Quote:
Originally Posted by *AQuietPlace*
The Bible calls it bondage, which is pretty much the same thing as addiction.
I don't think anyone is saying that something besides the power of God is what is going to free them. They are just saying that sometimes, for whatever reason, people can find it very difficult to walk in that freedom, and still find themselves bound. It is STILL the power of God which is going to free them, but just lightly saying - 'oh, that's a sin, you need to stop that!' isn't going to help free them.
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Why isn't it going to help them? It helped me. Someone wanted to start a 12 step program at the church I attended years ago... I had to wonder if it was good for people who claim to know God in the fullness of his power, who have not had a drink for years or even decades to stand up and say before a group 'I am an alcoholic'. Why after being bought with a great price would you speak a curse over your life like that?
How is 'go and sin no more' much different from 'that is a sin, you need to stop doing that'? We as believers do need to say those things to each other.... about cussing, lying, stealing, cheating, getting drunk, getting stoned, having sex outside of marriage, overeating, overspending, coveting, being angry or violent, etc. And we need to say them to nonbelievers too. The difference is that those who do not know God also need to be told that He can and will help them overcome those sins... Those who already know God may need to be reminded but they deep down know that it is SIN that separates them from God.
Can the Holy Ghost reside in a person who is drunk, stoned, having sex with someone besides their spouse, watching a porno?
1Cor. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
What! know ye not ... - This is the fifth argument against this sin. The Holy Spirit dwells in us; our bodies are his temples; and they should not be defiled and polluted by sin; see the note at
1 Corinthians 3:16-17. As this Spirit is in us, and as it is given us by God, we ought not to dishonor the gift and the giver by pollution and vice.
And ye are not your own - This is the sixth argument which Paul uses. We are purchased; we belong to God; we are his by redemption; by a precious price paid; and we are bound, therefore, to devote ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, as he directs, to the glory of his name, not to the gratification of the flesh; see the note at
Romans 14:7-8.
Clarke's Commentary on the Bible
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost - What an astonishing saying is this! As truly as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic tabernacle, and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians; and as the temple and all its utensils were holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated alone to the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians are holy, and all their members should be employed in the service of God alone.
And ye are not your own? - Ye have no right over yourselves, to dispose either of your body, or any of its members, as you may think proper or lawful; you are bound to God, and to him you are accountable.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,.... What is said in
1 Corinthians 3:16 of the saints in general, is here said of their bodies in particular. The Holy Spirit, in regeneration and sanctification, when he begins the good work of grace on a man, takes possession of his whole person, soul and body, and dwells therein as in his temple. So the Jews (o) call the body of a righteous man the "habitation" of the Holy Spirit. Now it is most abominably scandalous and shameful that that body, which is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, which is sacred to him as a temple, should be defiled by the sin of fornication: it is added,
which is in you, which ye have of God; meaning the Holy Spirit which was in them, as in his temple; which dwelt in their hearts, and influenced their bodies, lives, and conversations; and which they received of God as a wonderful instance of his grace and love to them; that he should be bestowed upon them, to regenerate, renew, and sanctify them, to implant every grace, to make them a fit habitation for God, and meet for the inheritance of the saints in light:
and ye are not your own: their own masters, at their own dispose, to live to their own lusts, or the lusts of men; men have not power over their bodies to abuse them at pleasure by fornication, or such like uncleanness, neither single nor married persons; see
1 Corinthians 7:4 and of all men, not the saints, who are neither their own nor other men's, nor Satan's, but God's; not only by creation, but by choice and covenant; and Christ's by gift, by purchase, and powerful grace, and in a conjugal relation to him; wherefore fornication ill becomes them.
Hummmm?????
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