to honor you body and soul. 

Venereal Disease Display in Corinthian Museum-
 a warning from history of elevating erotica to worshipful heights.