19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy,1 drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do2 such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
(ESV)
A Life Pleasing to God
4:1 Finally, then, brothers,1 we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification:2 that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body3 in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
Footnotes
[1] 4:1
Or brothers and sisters; also verses 10, 13
[2] 4:3Or your holiness
[3] 4:4Or how to take a wife for himself; Greek how to possess his own vessel (ESV)
13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined1 to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin2 a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Footnotes
[1] 6:16
Or who holds fast (compare Genesis 2:24 and Deuteronomy 10:20); also verse 17
[2] 6:18Or Every sin (ESV)
Going Deeper
Proverbs 8 (2-18-17)
As we begin in Proverbs 8:1-12, we read about the poetic personification of wisdom, which gives us a visual of all of the benefits of valuing and heeding truth. In a world shaped and ruled by lies, the call of wisdom should be to us like the sound of an approaching ship when we are lost at sea.
Do you value wisdom? Do you value truth?
Do you want to know what is right? Are you tired of being deceived and lied to? Then hear wisdom’s call.
Run to truth and righteousness. Leave behind deceit and dishonorable things. Pursue what is right and good and God-honoring. Run and don’t walk.
I love the simple but often overlooked point of verse 13.
It says,
“The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.” –Proverbs 8:13
To side with God–to be on His team–is to hate evil. The Lord is righteousness. How can light mix with darkness? How can we who are of the light desire or befriend what is evil? Do you have a passive acceptance of evil, or do you rightly detest what is evil and what stands against our holy God?
Do you make war with your pride and arrogance, because to not make war with them is to walk in a manner that God hates? Do you tolerate and enjoy perverted speech? To do this is to embrace something that God hates. How can we who are in the light embrace the darkness? Brothers, we are to fight sin and to hate evil. We are not to be afraid to call sin “sin” in our modern, politically correct day. May we be set apart and not embrace or enjoy the ways of evil while we love our enemy for the sake of our gospel testimony and God’s glory.
Reading on in Proverbs 8:14-21, we see a list of rewards for truth’s manifestation in our life. God rewards honorable living. It points out here that wisdom is what sets us apart as the victorious and the honored.
Do we value truth knowing we will be honored for eternity? Our prize in this harsh land may be persecution and ridicule, but our eternal prize is what the people of God want and pursue.
Now, the imagery used in verses 22-31 is very special. It is a proclamation of wisdom to say that the Lord God wielded wisdom and truth form before there was time. The very existence of God, the very perfection and power of God, is wisdom and truth. Then the beautiful and majestic display of the handiwork of God in creation is on display, and they are all done in wisdom and truth.
Just read Proverbs 8: 22-31 again. Let if draw you into worship of God, for He is good and worthy of our praise. This is what John the Beloved was getting at in the opening verse of the Gospel of John.
Jesus who is truth and wisdom is referred to as “the Word.” I want you to see how core Jesus is to this reality for us.
John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Who is one John refers to as “the Word”?
To help us answer this, we look to the opening statement in Hebrews: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
Here we learn that Jesus is the spokesman of the Godhead. Jesus, the son of God, is the Word.
Also in Revelation 1:8, a title declared of Jesus is “I am Alpha and Omega,” which intimates that He is God’s alphabet, the One who spells out Deity, the One who utters the word of God.
Even clearer, perhaps, is the testimony of John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
John calling Jesus “the Word” is his way of declaring this biblical truth that Jesus is the Spokesman of God and the One who has declared or told forth the Godhead.
-A “word” is a form of manifestation. If I have a thought and it is only in my mind, others so not know what it is, right? But the moment I put form and body to the thought in words, written or spoken, that thought now becomes revelation that is known by others.
I want you to stop and consider the mind-blowing reality that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us by speaking His word. He does this through Christ who is referred to as the Word.
Jesus has made manifest the invisible God to us is a most special way.
-I want us to stop and really take in the game changing reality that the eternal God of all creation has chosen to reveal Himself to us by communicating with us by the word, Jesus.
We do not deserve this.
Think about what you know about how Christ has revealed God to us! Christ, as the Word, reveals the attributes and perfections of God. He displayed His power, He manifested His wisdom, He exhibited His holiness, He made known His grace, He unveiled His heart. In Christ, like nowhere or nothing else, is God revealed to us. This is what the Apostle Paul is getting at in Colossians 1:15: “He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God.” Paul, right away, is showing us this huge, game changing truth.
God has made himself known–visible–by His Word: Jesus Christ.
A “word” is an expression: by words we articulate our speech. The Word of God, then, is the Deity expressing Itself in audible terms. What we need to see is that this is not just any word of expression but THE WORD from THE LIVING GOD. In other words, it is the very source of all TRUTH and wisdom and life!!
John calls Jesus the Word because he had come to see the words of Jesus as the truth of God and the person of Jesus as the truth of God in such a unified way that Jesus Himself—in his coming, and working, and teaching, and dying and rising—was the final and decisive Message of God.
Or to put it more simply: What God had to say to us was not only or mainly what Jesus said, but who Jesus was and what He did. His words clarified Himself and His work.
The person and words and work of Jesus is God revealing that He is the TRUTH!
Track with me here to gather the power of this:
Jesus said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6).
Jesus came to witness to the truth (John 18:37).
His witness and His person were the Word of truth.
He said, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31), and he said, “Abide in me” (John 15:7). When we abide in Him, we are abiding in the Word. He said that His works were a “witness” about Him (John 5:36; 10:25). In other words, in His working, He was the Word.
In Revelation 19:13 (by the same author as this Gospel), John describes Jesus’ glorious return: “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.”
Jesus is called The Word of God as He returns to earth.
Two verses later John says, “From his mouth comes a sharp sword” (Revelation 19:15).
This is how Jesus will strike the nations: in the power of the word of God that He speaks!
May we see Jesus as the ultimate manifestation of wisdom and truth. He is God. He is light. He is truth.
May we long for and worship Him above all else. May the wisdom we seek not be only that of man but more, far more. May it be the highest revelation of wisdom and truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. The WORD.
THE TRUTH. THE LIFE!
By His grace and for His glory,
Joshua “Shepherd” Kirstine
Soldiers for Jesus MC
27 When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above,
when he established1 the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his2 delight,
rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.
32 “And now, O sons, listen to me:
blessed are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
34 Blessed is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
35 For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the LORD,
36 but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”(ESV)