GOSPEL MESSAGE & RECORDING
In the Pauline Epistle today, the Apostle Paul makes a differentiating statement. He says, “all sin is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” (I Cor. 6:18) At first glance, this portion of St. Paul’s teaching seems confusing because we may ask ourselves: Isn’t all sin a part of the body? For example, when someone is angry or behaving gluttonously, is that not in the body, just like sexual immorality?
When reading the Bible, context is important. Here, St. Paul is specifically referring to sexual immorality in terms of engaging in sexual sin with another person. The distinction is that someone else is involved in committing a sin, rather than committing it with oneself. Of course, anger or jealousy is directed toward another person, nevertheless, there is no “body-to-body” union. Therefore, when St. Paul says that, “all sin is outside the body” he is referring to sin that is other than a sexual union; and when he says, “sexual immorality” he is referring to the sexual union of two individuals in a sexual manner, outside the bonds of marriage. To add further context to this passage, we should understand that the city of Corinth, during the time of St. Paul, was engaged in all sort of licentious acts, both religious and publicly. So, he had to make a distinction in order to clearly identify the pattern of destruction that the society at large and some Christians in the church were engaged in.
In the 21st century, like that of St. Paul’s time, we also experience a society that is accepting of sexually immoral behavior, either, implicitly or explicitly. As a whole, the values of our country have shifted in a way that makes it very hard to be a “practicing” Christian. I say practicing because, though we may say we are Christian, by birth, affiliation, or membership, it doesn’t mean that we practice it. Practicing means, we actively engage in living out the teachings of Christ, given in His Word. However, practicing Christians face many challenges too. One of the primary challenges is sexual immorality.
How can we deal with this challenge? And further, how do we meet this challenge and not fall to its enticements? We must first understand that sexual immorality is a thought that comes to our mind because of the memory that we have acquired throughout our lifetime. All such acts of sexual immorality can be traced back to an initial thought. If we are able to deal with that thought properly, then we are less likely to engage in such behavior.
Your Thoughts Don’t Define You
We all have experiences in the past that develop and shape thoughts in our minds. That is, we see things in our life and have experiences that become part of our memory. This memory is sometimes played in our minds as thoughts. We might make an association with what is currently our peripheral view with what we saw or experienced in the past. The point is that thoughts derive from our memory, and thus, are not exactly connected to who we are as a person. In other words, our thoughts don’t define us as a person. This becomes the problem that many of us face in our life. We think that thoughts are who we are. Therefore, we become so connected with them that they control our actions. On the contrary, if we see thoughts as “agents” of our memory that pop up in our minds, we will be able to handle them better. For example, see the brain as the palm of our hand and imagine a pen moving back and forth on it. The pen represents our thoughts. It is independent of our palm. We can allow the thought to move back and forth. This represents the thought coming into our mind and presenting itself. Notice, the pen is mobile, moving back and forth; there is no unity with the mind. Now, we can also grasp the pen. That is, the brain takes hold of our thoughts. This represents us involving ourselves in our thoughts and eventually acting on our thoughts, which leads to desire, a desire which leads to sin, sin with eventually leads to spiritual darkness. (James 1: 14-15) Now, we can also do another thing: drop it. This represents us letting go of our thoughts, and allowing it to pass on by. The good news is that even though we grasped the pen, we still have the ability at one point to let go. This should give us some hope that even if we grasp on to our thoughts, we still have time to let go before it turns into action. How do we practically implement this in our life?
Don’t get guilty when you have a disturbing thought.
Doing Jesus prayer during your prayer time will help you focus on Christ and allow you to let the thoughts that come into your mind pass on by.
Fasting provides the discipline that we need to allow the thought to pass on by.