4:3 - God is not trying to be the cosmic kill-joy here by taking away all our fun sexual immorality, He is honestly showing us the best way for our lives. We have to be able to control our own bodies...because when our flesh is out of control, that is when we enter into a world of pain and joyless, meaningless experience that warp us forever. It goes way beyond sex...if you can't control your body is this department, how are you going to control it with addictions - nicotine, food, drugs, alcohol, shopping, whatever? How are you going to control your temper, your violence, your ability to rationally deal with other people. Absolutely no control over your flesh is no way to live. But Paul is saying it starts with controlling sexual sin.
4:7 - Talk about an in your face challenge to all of us...(Imagine this dripping with sarcasm) Oh, you mean God called you to a life of impurity - that's funny, I thought He called us all to a life of HOLINESS! We are called to holiness. God believes that we are worthy of such a call, and that gives me great pride - now it's time to go live it out.
4:10 - There seems to be this recurring theme throughout the letter - NEVER SETTLE. We are never going to "arrive" in any area of our faith. There is always going to be room for improvement...there is always going to be more and more that we can do...more and more that we can give. Christianity should never be boring, because there is always another mountain for us to climb - always.
4:13 - Our grieving should be completely different from the grieving of those married to this world, because we have hope. We know that an end to this earthly body is really just the beginning.
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