Focal passage: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
“That is not what that was made for!”
I don’t know how many times I have heard that said to me through the years. Since I was young, I have been bad about doing things with whatever “tool” was available to me, whether that was the objects intended purpose or not.
I might use a fishing pole to get something off of a tall shelf.
Sometimes I might use an otherwise good tool for a destructive purpose – like taking a hammer and chipping the tiny front edges off of my mom’s piano keys. (Yep, I really did that!)
As Paul was writing to the Corinthian believers, seeing some of the ongoing sinful actions of their lives – gluttony and sexual immorality – he was saying to them, “That is not what you were (re)made for!”
Could their stomachs be used for gluttony? Sure. Could their bodies be used for sexual pleasure, even immorality? Definitely. Paul tells them, however, that is not the reason God made them – to satisfy their physical, temporal desires. God made them, in fact, re-made them, for His glory.
Because these Corinthian believers had surrendered their lives to Christ, God had forgiven their sin, given them new life and set up residence in them by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. Far from being instruments for sin, their bodies were now temples of the Holy Spirit (6:19) – the place where God’s presence dwells. They could never justify opening
up the doors of those temples for the pleasure and service of their spiritual enemy.
Our lives no longer belong to us. We have been bought with a price – the blood of Jesus (6:20). We should, therefore, use our bodies for what they were (re)made for – the glory of God.
Paul would similarly tell the Roman believers – “For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Romans 6:19).
God has made us new for His glory! May our lives glorify Him in all things!