In this brief focus we see Paul writing about what is a betrayal to our own bodies. Whoever sins sexually is acting against the best interests of his or her own spiritual body, a place where God’s Spirit abides. God’s Spirit is a place of unity, of harmony, and of peace. An act of adultery is a betrayal of God’s Spirit, for it is an act against a direct commandment given by God on Mount Sinai: Thou shall not commit adultery. Such an act breaks unity with God. It breaks harmony with God, for He did not create us to participate in sexual experiences with those who are not our mates. And within this caldron of adultery, peace within and peace outside in the community are disrupted, for solemn promises and vows were broken to his or her mate and to the community at large. Adultery is the ultimate act of betrayal, for it hides behind deception, a demeanor of lies. The longer the deceptive cohabitation takes place, the more damage it will caused when the evil is exposed. The other violations of God’s commandments are outside the body: I am the Lord thy God. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember to keep holy the Lord's day. Honor thy father and mother. Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not steal. Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. All of these are diametrically against God’s holiness and perfection, but done alone without joining with anyone else to complete the act of disharmony with God’s will for humans. The act of adultery needs a coconspirator in breaking God’s perfect will for a man or woman. Christians possess the Spirit of God within them. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) This is a clear warning for those who participate in adulterous affairs. If you destroy the holiness and sacredness of God’s place within you, God will destroy that person. The Holy Spirit is not to be dishonored or belittled. He is the power of God; He is the power of resurrection in each Christian. Without him in our lives, we are void of any power that will bring us eternal life. That is why in today’s focus Paul says, Flee from sexual immorality. Peter tells us, we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10) Because our lives are hidden IN CHRIST, we should perform the priesthood duties of bringing praises to God. If we are united with Christ, we should honor him within our communities by not acting on our variant sexual desires. Peter goes on and tells Christians to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:11-12) Sexual purity within a Christian or within a Christian community will bring light to an adulterous world, one where people betray each other, one where people live in lies and deception.
Sexual sins within the world are an indication of darkness and chaos. Without fidelity, without oaths of honor, agreements, vows, treaties, and the like, the world is in a state of constant instability. Since sexual sins are between one man and one woman, unfaithfulness in such intimate relationships can easily be seen as a precusor of greater problems within the world at-large, for if people cannot be faithful in individual, intimate relationships, they definitely will have problems working together in global circumstances. Jesus knew the nature of mankind; He knew they were adulterous not only in their own relationships, but also to God. When the Pharisees and Sadducees approached Jesus to perform another miraculous sign for them, Jesus identified clearly what adulterous people they were, for He had already performed many miraculous things within the community of the Jews. These were acts that no man had done from the beginning of time; yet, they would not believe He was sent by God to them. The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away. (Matthew 16:1-4) Jesus saw them as not necessarily sexually immoral, but immoral to God, unfaithful to God, unwilling to bend to God’s authority. The elite, governing Israelites were always fighting God’s authority in their lives. In the Old Testament we see God judged the kingdom of Israel first because of their unwillingness to serve him. These ten tribes broke away from Judah under Jeroboam. Jeroboam had the people in his kingdom worship Baal. Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. (1 King 12:31-32) Because the kingdom of Israel disobeyed God by worshipping other gods, He sent the Assyrians to war against the Israelites and carried them off to Assyria as captives. Later on the Babylonians defeated Judah because they too were rejecting the God who rescued them out of Israel. They too forgot their God and turned to idols. “The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron chisel—engraved with a diamond point on their stony hearts and on the corners of their altars. Even their children go to worship at their pagan altars and Asherah poles, beneath every green tree and on every high hill. (Jeremiah 17:1-2) All twelve tribes turned to worshipping other gods, claiming that these gods had rescued them out of slavery, claiming these gods would bring prosperity and security to them, but they were wrong. Their gods were but stone and wood, containing no power to rescue them from anything. The Israelites of old fought God in their lives, rejected the prophets' words that God sent to them. Now in Christ's time, they were rejecting Jesus; rather than serve him, they killed him on the cross. The Israelites are a perfect depiction of mankind in general. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
Paul in the above focus is telling the Christians to flee sexual sins, for the sin of adultery is a sin against God, for we who are IN CHRIST are God’s people. Israelites, God’s chosen, lived in adultery; they turned to many lovers. They chose the affections of these lovers over the love of God for them. God found them in slavery; no one wanted them, but God wanted them. He picked them up when they were bloody and without strength. They were as a baby abandoned at birth, but God chose them as his own and as a good father took them out of slavery and gave them a new life. On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.“ ‘Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, “Live! (Ezekiel 16:4-6). But the Israelites betrayed God by playing wth adultery, seeking other lovers to please them. Because of their adultery, God abandoned them to fierce nations that would enslave them, make them once more dependent on the will of men. However, God in his everlasting love, his eternal, enduring love, brought the Israelites back to the Promised Land. We who are now named as Christ’s own, should walk in faithfulness to God. To seek physical sexual experiences that are out of the will of God will bring discipline, for God loves us. It is a dangerous escapade, for it brings us in danger of losing the presence of God in our lives. We should never forget that we were the baby in the wilderness that no one wanted. Life had bloodied us up, but God came along through the works of Jesus to save us from eternal death. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) We ought not to seek the world’s lovers, to satiate the flesh’s wayward longings. Rather we should seek the eternal love of God. We are not to combine our flesh physically with the world’s lovers or prostitutes. Our affections should be one-hundred-percent toward God just as his love toward us is so great that He gave his only begotten Son for our redemption. IN CHRIST WE HAVE A NEW LIFE; old things should pass away. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21) As Christians, we should be in the business of reconciling the world to Christ. We are to be God’s ambassadors, revealing the righteousness of God to the world. Adultery is the very opposite of reconciliation, the very opposite of being free from the entanglements of the flesh. Therefore as Paul says, Flee from sexual immorality. Instead, championing the works of Christ, as with Christ’s fidelity with God, let us be the same: ONE WITH GOD, ONE WITH CHRIST AND ONE WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. This is your inheritance, your birthright. Amen!
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