An honourable temple

Rev Dwight Fletcher

Most of us don’t think that sexual purity is an important part of physical care. If we think about the fact that our body belongs to God and that we should honour Him with it, it makes perfect sense. The Bible is clear about God’s plan for our sex life. God created sex for us to enjoy it within the context of a lifelong marriage between one man and one woman.

In God’s eyes, sex isn’t bad or dirty. However, when we step outside of His plan, we not only sin against God, but we hurt ourselves. The Scriptures tell us “… sexual sin is never right: our bodies were not made for that but for the Lord, and the Lord wants to fill our bodies with Himself” – 1 Corinthians 6:13 (TLB). Sexual immorality simply means stepping outside of God’s plan for our sex lives and ignoring God’s will in this area. This not only hurts our physical bodies, but it hurts our relationship with other people, and most of all, it hurts our relationship and our closeness with God. God created us, and He wants us to experience the very best in every area of life. That means committing to sexual purity. The Bible says: “Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.” 1 Corinthians 6:18 (NLT).

An overall healthy lifestyle has both short- and long-term health benefits. Over the long term, having a balanced diet, regular exercise, appropriate rest, and maintaining a healthy weight can add years to our life and reduce the risk of certain diseases. In the short term, it can also make us feel and look our best, boost our energy, and help us maintain a healthy weight and body. One key to reducing the risk of diseases is making these small changes to our daily lives.

When we start doing these things, we honour God with our bodies, and it brings us closer to Him. Whenever we start obeying God in any area of our lives, it draws us closer to Him. We must ask ourselves whether the choices we make today are going to affect the next 10 years of our lives positively or negatively. How do you think the choices you make today are going to affect your life and family?

Some of our issues have nothing to do with food. Maybe it’s alcohol, drugs, smoking, or maybe it’s a medical condition that needs to be checked and managed. In addition to a healthy diet, regular exercise, and rest, we must honour God with our bodies sexually and in all the ways that we use our bodies. Sex outside of marriage and other negative lifestyle behaviours are ways that we dishonour God with our physical bodies. This also includes feeding our minds with pornography or other Internet temptations.

In whatever ways that we dishonour God, the first step is to stop pretending that it isn’t a problem. Be humble and own up to it, repent, and correct the behaviour. This may mean getting help. Commit your body to God. St Augustine said, “… treat your body as if you are going to live forever and treat your soul as if you are going to die tomorrow.” Let’s commit our bodies, our souls, our lives to God. To do that, we need to be willing to admit that we need God’s help in the weak areas of our lives. We need to be humble and draw close to God, and He will draw close to us.