1 Corinthians 6:13-16 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication… I. "THE WORD MADE FLESH," CHANGED BY THAT ACT THE WHOLE RELATION OF THE CREATURE TO THE CREATOR. Before they were distinct. God chose man to knit both together. Could there be envy in heaven, surely the angels must have envied our race; nay, it has been believed that Satan fell through envy at the incarnation revealed beforehand. Nothing so illustrates the self-forgetting love of those blessed spirits, as that they should joy to be passed over, and to see us the fallen preferred to themselves. True! the purpose of God is to unite both under and in one head (Ephesians 1:10). Their ranks, it is a pious opinion, broken by the fall of the apostate angels, will be filled by redeemed men. But even this equality has not been enough. God has willed to give us a closeness of union with Himself, which He gave not to the Seraphim. And this for all eternity, II. THIS CONSTITUTES THE CLAIM OF JESUS ON OUR LOVE. 1. This is more than compensation for the fall of Adam. Jesus, in this special way, is ours; He is our near Kinsman, and more than brother. Jesus must love me with a special love, for He has not the nature of angels, but this of mine. 2. And how did He love us? What did He withhold from us, for love of us? His glory! He "emptied Himself" (Philippians 2:7). He who was and is one with the Father, entered this mortal life. He began it an outcast, and ended it by "giving Himself to be numbered with the transgressors." In those dread hours on the Cross, what part of His sacred body did He reserve from suffering for us? (Psalm 22:14). And His Father's face was hid from His human soul. And what doth He now? He is in that unspeakable glory, "upholding all things by the word of His power"; governing also the Church and sanctifying her by His presence. But as something nearer to ourselves individually, "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." Calvary lives on in heaven, and pleads for us still. And all this has been, is, shall continue to be done for us through the body. By taking our whole human nature, soul and body, God the Son gave us, in His own person, that special prerogative of nearness to Himself. III. WITH WHAT SACREDNESS DOES THIS INVEST OUR BODIES. 1. Limb by limb, they are the same bodies as that which God the Son took, which for us was crucified, which now is in glory at the right hand of God. All sin is misery, but sins of the flesh have yet this special misery, that they degrade that body which Jesus took. To sin as to the flesh is to insult Christ. 2. Trials you have or will have. But trials which are only of God's allowing injure neither body nor soul. He will give the victory who allows them (2 Corinthians 12:9). But now, if thou art liable to temptation, from which thou mightest have been blessedly free, or over which thou mightest have had, by God's grace, an easy victory — (1) Observe well, whence mostly it begins now; from imagination? or from the eye? or from past memories? or from over-fulness of food? For there the entrance of thy battle lies. (2) In the trial itself. I know but of one effectual remedy — to clasp the hands together, and pray earnestly to God for help. And when thou so prayest, think how Jesus hallowed this poor body; think how He suffered in this body for love of us. Look well at that holy frame, racked on that hard bed of the Cross. But above all, look at that thorn-crowned head, and that yet open, mild, forgiving eye, which won the blaspheming robber to sue for pardon from his Lord. Does it not say to thee, "Poor wanderer, this have I endured for love of thee; I loved thee and gave Myself for thee. Love Me at least now"? Wilt thou not look up to Him and say, "By Thy grace henceforth I will love Thee; let me rather die than again profane the body, which Thou didst so redeem, and wound Thy love"? Or look up and gaze on that glorious form at the right hand of God. All else is spirit. One body is there, above all, adored by all. There, with a special lustre of their own, stream forth the rays of Divine light and love from those two pierced hands, those once wounded feet, that opened side and heart. There, at that moment, the moment of thy temptation, they intercede for thee. There is that human eye resting still in love upon thee. Christ is not ashamed to wear in heaven the tokens of His humiliation; be not thou ashamed of Him and His service. Remember that He willeth to "fashion this our" now "vile body, that it may be made like unto His glorious body," and resolve by His grace to degrade no more the body which He so longs to glorify with Himself. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. |
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