Title: HONORING GOD WITH YOUR BODY
Focus: In the 7th commandment, God calls us to honor him with our body.
Function: To move the people to honor God with their bodies by respecting boundaries for human sexuality and by pursuing chastity or pure lives.
Texts: John 14:15-17; I Cor. 6:12-20
In 1976 I visited the homestead of the Bierma family. I was dating Rosanne and had the privilege of meeting her parents for the first time that year. Well, what do you do when you visit your potential future in-laws? You help out; you make yourself useful. In my case, that meant helping out on the farm.
One of the things I got to do was clean out the pigsty. Rosanne’s brother used the bobcat to scoop out the manure and muck, and I used a shovel to assist. I learned very quickly that hogs have a preference for wallowing in their own muck and manure. So, of course, this city slicker raised the question why bother cleaning the pigsty? The answer I got was this: “there are limits, even for pigs!”
Of course, it’s not the hogs that set the limit; it’s the farmer who seeks the wellbeing of his pigs. The farmer sets the boundaries; the hogs live by their owner’s standards—and in doing so, the hogs thrive.
As I speak today about God setting boundaries for us, I do not mean to suggest that we are like hogs. In fact, the scriptures remind us that human beings, unlike animals, are created in the image of God. As image bearers of God, however, we do well to remember that God has in mind our wellbeing as he holds before us the 7th commandment. In that commandment God calls us to honor him with our body. And that means that we must learn to respect God’s boundaries for human sexuality and marriage by pursuing chastity or pure lives.
In my message this morning, then, I want to make TWO OBSERVATIONS about the 7th commandment; I want to share THREE GREAT TRUTHS with you; and I shall leave you with FOUR QUESTIONS to ponder.
The first observation is this: When God says to his people, “You shall not commit adultery,” God is setting boundaries for marriage and human sexuality. God is saying here something about marriage and sex. And God is speaking to all of us—whether we are married or single. God has created us as sexual human beings; thus we are capable of engaging in procreation and deep, personal intimacy. God intends, however, that our capacity for sexual intimacy and procreation takes place within the boundaries of marriage.
God has instituted those boundaries. And God has done so for our well-being and for the well-being of the family and society. “You shall not commit adultery,” then is not a negative word from God about sex. Rather, it’s God’s call to us to honor the boundaries he has set for us as our Creator.
Secondly, messing with the boundaries of sex and marriage comes with a price. Many people today are paying the price for messing with God’s boundaries. For example, a husband who commits adultery incurs the wrath of his spouse and risks losing the respect of his children. A wife who is unfaithful to her husband unleashes the furor of jealousy and spurned love of her husband. Singles who sleep with one or multiple partners open themselves to diseases and to strange, mixed emotions that lead to insecurity and instability and often low self-esteem.
People who wish to re-define marriage today and include gay and transvestite unions as “marriage” undermine the stability of families and jeopardize the fabric that holds a society together. And people who consider co-habitation as a half-way step toward marriage are pretending that they know better than God how to live in stable, covenantal relationships. Statistics tell us that co-habitation does not lead to stable marriages any more than sexual experimentations with one or multiple partners.
All of these alternative sexual behaviors defy God’s call to honor the boundaries of human sexuality and marriage. All throughout history, but especially in this day and age, we have been paying a horrible price for messing with God’s boundaries. And that leads me to share with you three great truths from the Bible. All Christians need to apply these truths in their daily lives.
1 Our body belongs to God: The human body consists of more than one trillion cells. These cells are intricately and mysteriously united with our soul. God has created us body/soul—dust and spirit. And God has done so in a way that we bear and reflect his image: body/soul. It is by virtue of God having created us, by virtue of God being the potter and we the clay, that we belong to God: body/soul.
This truth is of special importance to all who claim to be Christians. For by assuming our flesh, and by dying for our sins, and by rising from the dead, the eternal Son of God has a special claim on us. Jesus tells us that we belong to him. He has bought us with a price: he shed his blood. And he has redeemed us by his resurrection and ascension, and now we are his.
Our culture says: “you are your own man, your own woman; no one can tell you what to do, especially when it comes to the area of personal pleasure and sexual gratification.” The Scriptures say, “Not so!” “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” Christians cannot and may not ignore God’s Word to us on human sexuality and marriage. For we belong to him, body and soul.
