NEVER ALONE!

It is not my purpose to write on the subject of adultery and fornication. I will allow Paul to speak with God’s direction of these sins which were so very prevalent in beautiful, but very sinful, Corinth. In fact the beautiful temple in the heart of Corinth was dedicated to those very sins. That had been at the very heart of their city's religion before the Saints there gave their hearts to Christ.

I want, rather, to call our attention to a Christian emphasis from these very same words.

“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For Two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin tat a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:15-20.

Paul has started with a fact that was common knowledge if not perhaps thought much about. “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?” The head and the body must be one to accomplish even the most simple deeds. Neither is able to accomplish anything without the other. This is common knowledge and accepted, and this is why Christ said of his church. I am the head. Without the head, we are nothing. Without Christ, there would be no church and all mankind would be lost eternally. Without Christ, even the most beautiful building means nothing. The most somber rituals mean nothing. Or even the most fervent prayers. Remember the prayers of the pagan priests and the simple prayer of Elijah. God sent fire to burn the sacrifice, then rain. The temple in Corinth was beautiful, but decadent.

But let us take this a step farther. Our limbs need guidance. Recently, my wife and I were taking our morning walk. As always, we were holding hands, and on this occasion, she happened to notice something at just the wrong moment. She tripped on a speed bump in the street, and we both tumbled in the very middle of the street. It caught me with one foot off the ground and there was no way I could hold her up. The result was that it is I who has the scrape, and the swollen knee and elbow. What happens to one of us happened to both of us. We are one in God’s sight.

When one of us is distracted from our attention to Christ, the fall is felt by all of us, and by Christ most of all. He gave his very life‘s blood on Calvary to save us. It hurts the head most of all when the body falters.

We are His contact with the world. Through us, he speaks to lost souls. He sends us where we are needed with the answers to that need. He sent Philip to a desert place to teach the Ethiopian. He did not permit Paul to go to North Galatia, but send him to Europe instead. He has put us where we are, and there is a reason. We are His hands, His feet, and His voice today. The Gospel is our message. He does not send us alone. We are his temple. The temple was God’s special place. The Holy Spirit is within us to give us guidance today. We are never alone. Brother J. R. Morse, a missionary now deceased, spent many lonely and months as a prisoner in a Japanese prison, during World War Two, but he was never abandoned nor forgotten. And he faithfully remembered his Lord the whole time with much prayer. We have the same need today, wherever we may find ourselves: the Word, prayer, singing in the heart, and remembering his sacrifice for our salvation.