GOD'S LIVING TEMPLE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 6:19-20

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In Old Testament times, God would dwell within His holy place of honor, first within the portable tabernacle when the Israelites were engaged in their exodus to the Promised Land and then in a permanent temple constructed in the holy city of Jerusalem after it was established. There God would maintain His part of the old covenant with the Israelites. He would be their God but unfortunately, they didn’t live up to their end of the deal as they weren’t always committed to be God’s people. In fact, over and over and over again, the Israelites fell into sin and disobedience, usually because they chose to show allegiance to false gods in direct violation of God’s command to have no other gods before Him.

How fractured did the relationship between God and the Israelites become?

So broken that God decided a new covenant was needed.

And so God, our of His love for the world and all people within, whether Jew or Gentile, sent His only Son Jesus from heaven to earth to serve as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of all mankind. All one needed to do in order to be saved, pardoned from sin by God, was to believe in His Son as Savior. Whosoever did this would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Now, this in its own right would have been awesome enough but in today’s scripture passages from the third and sixth chapters of 1 Corinthians, we see where salvation was just one of the changes that would take place in the spiritual life of a Christian believer. For not only would a person receive the gift of everlasting life by following Jesus but their body would become a temple of God, a place where His Holy Spirit resided.

This temple privilege which brought with it the indwelling of God’s Spirit was not free of charge. Rather, it only happened because Jesus was crucified, buried, and then resurrected before ascending to sit in all authority over heaven and earth while at God’s right hand. Our salvation and redemption were bought at a great price, purchased with the very blood of Jesus.

Friends, THIS is why we need to honor our bodies and take care of God’s temple.

So the question is this:

When God looks at your body, His temple, does He see a place of honor?

The scriptures tell us that God’s temple is sacred and so this means He expects us to treat our bodies with a level of holy care. This begs one more question:

When God looks at your body, does He see a dwelling place grounded in sacredness, sanctified and set apart?

I think we might have a tendency to turn away from tough questions like this but in doing so, I think we fail to pay respect to God and we definitely miss an opportunity to become more the people He wants us to me.

In the end translation, we are God’s living temples and we should worship Him as He indwells within us, paying Him tribute with all that we do physically and spiritually.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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