PURITY OF THE BODY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 667, 20 May 1929, Page 14

PURITY OF THE BODY

MISUNDERSTANDING REMOVED BY ST. PAUL REV. LAWSON MARSH’S SERMON “Glorify God in your body” was the message of the Rev. W. r Lawson Marsh, M.A.y at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church last evening. The subject of the sermon was the redemption of the body. The text was I. Corinthians vi., 20. This epistle, sa,id the preacher, was one addressed by St. Paul to a peculiarly evil city. Paul’s words had been the basis of much misunderstanding in the past so that it had been a custom to neglect and even torture the body. The reason for Paul’s words to the Corinthians was that a mistaken idea had induced these Corinthian Christians to think that the sins of the body did not count in the eyes of God as it was only the soul that lived on after death. Therefore sins of impurity were merely matters of indifference. Against such sophistry Paul came with, his immortal words, “Glorify God in Your Body.” “We learn according to the apostle’s words that our bodies were God’s, and therefore never to be subject to misuse,” said the preacher. “Nor were tey to bo regarded as having only a passing function. His words mean that the body, transformed, as well as the soul, is able to enter into a higher life. Paul meant that there is a spiritual body the very counterpart of this earthly shell. Such a possibility should save us from a misunderstanding of the purpose of the body.” We fall too easily into the habit of despising that which is physical. God gave us our bodies for a purpose, that is to be a balance for the soul. ‘Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ and also that the body is the temple of the Holy Ghost that is within you.’ Is this too great a conception for us, the power of resurrection and transformation of the body?” asked the preacher. The glory of the risen Christ may inform and transform us.”