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MARCH 3
GOD-GIVEN SEXUALITY
“Flee 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.” (1 Cor 6: 18-20)
This passage was part of the Epistle-reading in my church yesterday, on
one of the Sundays of the “Lenten Triodion.” So the Church is drawing
our attention to an essential participant in the Lenten journey, the body,
and more specifically – sexuality. The Apostle is saying, – in case we were
avoiding taking a prayerful look at this part of our “human” being – “Do
you not know,” do you not acknowledge, contemplate, and gratefully
embrace the fact “that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within
you?” And then he says, “therefore glorify God in your body,” not only in
what you eat and drink, but in your sexual behaviour.
Today I am reminded of the simple, yet amazing fact, that sexuality, like
hunger for food and thirst for drink, is a God-given capacity. It can lead
to growth and new life when placed where it belongs, in the service of
His greater glory. Conversely it can stunt growth and be de-structive, if
I misguide this God-given gift in self-seeking and self-reliant ways; If I
hide this gift away from God, or neglect shedding a prayerful light on
matters sexual, not handing over to Him that “which is not my own.” It is
His, because He put it there. So let His will be done in my body, as I want
it to be done in my mind and soul. Let me hand over to Him all things, in
a “whole-minded” fashion. “But grant unto me, Your servant, a spirit of
whole-mindedness, humility, patience and love.”
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