v 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!
Whilst the body needs to be disciplined and kept in order, so does the mind and imagination. And I hardly need to say that we live in an age where we constantly fed with sexual images and our minds and imaginations are bludgeoned with sex in one form or another.
Keen photographers quickly learn to focus on a subject; you can watch them twisting the lens and adjusting the aperture to get the right elements sharply in focus. Sometimes the background is deliberately blurred and out of focus so as make the principal subject of a photo stand out clearly.
There may be times when our view of life needs to be more clearly focussed on what is good, and the background deliberately blurred. Some of the sexual imagery that can easily distract us may need to be blurred by focussing more sharply on Jesus and spiritual realities. You can’t avoid all the images that are thrust at you, any more than you can stop birds flying over your head. You can however learn to blur the images by deliberately focussing on something different.
Paul’s advice to the Philippian Christians remains as vital to us as to them: ‘Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.’
Learn to discipline yourself to focus sharply on what is good and allow the distracting background to be blurred.