SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/17/2020 10:34 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Deed”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 5:27
Message of the
verse: “You have heard that it is
said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.”
Jesus again uses one of the Ten Commandments in talking
about adultery, in a similar way that He did in talking about murder (Matt.
5:21-16). Exodus 20:14 states “"You shall not commit adultery.”
These commandments are in order as
the sixth commandment protects the sanctity of life, and then the seventh
commandment protects the sanctity of marriage.
The one’s who rely on external righteousness break both of those
commandments, and the reason is that in their hearts they attack the sanctity
of life and the sanctity of marriage, whether they do so outwardly or not. When a person is angry or hate someone they
commit murder and when they lust sexually they commit adultery. In doing these they choose to despise God’s
law and God’s name.
In quoting John MacArthur I totally
agree with what he writes here: “Anger
and sexual lust are two of the most powerful influences on mankind. The person who gives them reign will soon find that he is more
controlled than in control. Every
person has experienced temptation to anger and to sexual sin, and every person
has at some time and to some degree given in to those temptations. Because of that fact, every person is guilty
before God of murder and of adultery.”
In our world today because of the
technology there is a greater degree of temptation in both murder and also
committing sexual sins. I do not
remember the statistics of how many murders that our youth see before they are
18 years old but through games and TV they see many thousands. Sexual sins are the same as one can see them
on computers, cell phones, smart watches and of course TV. Let us look at 2 Timothy 3:13 “But evil men
and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being
deceived.” MacArthur goes on to write “Ours
is a day of unbridled indulgence in sexual passion. People propagate, promote, and exploit it
through the most powerful and pervasive media ever known to man. It seems to be the almost uninterrupted theme
of society’s entertainment. Even in
academic and religious circles we see seminars, books, tapes and programs of
all sorts that promise to improve sexual knowledge, experience, freedom, and
enjoyment.” Remember this commentary was
taken from sermons preached in the mid 1970’s.
All one has to do today is just
watch commercials on TV programs and see how the mass media uses sex to sell
most everything. The result of this is
that sex crimes are at an all time high.
In
the day that Paul and the other apostles lived in sex was also something that
ran wild but in that day they did not have the technology that we have today. Paul writes in the first part of 1
Corinthians 13 “Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food.” This expressed the common Greek notion that
biological functions are just biological functions and have no moral
significance. Many of the Corinthian
believers totally went along with this and reverted to it to, or perhaps they had
given up, so to justify their sexual misconduct. They were arguing that sex was only something
simply as a biological act, no different than eating, drinking, or even
sleeping. However Paul strongly refutes
that idea by going on to say “God will do away with both of them [that is food
for the stomach]. Yet the body is not
for immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body” (1 Corinthians 6:13b). Paul is saying that the body is more than biological
as divine judgment will reveal. He goes
on to talk about the fact that Christians are a member of Christ, a temple of
the Holy Spirit, and they belong to the Lord.
We now go on to look at verse 15-20 “15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a
prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who
joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE
TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH." 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord
is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is
outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that
you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body.” Notice those verses that
are highlighted as I have put more verses in this section than were mentioned
in MacArthur’s commentary.
Lord
willing we will continue looking at this same philosophy of the corrupted
Corinthians in our next SD and talk about how it still goes on today in our
next SD.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I think about a statement that I quoted from
John MacArthur that I highlighted in my copy of his commentary: The person who gives them reign
will soon find that he is more controlled than in control.” (He is
talking about sexual sins, anger, and hatred.)
My Steps of Faith for Today: Think more
about the Word of God.
8/17/2020 11:25 AM
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