[Put to death] … sexual immorality …
Summary: Paul begins to detail how we live according to God’s will.
As we begin to take a closer look at the things Paul wants us to “put to death,” the first thing on his list is “sexual immorality.” (The King James Version of the Bible famously uses the word “fornication” in this passage.)
Without going into details about how this word is used or what it means, we can generally say that God has something specific in mind about human sexuality. And he should. After all, he created us!
This is the hardest part for us humans to accept. God knows us inside and out. He designed us to be the way we are.
Now, when I say that we are “designed” to “be a certain way,” that doesn’t mean we can’t do something different than God intended. Going our own way, after all, is the essence of sin.
So God designed us, body and soul, to be and function in a certain way. If we had stayed within God’s design parameters, life would be much different. The curses that came upon humanity after Adam and Eve’s sin would never have happened (Genesis 3: 14-24).
Unfortunately for us, they did happen, and here we are. We have “free will,” but without God’s Word and Holy Spirit to guide us, we lack the ability to discern right from wrong. We continue to choose “wrong.” This is why God gave us the law, and God’s law is quite specific when it comes to human sexuality (See Leviticus, chapters 18 and 20).
So what are we to make of all this?
For those of us who know the Lord, Paul is explaining that we have a choice. Honor God with our bodies or reject him … again just like Adam and Eve did.
To put something to death is to kill it intentionally. To kill a part of ourselves seems unnatural to the natural man. However, when we are born again, when our spirit returns to God repentant, saved by the blood of Jesus, we become a kind of split personality. A part of us is fully committed to God, but we are tied to a body that is fully committed to fulfilling its own desires.
Choose.
We have to choose constantly to reject the impulses of the flesh. In Paul’s words, we have to “put to death” sexual immorality.
Application: Consciously focus on God’s will.
Food for Thought: Like Lot, we live in a pluralistic society. How do we co-exist with those who don’t know Jesus?
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