Hebrews 10:5-7 Why when he comes into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you would not, but a body have you prepared me:… First of all, I shall name the sloven. We have all seen him at times, and a very objectionable fellow he is; clothes, gait, hair, hands, everything about him, denoting a lazy, indolent creature that is utterly without self-respect. If you keep in mind this little text, "A body hast Thou prepared me," you will feel it a sacred duty to keep in proper condition your physical frame. Secondly, I name the boor. It is the greatest mistake in the world to suppose that it is a token of manliness to disregard the courtesies of polite society. "Be courteous" is a Scriptural admonition. Whatever you are, don't be a boor! As little would I like to see you a fop. Dandyism is one of the most contemptible developments of' humanity, and always betokens extreme littleness of mind. But I cannot dismiss the text without pointing out how it bears upon the sensualist. There is no language in Scripture more startling in its awful solemnity than that which condemns the man "who sinneth against his own body." "The body," says St. Paul, "is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body." Scripture speaks in many a place of a man "sinning against his own soul." But there is something exceptionally terrible in the wickedness of those who sin against their own bodies. My subject compels me to warn you, in accents of earnest entreaty, against every form of impurity. Your body is God's temple; no marble fane that ever was reared is so beautiful or so perfect. Shudder at the thought of its defilement. "A body hast Thou prepared me, O God; it shall be kept stainless and immaculate for Thee" — let this be your daily vow. And if it is to be kept, you must first of all guard your heart-purity. There is no fuller's soap that will perfectly cleanse the imagination once it is defiled. If a harp be broken, skill may repair it; if a light be extinguished, the flame may be rekindled; but if a flower be crushed, what power can restore it to what it was before? Such a flower is purity. The first step on the down-grade taken, only a miracle of grace can bring you to the level again. The Scriptural doctrine of the resurrection invests this physical frame of mine with an infinite dignity and importance. Death is its temporary dissolution, not its destruction. With what magnitude of interest and importance does this invest these corporeal frames of ours! It confers upon them an awful indestructibility, at the thought of which even the perpetuity of mountains, of suns and stars, become as nothing. You have a bodily as well as a spiritual immortality. These bodies shall claim half of your individuality to all eternity. Can you, then, make them the instruments of sin, or defile them by unholy lusts? Must you not guard with utmost care the imperishable temple of the soul? (J. T. Davidson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: |
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