1 Corinthians 6:19,20

1 Corinthians 6:19

Note:

I. God's consecration of the body. The image of the text is that of a shrine in which a god dwells. The body of a Christian believer holds another tenant than his human spirit; a Divine presence is within him, at once his glory and his power. And that Divine presence confers an unutterable sacredness upon his body. The body is a medium of Divine service. That is one of the suggestions of God's consecration of it. The impulses of the indwelling Spirit ask for its co-operation; they need its ministry if they are to pass from gracious thoughts into Christian acts. We can set no limits to God's consecration of the body of the Christian believer, can form but little conception of the complete and noble service which is possible to us because He has made such a shrine in which to dwell. These things speak of the "temple of the body," and lend an awful, glorious meaning to the admonition which bids us glorify God in our body as well as in our spirit, since the body, equally with the spirit, is His.

II. Our consecration of our bodies. The first essential to our glorifying God in our body is that we regard it with reverence. That is the use Paul is here making of the fact that it, equally with the spirit, is redeemed; that it, equally with the spirit, is a sphere of Divine service. Irreverence for the body, disregard of all its noble capabilities, and the ends to which it may be made to minister, was closely connected with the sin of impurity, which the Apostle is rebuking. We may make another application of our text. It is a Christian duty to do all in our power for the relief of bodily suffering, both in ourselves and others. Next to the work of preaching the gospel and healing the spiritual woes of men, which are the root of all their bodily sufferings a work which remains in its importance first and unapproachable comes the work of fighting against and destroying the pains that afflict humanity. A wonderful framework is the human body, writing out the story of sin in sickness; lending itself to all the process of human discipline; aiding the endeavour after spiritual perfection; making the noblest human ministries and a high Divine service possible to us.

A. Mackennal, The Life of Christian Consecration,p. 100. (See also Christian World Pulpit,vol. viii., p. 276.)

References: 1 Corinthians 6:19. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 1004; vol. xxvi., No. 1554; Sermons for Boys and Girls,p. 340; ThreeHundred Outlines,p. 143; W. Hubbard, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 102; Homilist,vol. iii., p. 370. 1 Corinthians 6:20. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xx., No. 1163; W. Lamson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 239; Ibid.,vol. xi., p. 31. 1 Corinthians 7:3. Expositor,1st series, vol. ix., p. 388.