I can think of so many different ways that this passage could be taken. Myriad homilies and reflections. I can also think that this passage might easily have been the starting point for some doctrines of a church. Could you argue for total celibacy of the faithful? Then that would be the downfall of the human race and well, that seems contrary to God's plan even if we believe that the end 'will come in our lifetime' as the early church believed. I can also come back to a recent writing about our bodies being temples, that fits here too.
Then I am thinking of the entire faithful as the body of Christ to be respected and loved. This isn't an original thought of mine. In addition, it is something I have already been thinking of because of the writings of Chris Glaser ( https://chrisglaser.blogspot.com ), always a good read, thought provoking and insightful.
I argue strongly for introspection and solitude at any time of the year but I especially think it is important during Lent. Look inside yourself and leave some quiet time to listen to God who always calls each one of us by name. In moderns terms, I might say that God calls us by our very own unique DNA since God created us individually, purpose built and enormously loved. Loved beyond comprehension really. So it might seem counter to my beliefs when I stress the fact that we are also one part of the entire body of Christ. One of the faithful.
How do we honour and respect that? How do we grow during this Lenten season while cooperating with the God's body as church? It is still a time for introspection and listening but it is not solitary. It is not just me and God; it is me, God and the entire faithful. Sometimes in the dynamic of our own personal relationship with God we diminish the importance of our own role in community. We know we cannot be faithful without everyone else but do we really respect and honour our own position in the church proper? We have a role to play as witness, as role model and as student when it comes down to it. We can't do that on our own. We must value the gift of ourselves to others in church and indeed, in the world. This is a big truth about ourselves and the world we live in.
Honour and respect ourselves and the gift we are in community. Let us not deprive the church, formal or informal, of our presence.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
‘All things are lawful for me’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful for me’, but I will not be dominated by anything. ‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’, and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, ‘The two shall be one flesh.’ But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
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