A Good and Holy Gift from God

Read 1 Corinthians 6:18-7:7.

On a cold night, have you ever thought about setting the living room rug on fire to keep warm? Of course not! No one would dare think of starting a fire where it doesn’t belong. Fire belongs in the fireplace. There, it is a good gift. Anywhere else, and it is a disaster.

It is the same with the good gift of sex. God gave us sexual intimacy as a beautiful gift to be enjoyed in marriage. This is why deep physical and emotional union with any person other than your spouse ultimately robs you of the joy of true intimacy—replacing it instead with guilt, shame, and brokenness.

According to 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, your body is not your own. Your body has been bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. And that makes you holy. To be holy is to belong exclusively to God. To be holy is to be set aside for God’s use. To be holy is to be owned—lock, stock, and barrel—by God. That’s what being holy means.

Now, in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul began to answer questions that the Christians of Corinth were struggling with in the midst of deep sexual confusion. At that time, divorce was so common and rampant that it was not unusual for someone to have been married twenty times. Men and women lived how they liked, regardless of marriage vows. Add to this atmosphere, believers who thought celibacy or singleness was a superior situation spiritually speaking. Some went on to argue that sex even within marriage was sinful. So Paul, steeped in the Old Testament, offered God’s wisdom from Genesis: God created man and woman to fit perfectly in every way, physically, emotionally, spiritually—to complement each other. He created them for fellowship, for companionship, for partnership, for friendship.

By God’s design, sex is a good and holy thing within marriage—and when God takes hold of that marriage, sex becomes a beautiful opportunity to serve and express selfless love to one another. That is why Paul encourages husbands and wives to share this gift given to them. Such a relationship honors God, blesses the couple, and keeps the proverbial house from burning down.

Prayer: Lord, may I use my body in the way You have intended. Help me set it apart for Your will so that it might be a source of blessing. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.