Joined to the Lord

If you have never been shocked by the Bible, you have probably never really read it, because the Bible says some extremely shocking things. Take 1 Corinthians 6:16, for example:

“Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot [prostitute] is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He [God] says, ‘shall become one flesh.’”

We all understand what this verse is talking about—sexual immorality, fornication, and being physically united with a prostitute. With that context in mind, look at what Paul said next:

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (verse 17)

This verse cannot be taken out of context. As we have seen, in verse 17, Paul was talking about a union that is just as real as the sexual union—not a physical union, but a spiritual union. That is what it means to be married to the One who is risen from the dead. It is not our souls that are united to the Lord; rather, it is our spirits, for “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”

Your soul is capable of theology, and it is probably overburdened with it, but your spirit knows God. The spirit is the God-inbreathed part of man. That is what brought man into being in the first place in the garden of Eden. The Lord breathed into Adam’s nostrils the spirit of life (see Genesis 2:7). And that part of man never finds rest until it is reunited with God. You can chase after all the pleasures and philosophies of the world, but your spirit is not interested in them. Your spirit just wants God, and it is your spirit that can be united with God just as truly as a body of a man can be united with the body of a prostitute. Never separate those two verses. They are totally different, but their analogy is exact and helps us to understand their relationship.