Body

The Christian’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, purchased at a price. Our bodies as well as our spirits are “for the Lord”; our bodies as well as our souls are “members of Christ himself” (verses 13-15). We believe, with all the saints, in the resurrection of the body, and this gives our bodies a special glory, even in old age.

We honor God with our bodies when we abstain from sexual immorality. To indulge in such sin is to defile Christ’s body as well as our own – “shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute?” It is to make the temple of the Holy Spirit a temple of Aphrodite, where sexual immorality was central to the worship. It is to drag in the mire a body destined for glorious resurrection.

“The body is not meant for sexual immorality” (verse 13). However, it is intended for the marriage union, where the bodies of the husband and wife belong to one another (1 Cor. 7:3-5). For them we rightly pray:

Their store of earthly gladness

Transform to heavenly wine,

And teach them, in the tasting,

To know the gift is Thine.