March 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 6:9-20:

⁹Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
¹⁰Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
¹¹And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
¹²All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
¹³Meats 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.
¹⁴And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
¹⁵Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
¹⁶What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
¹⁷But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
¹⁸Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
¹⁹What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
²⁰For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Devotional

Do people around us abuse their bodies? Do they ridicule us if we do not join them in their destructive, evil practices? Do some of them commit adultery and other gross violations of the seventh commandment? Are some of them gluttons and drunkards? Are some of them slaves to drugs? Do some risk their lives in reckless defying or ignoring of the sixth commandment? Do some have no respect for life whether before birth or after? Do some have a good word to say for every degrading and body-destroying vice and only contempt for those who challenge their views? Do some even seek to make money out of ruining themselves and wrecking the bodies and souls of others?

If we have been tempted to join such people in their sin or if we have fallen in any respect, we need to cry to our holy God for His cleansing and forgiveness. In our grief and repentance we can be assured that if we confess our sins, our God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. With new resolution and strong trust in the Lord Jesus, we must stand anew against all the attacks of Satan.

How obvious it is that the bodies of the redeemed are not for sinning but are for the Lord and are members of Christ. "What," Paul asks, "know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body."

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)