Your body may place much pressure upon your heart which makes it difficult to remain faithful to Jesus Christ; however, your body cannot make you unfaithful. Essentially, your heart responds to the influence or pressure from your body either for the glory of God or not. As such, your body does not have functional control over your heart; instead, it simply reflects the desires of the heart.

When I was in school, David Powlison taught us when considering any principle to not start with the exceptions or the hard case, but instead, start with what is normal or common. In light of today’s question, this is a great reminder. Is it possible that your body can make you sin? Can your body force you to sin? What biblical principles help answer this question? This week I have been with some friends who have been discussing this. Before the discussion, I wrote this piece. Now, I am publishing it. 🙂 My answer really didn’t change as a result – for which I am glad.
1. Your Body is Separate from Your Soul.
The Bible talks in a number of texts about the separation of the body and the soul. Sometimes, we refer to this division of body and soul under the terms outer man and inner man as well as material and immaterial. Further, we sometimes refer to this as embodied souls – a unified person of body and soul made in the image of God, yet the body and soul both refer to different aspects of being human. The following texts help establish this reality.
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16)
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:6)
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,And the spirit will return to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1)
2. The Desires in Your Heart Determine What You Do.
Jesus and James clearly and specifically teach that the desires in your heart determine what you do. Let’s begin with Jesus:
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37)
Jesus teaches that the heart has operational control of the individual.
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When we experience the joy of the Holy Spirit, we taste the joy that is at the core of ultimate reality. For when we are born again by the Spirit (John 3:6–7), we receive the astounding, incredible, empowering, priceless gift of the Holy Spirit who resides in us, just as Jesus promised.

As we read through the New Testament, we encounter a unique connection between the Holy Spirit and joy. I’ll give you a few examples. Luke tells us how at one point Jesus “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21) and Paul tells us how the Thessalonian Christians had “received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 1:6–7). In Romans, Paul instructs us that “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).
I call this connection unique (and worthy of further reflection) because the New Testament pairs joy with the Holy Spirit in a way it doesn’t with other affections. For instance, we don’t read of people experiencing the “sorrow of (or in) the Holy Spirit” or the “anger of (or in) the Holy Spirit,” even though it’s clear the Spirit can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30) and angered (Romans 1:18).
So, why does the New Testament uniquely tie joy to the Holy Spirit? To explore this question, we’ll briefly look at who (and what) the Holy Spirit is, what it means for us to experience this Spirit-empowered joy, and what difference it makes in the Christian life.
Spirit of Joy
Two qualifications before I delve in further. First, the few words I’m about to share on the nature of the Holy Spirit are, I believe, foundationally helpful to understanding the joy that the Holy Spirit produces in us. I don’t have space here, however, to offer a full treatment of that complex reality, so if you’d like to explore this further, this sermon by John Piper and this article by Scott Swain are good places to start.
Second, it’s helpful to keep in mind that while Scripture describes the Holy Spirit as a divine person distinct from the Father and the Son (John 15:26), it also describes him as the Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:20) and the Spirit of the Son (1 Peter 1:11). In one place, Paul refers to the Spirit in all three Trinitarian ways in the space of three verses (Romans 8:9–11). As we talk about the joy of the Holy Spirit, we need to remember the oneness of God.
Now, let’s probe deeper into the nature of the Trinity as it relates to joy. Citing New Testament texts such as 1 John 4:16 — “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” — theologians at least as far back as Augustine have understood the Holy Spirit to be the living, personified love flowing between the Father and the Son (John 17:26). John Piper says it this way — and note the connection between the love of God and the joy of God:
God the Holy Spirit is the divine person who “originates” (eternally!) from the Father and the Son in their loving each other. And this love is not a “merciful” love as if they needed pity. It is an admiring, delighting, exulting love. It is Joy. The Holy Spirit is God’s Joy in God. To be sure, he is so full of all that the Father and Son are, that he is a divine person in his own right. But that means he is more, not less, than the Joy of God. (“Can We Explain the Trinity?”)
Piper goes on to say, “This means that Joy is at the heart of reality. God is Love, means most deeply, God is Joy in God.” If an essential dimension of the Spirit’s nature is that he is “God’s Joy in God” personified, that helps us understand what makes the joy he produces in us a distinctive joy.
