Reading: “Know 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. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.” —1 Corinthians 6:15–16

When we understand the full implications of what it is to sin while in union to Christ, we have a very powerful motivation to stop sinning. Paul writes, “Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.” This is to say that as well as grieving the Holy Ghost (verse 19), the Christian implicates Christ in his sin. Sin brings that which is holy into union with that which is impure. We are reminded that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). It was not the fear of getting caught that kept Joseph from sinning with Potiphar’s wife; it was the fear of implicating God in his sin that made him run. May a fear of the same keep us from sin.

Rev. Paul Thompson (N. Ireland)