“Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, HCSB).
In Chapters 5 and 6 of 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul discusses specific immoralities that had been reported to him. The misconduct of the Corinthian church that Paul addresses in these chapters are sexual immorality and lawsuits against one another.
“And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2: 2-5, ESV).
The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians that he did not proclaim the gospel to them using intellectual arguments. He said he proclaimed the simple truth of the gospel through the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit so their faith would not be based on human reasoning but on the life-giving power of God.
“We urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to live in a way that pleases God, as we have taught you…God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor…God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives. Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” (I Thessalonians 4:1-8, NLT).
A few years ago my wife and I purchased a new home. Because the house was newly built, there were many things we needed to do to it.
Proverbs 8 extols the value of acquiring wisdom. It does so by personifying, even deifying, wisdom.
In a previous meditation I said that acquiring wisdom is important because wisdom is the creative energy of God.
Proverbs 8 enlarges on that supposition: “The Lord made me at the beginning of His creation, before His works of long ago. I was formed before ancient times, from the beginning, before the earth began… when He laid out the foundations of the earth. I was a skilled craftsman beside Him. I was His delight every day,always rejoicing before Him. I was rejoicing in His inhabited world, delighting in the human race” (vs. 22-23,29-31).
With wisdom God established the universe and through wisdom God declared the knowledge of Himself to people.
“So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit…Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye…Then he said….the Lord has laid his hand of punishment upon you, and you will be struck blind…When the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.” (Acts 13:4,9-12, NLT)
Barnabas and Paul’s first missionary journey was undertaken by the leading and in the power the Holy Spirit.
Steve's Bible Meditations 