1 Corinthians 6 (7)

Pray Psalm 84.1-4.
How lovely is Your tabernacle,
O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, even faints
For the courts of the LORD;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young—
Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
My King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
They will still be praising You.
Selah

Sing Psalm 84.1-4.
(Holy Manna: Brethren, We Have Met to Worship)
LORD of hosts, how sweet Your dwelling; how my soul longs for Your courts!
Let my soul with joy keep telling of Your grace forevermore.
Like a bird upon the altar, let my life to You belong.
Blessed are they who never falter as they praise Your grace with song!

Review 1 Corinthians 6.1-20; meditate on verses 13-20.

Preparation
1. How does Paul teach us to think about our bodies?

2. How is it that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? What makes this so?

Meditation
An important truth is hidden away in these verses, which, if we miss it, we miss the real nature of the Christian faith.

Our passage begins and ends with a call to serve and glorify God with our bodies. Our bodies, Paul says, are “for the Lord” (v. 13); therefore, we must be diligent to “glorify God” in our bodies (v. 20). We offer ourselves daily as living sacrifices to the Lord, to be pleasing in His sight, purified of all sin, and ready to go as a sweet aroma of Jesus to the world. As our bodies go into motion for the Lord, seeking His glory in all things, we will naturally follow Jesus’ lead, walking as He did and not according to our “old leaven” way of life. This is what it means to devote our bodies to the Lord and direct and use them for the Lord and His glory in everything we do (1 Cor. 10.31).

But notice also that Paul says that the Lord is “for the body.” The Lord works from within our bodies to make us willing and able to know His pleasure in all we do (Phil. 2.13). The Spirit of God has taken up residence in our bodies, making them temples of the Lord; and He works to teach, convict, transform, and empower us so that we can follow Jesus and glorify God in our bodies. We do not depend on our own strength but on God, Who is in us and for us always.

God is for us, friends! He wants the best for us, body and soul. Let’s make sure that our souls are pure before our bodies go into motion, for if we do, we’ll know God is with us and for us to bring glory to Himself and righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit to us.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who walks uprightly,
and works righteousness,
and speaks the truth in his heart;
he who does not backbite with his tongue,
nor does evil to his neighbor,
nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but he honors those who fear the LORD;
he who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
he who does not put out his money at usury,
nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved” (Ps. 15.1-5). 

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them,
I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:
and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew
and beat on that house; and it did not fall,
for it was founded on the rock” (Matt. 7.24, 25).

Founded on the Rock and filled with the Holy Spirit, we devote ourselves to God, inside and out, ready to do the Kingdom work assigned for us to do. Knowing that “God is with us and for us to bring glory to Himself and righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit to us.”

For reflection
1. What does it mean for you to devote your body to the Lord each day?

2. How does it help you knowing that the Lord is for your body and all the ways you use it?

3. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. What kind of accommodations is He seeking in you?

If our body is a member of Christ and Christ has risen from the dead, our body will surely follow his lead. John Chrysostom (344-407), Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians 16.2

Pray Psalm 84.5-12.
Pray for the day ahead, that, as you are in motion for the Lord and His glory, His grace will abound to you and spread through you to touch others with His goodness, truth, and love.

Sing Psalm 84.5-12.
(Holy Manna: Brethren, We Have Met to Worship)
Blessed are they whose strength is founded in Your strength, O LORD above.
All whose hearts in You are grounded journey in Your strength and love.
Though they weep with tears of sadness, grace shall all their way sustain.
In Your Presence, filled with gladness, they shall conquer all their pain.

LORD of hosts, my prayer receiving, hear me, help me by Your grace!
In Your courts I stand believing; turn to me Your glorious face!
LORD, our sun, our shield, our glory, no good thing will You deny
to those who proclaim Your story, and who on Your grace rely.

T. M. and Susie Moore 

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter, available by clicking here.