“. . . offensive subject line” – that was the response to me sending out the emails of the last Gem with “sexual” in the title. What a dirty world we live in when any use of the word sex or sexual is assumed to be questionable.
Well, it seems that most of you were asleep or too afraid to put forward your thoughts or didn’t have any. I got two responses. Those are not good percentages.
The one response that I will share with you is the following:
So singular (you) I am united with a prostitute therefore the Body with whom we are joined by the Holy Spirit becomes joined to the prostitute too? Paul says ‘a little leaven leavens the whole lump therefore clean out the old leaven in order that you may become a new lump. But we have so much of various sins in the camp that we miss the holiness of the Spirit.
Nobody wants unity with the prostitute but there’s no realisation of that truth and if you put out the one for the sake of the body no one fully understands and dissension enters in. The principle applies then to all sin?
I think what I am going to do is wait one more day to give some others of you time to respond. Maybe sending the Gem out on a Sunday didn’t give you enough time. Too busy with church.
This is very important stuff to think about.
We know Paul is referring the whole body in 3:16. He is making the point related to their squabbles and favouritism of one person over another. He is addressing issue of the unity of the body and oneness in Christ. It makes perfect sense that he would say YOU PLURAL are the temple of the Holy Spirit. But why would the YOU of 6:19 be plural too? How can it be plural when he is talking about someone uniting themselves to a prostitute? All those in the church, the body of Christ, don’t lie with the temple prostitute. Only one person. Why would Paul repeat again the PLURAL YOU?
Take time to think about it. I want to see how many of you this is touching and sparking you to think. The main reason I am doing Gem is to help people get deeper into the Bible. I aspire to inspire you before I expire. I was inspired by my Greek professor who used to tell us, “Class there is gold here, dig deeper.” I am telling you now, Gemers, there is gold here; dig deeper.
Never break four things – Trust, Promise, Relationship and Heart – because when they break they don’t make a lot of noise but cause a lot of pain.
Anon
A wise man simplifies complicated things while the fool makes simple things complicated.
Jeffrey Rachmat
Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening. (maybe you have stopped “listening” to Gems)
Ian Vail