All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh. "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
This is a perplexing section. Paul declares that all things are lawful but immediately jumps into a well reasoned diseration regarding sexual immorality. Now, he knew that you can't have licensciousness and communion with the LORD, God, the Almighty in the same body. And he goes on to make that point in a way that convinces me that he could see into our day and age. He writes of the great evil caused by sexual immorality.
Our culture is crashing down around us, in large part because we refuse of recongize that the LORD, God, the Almigjhty created two sexes, blessd them, formed one unique beiing out of the two, and told them to be fruitful and multiply. That gift of multiplication has been granted only to that unique one-being, the result of the union of a male and female of like beings, But it has been spoiled by the flagrant sin of humans
I am perplexed.
Readings:
Morning Psalm 124, Noon Psalm 119: 89-96, Evening Psalm 74