God’s Joy in Us
When we experience the joy of the Holy Spirit, we taste the joy that is at the core of ultimate reality.
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As if by magic, the stage morphed into a massive cathedral with imposing stained-glass windows and a marriage archway. High Priestesses “Material Girl” Madonna and pure “royalty,” Queen Latifah, then appeared on stage to join in marriage 33 couples of numerous sexual permutations, thereby sealing the new religion’s Oneist creed: all religions and all sexualities are One—to the thunderous applause of the thousands present, and to the approbation of millions of television viewers.

The 2023 Grammy’s made a huge splash, while horrifying Christians with its blatant satanic imagery and pagan religious overtones. But this is not so new! As I sat to write an article about the 2023 event, I remembered my reaction to the 2014 Grammy Awards. I wrote the following account:
In 1971, Don McLean sang “Bye-bye, Miss American Pie,” and asked: “…do you have faith in God above, if the Bible tells you so, [or] do you believe in rock and roll, can music save your mortal soul?” Back then there were still options. Asking these two questions in a pop song made sense. No longer. We’ve come a long way, baby. The latest Grammy Awards (January 26, 2014) celebrating the liberating power of music, launched in prime time, with all the stunning technological Hollywood bells and whistles, as THE NEW AMERICAN RELIGION.
Way back in 1988, at the height of his career as a recognized journalist (having made big money ghost-writing Donald Trump’s biography, Art of the Deal), Tony Schwartz went on a journey to understand what was happening to the soul of America. In 1995 he published What Really Matters, an examination of the thought and practice of the leaders of the New Age Movement. He discovered a unique, made-in-America spirituality that joined Eastern and Western practice into “a new American wisdom tradition” that would save the world. On January 26, 2014, that spiritual tradition came out on network television in a resounding worship celebration of a new American religion.
Driven by the “faith” of the leading contemporary purveyors of hip-hop and rap, the moment was enthusiastically sanctioned by the prominently featured elder wise ones—in particular Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Yoko Ono.
The religious service began with serious “worship,” led by Beyoncé—at 6 pm Pacific, 7pm Central and 8pm Eastern, while children are still watching. Of course, that’s all just fine, since President Obama praised Beyoncé as an important role model for children, including his own. Her outlandishly sexualized dance routine, in a revealing black thong bodysuit over fishnet tights, simulating all the moves belonging solely to the privacy of the marital bedroom, was an act of heterosexual public debauchery. Her hit song, “Drunk in Love” served as an introductory hymn that set the worship tone for the evening. “I’ve been drinking…I get filthy when that liquor gets into me…[I can’t bring myself to type all the words she sang]…Drunk in love.” Beyoncé proudly embraces her sexuality, draping herself in pseudo-ethical notions like “pride” and “self-affirmation,” giving the appearance of moral high-ground while groveling in the gutter.
The order of service continued with testimonies of deliverance. Ex-evangelical Katy Perry (famous for her song, “I Kissed a Girl and Liked It”) celebrated her apostasy, dressed up as a witch with a large red cross on her chest, and was symbolically “burned at the stake.” A sister in rebellion, Kacey Musgraves (who sang in church as a child) won the Country award with her ballad, “Follow Your Arrow.” The arrows were anti-Christian barbs at church-going and traditional ethics. Her song culminated in the exhortation to escape those old-time religion chains:
So make lots of noise, Kiss lots of boys,Or kiss lots of girls, if that’s something you’re into,When the straight and narrow gets a little too straight.
The three-hour service ended on an ecstatic, unholy high note. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (Grammy for Best New Artist), began the finale with their hit song “Same Love,” which has become an anthem in the gay community. Its religious overtones are easy to see:
America the brave still fears what we don’t knowAnd “God loves all his children” is somehow forgotten.Whatever god you believe in, we come from the same one;Strip away the fear, underneath, it’s all the same love…About time that we raised up!
As if by magic, the stage morphed into a massive cathedral with imposing stained-glass windows and a marriage archway. High Priestesses “Material Girl” Madonna and pure “royalty,” Queen Latifah, then appeared on stage to join in marriage 33 couples of numerous sexual permutations, thereby sealing the new religion’s Oneist creed: all religions and all sexualities are One—to the thunderous applause of the thousands present, and to the approbation of millions of television viewers.
