It’s a profound truth kind of buried in an exhortation against sordid behavior. But Paul’s supporting argument for why a follower of Jesus should flee sexual immorality has vast implications beyond being a deterrent from sin. For what it reminds those who have ears to hear is that we are not just followers of Christ but also one with Christ.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him. Flee from sexual immorality.

(1Corinthians 6:15-18a ESV)

Joined to the Lord . . . that’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

Talk only about being a member of the body of Christ and there can still be a sense of separate-ness as we may think of ourselves as still individual parts, but all brought together under one Head. But talk about being joined to Christ? Hmm . . . that’s seems a little more connected. Even, as Paul says, somewhat intimate.

Joined. Literally, “glued together.” Cemented and fastened to something else. To cleave, as in the “biblical sense” — two becoming one flesh. And that’s the believer’s state — glued, cemented, fastened together with the Lord. Joined to such an extent that we become one spirit with Him.

Try and wrap your head around that!

How often have we heard someone say, or perhaps said to ourselves, “If only I could have encountered Jesus as did His disciples — in the flesh, face-to-face — how that would affect my walk with Jesus. How it would make it easier to really follow Jesus.” But, until the sending of the Spirit, the disciples’ proximity to Jesus back then pales in comparison with ours now. They were with the Lord, but we are joined to the Lord. In some supernatural sense, the risen Son of God, Creator and Sustainer of all things forever, is One with us, and we are one spirit with Him. Doesn’t get much more up close and personal and powerful than that!

So why, so often, the distance? Why, at times, do we feel alone? Why, far from being One with Him, do we just feel far from Him?

More to answering that question than fits into a morning devo, but what comes to mind immediately, as perhaps a partial answer, is our abundance of flesh and our absence of faith.

While we have been redeemed from slavery to the flesh, from having to concede to the old nature, we are not yet free from the flesh. In fact, every morning we rise, a low-level, ever-present skirmish (sometimes a full-blown battle) recommences between the “desires of the flesh” and “the desires of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:17). And part of that battle is going to be an internal disinformation campaign telling us we are far from Christ. That we are on our own. When, in fact, we are joined to the Lord.

And that’s where faith comes in. I need to not only know the truth of being joined with Christ, I need to believe that truth. Just as salvation past — the forgiveness of sins — was by faith, so too salvation present — the fighting against sin — is by faith. For without faith, it’s impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

So, this morning, by faith, I affirm the reality that I am in union with Christ. That I am joined to the Lord. That it really is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). That it is not about how is “me” going to get through this day, but about how are “we” going to do this.

Joined to the Lord. Worth meditating on, I think.

By His grace. For His glory.