2 Our Body is a temple: In the gospel of John, the Lord Jesus prepares us for his physical absence. Today, the Lord Jesus is in heaven—there he rules in his glorified, resurrected, body as King over all. Physically, Jesus is not present with us. However, Jesus has promised the gift of his Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to work through us. In other words, the Holy Spirit (who is the Spirit of Christ, the Counselor, the Comforter, the Spirit of God) makes his home in our body. Listen to Jesus: “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.”
Pentecost has come. The Spirit of God is at work in our world—bringing about rebirth, stirring up faith, cleansing us from sin, giving us access to God the Father and Christ, the Son, praying for us, encouraging us, and calling us to live clean, pure, chaste lives, and uniting us with Christ. Listen to the apostle Paul: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” This is truth as large as a cow. All Christians must take it to heart.
3 Honor God with your body: It’s in the context of sexual matters, including marriage, that Paul calls us “to flee from sexual immorality.” Why? Because our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and we belong to God. And as such, we must not treat our body as a pigsty, but keep it holy. We do so out of recognition that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and in light of God’s holiness and purity.
The Heidelberg Catechism uses an old-fashioned word to bring out God’s will for us in the 7th commandment. Listen: “God condemns all unchastity. We should therefore thoroughly detest it and, married or single, live decent and chaste lives.” Chastity means, “being pure or chaste.” It points to wholeness, to clean living. It’s a word that captures a form of holiness that invites the abiding presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives.
A person who lives a chaste life is a person who provides hospitality for Christ’s Holy Spirit to do his work in us and through us. Chaste living is the way to go through life for any Christian. Listen again to the Catechism: “Does God, in this commandment, forbid only such scandalous sins as adultery?” (Answer): “We are temples of the Holy Spirit, body and soul, and God wants both to be kept clean and holy. That is why he forbids everything which incites unchastity, whether it be actions, looks, talk, thoughts, or desires.”
Thus, chastity and purity are words that frame this great truth for any Christian: Honor God with your body.
Now I will raise four questions for all of us to ponder in the days to come.
ONE: Do you belong to Jesus Christ? I ask you this question because none of what you have heard so far from me or the Scriptures may make any sense to you and move you to make any changes in your life. I hope and pray that you may know Jesus; that you turn to him in faith and trust; that you receive his gift of salvation—forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Do you belong to Jesus Christ? If your answer is “Yes! I do!” then I urge you to commit yourself to live chaste, pure lives. Do you belong to Jesus Christ?
TWO: Do you set boundaries for yourself as a single or married person? That is, what do we do as husbands and wives to protect our marriages and our relationships as husbands and wives? What do you do as a single individual to honor God with your body? It is very difficult in our sex-saturated culture to live chaste lives. It is difficult to remain pure, whether with our actions, thoughts, looks, talks, or desires. Yet, there are things each one of us can do to honor God with our bodies.
Do you protect marriage? Do you, as Scripture commands us in Hebrews 13, honor marriage and do we keep the marriage bed pure? Do not kid yourself: Co-habitation undermines marriage and disregards the purity of the marriage bed. Do you set boundaries for yourself and for your children and for our culture—boundaries that reflect God’s will for us? Or, does anything go?
THREE: Are you and I committed to chastity? Or do we pay merely lip service to sexual purity? What internet sites do we access—sites that draw us away from sexual purity? What magazines do we subscribe to? What videos, what movies do we watch? What clothes do we wear? What is appropriate wear in public, in church, and at school? What kind of conversations do we have with our friends? What kind of jokes and sexual innuendos do we make and relish? Difficult though it may be: Are we committed to chastity?
FOUR: Are you willing to flee from sexual immorality? The verb “to flee” suggests that sexual immorality is dangerous. Paul expresses that danger when he points out that sexual sins affect the core of our being. “He who sins sexually sins against his own body, his own self.” Sexual sins do not only hurt others, do not only violate God’s honor, but also diminish our own physical and spiritual and emotional health. There is no such thing as “casual sex.” So, are we willing to take seriously the warning in the Scripture’s call to ‘flee from sexual immorality’?
Some, perhaps, would like to flee, but find themselves trapped. You may have discovered that in your own strength you can’t free yourself anymore. Then, remember: there is professional help available. There are (Christian) organizations that may help you to find freedom from the traps of sexual immorality. And yes, there is especially the power of the Holy Spirit, to sustain and strengthen us in our desire to live pure lives.
So, four questions to ponder: Are you willing to flee from sexual immorality? Are you committed to chastity? Do you set boundaries for yourself? Do you belong to Jesus Christ? Let’s honor God with our body. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.