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Our society has a warped perspective on sex: sexual immorality is understood as not merely a harmless indulgence, but a physical need we'd be wrong to suppress. The Bible paints an entirely different picture—a picture confirmed by medical and social science—that sex outside the context of marriage opens a Pandora's box of personal and social devastation. We most honor our bodies, our neighbors, and our God when we reserve sex for marriage.

Key Study Passage:

1 Corinthians 6:13-20

1. How does Paul respond to the popular belief that sex is a physical need akin to the need for food or air? (See v. 13.)
2. Why is sexual sin particularly dangerous? (See vv. 15-18.)
3. Some people say Christians prevent human thriving by denying free sexual expression. How would Paul respond? (See vv. 13-14, 19-20.)
4. Make a list of ways reserving sex for marriage promotes human thriving.
5. Brainstorm ways that you can minimize your sexual temptation, and commit to remaining sexually pure.

Spend Time in Prayer: Ask God to give you a holy perspective on sex; ask him to help you resist sexual temptation and live in purity.

1 Corinthians 6:13-20

13 You say, "Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food." (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can't say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead.

15 Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are united into one." 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Copyright © 2012 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Father, give me a healthy understanding of my sexuality and help me to submit my sexual desires to your holy and wise will.

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