The vacuous marriage sacrament of the “Grammys religion” and its further trivialization as an entertainment stunt, only underlines the spiritually empty gospel that Tinsel Town and its beautiful people were pushing, unopposed, into the homes of people who pay these artists their inflated salaries. There is no competing message, no other opinion allowed from other artists, no apparent way for so many to hear the truth. This is a formula for cultural collapse.
Fast Forward to 2023
At the 2023 Grammys, the religious theme went even further in the promotion of Satanism. Two trans, non-binary, androgynous artists Sam Smith and Kim Petras performed a song entitled “Unholy,” worshiping Satan. Smith was dressed in bright red with horns, surrounded by half-dressed young women twerking him in a highly sexualized manner. All this worshiping of “Satan” was intended to make a non-binary appeal to children to worship Satan and themselves.1 Madonna was still part of the event and this satanic, sexual scene on live TV shows us how far popular culture is falling. It is strange indeed for Pfizer, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, to sponsor this shocking event.
The Babylon Bee makes fun of the event. “In a rare public statement, the Prince of Darkness has distanced himself from last night’s Grammys performance by Sam Smith, which he denounced as “cringy” and “appalling”: “listen, folks, I enjoy demonic sexual perversion just as much as the next guy, but this is just too much,” said the frustrated Father of Lies. “I’m the god of this world! I appear as an angel of light! It’s supposed to be sneaky and subtle! Has Hollywood lost its ability to be subtle? What on earth happened to this town?” 2
But Satanism is not a joke. Such a way of thinking gives occasion to the most radical kind of conclusion. Maria Molzer, a colleague of Carl Jung, who “analyzed” members of some of America’s most wealthy families, (Rockefellers and McCormicks) boldly expresses Jung’s thinking on the conjuctio (joining): “I too think that God and the Devil are two manifestations of the same principle, and that one necessitates the other…We must learn to value the Devil again. The Christian religion expelled him. He asks for his rights again.”3 In the Jungian therapeutic world, Satan becomes your friend. As the esoteric poet, W.B.Yeats said: “Frater Demon est Deus Inversus” (brother Satan is the other side of God).4
Nine years after my original description of the event, the Grammys has gone farther in its rejection of God and its embrace of the very opponent of God, namely Satan. Of course Christians must make this plain, but my friend Thaddeus Williams shows us the right conclusion, as he directly addresses Kim and Sam, the two young non-binary singers who praised Satan in the Grammys this year. With this gladly I end my text, for the Gospel is God’s love of sinners.5
“Dear Kim, your rejection of religion hasn’t made you non-religious. You are still bowing, only to the finite creation rather than the infinite Creator. Let me be crystal clear for you and Sam: You are loved in a way that no sexual experience can grant. We absolutely want you to be a part of Jesus’s movement to bring healing and redemption to a fallen cosmos. We, like you, have made spectacles of our self-worship. But there is grace for us all. Jesus is infinitely more joyous and meaningful than all the world’s accolades and affirmation. He is where our deepest identity is found. Ever since Jesus’ death and resurrection everything changed. The system of self-glorification is on its way out. Please, don’t find yourself on the wrong side of the future. Don’t spend your career parroting the doomed dogmas of an ancient snake. Repent. Find eternal life in Jesus.”
Dr. Peter Jones is scholar in residence at Westminster Seminary California and associate pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido, Calif. He is director of truthXchange, a communications center aimed at equipping the Christian community to recognize and effectively respond to the rise of paganism. Used with permission.

[1] See Thaddeus Williams, https://wng.org/opinions/satanism-on-display-at-the-grammy-awards-1676031920?fbclid=IwAR3K3i5aJc26boES6qJujn5wLxfhgwjQeBGyTMccxg3oaps-LKf3RSS2nDM&mibextid=l066kq
[2] https://babylonbee.com/news/horrified-satan-distances-self-from-grammys
[3] Noll, The Aryan Christ, 197.
[4] http://yeatsvision.com/Esoteric.html.
[5] https://wng.org/opinions/satanism-on-display-at-the-grammy-awards-1676031920?fbclid=IwAR3K3i5aJc26boES6qJujn5wLxfhgwjQeBGyTMccxg3oaps-LKf3RSS2nDM&mibextid=l066kq
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