Today's text is 1 Corinthians 3:16-23.
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.
18 Guard against self-deception, each of you. If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this age is foolishness with God. As it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” 20 And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 21 So then, no more boasting about mere mortals! For everything belongs to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.
{This passage is very similar to the better known 1 Cor. 6:19, in which Paul practically says the same thing.}
Why do you think that Paul compared believers to God's Temple? Believe me, this was a revolutionary analogy to those baby Christians. You see, in Jewish worship, the Temple was considered the holiest of all structures, because it contained a section called The Holy of Holies. It was in this small room, which had very limited access, that the Spirit of God came down to commune with the priest selected by lot to enter the area. The Ark of the Covenant resided in this place. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, learned of his son's conception, while he was performing his "once-in-a-lifetime" duties in that place.
There were all sorts of rules and safeguards for this supernatural area. For instance, the priest selected to enter there attached a special set of bells to the hem of his robe so that those outside could listen for the sound as he moved around inside, performing his duties. If they no longer heard the bells, they pulled him out via a cord, a "lifeline" attached to his leg, assuming he was dead from having come into the most holy presence of God. Talk about being "slain in the spirit"! This was deadly serious stuff.
I would really like to study the Temple/Tabernacle more. If any of you out there have a book recommendation, please share it with me.
At any rate, the Christians were certainly not welcome any longer at the existing Temple in Jerusalem. To be blunt, the ruling Jews who controlled the Temple were out to exterminate them. Yet, these Christians, many of them former Jews, wanted to honor their Lord by continuing to keep the Jewish feasts, some of which required them to go to the Temple as part of God's command to their forefathers. This is just one example of "stuff" the early Christians had to work through.
In our text for today, Paul is reminding the believers that each of them is God's Temple - - - that when Christ died, the veil in Jerusalem's Temple was supernaturally split down the middle, from top to bottom, a truly miraculous feat, since the veil was scores of feet tall and weighed hundreds of pounds. This veil being torn, however, was God's visual sign that everything had changed. With Jesus finishing His work on the cross, access to God had been blown wide open. No longer did people have to go find Him in a "most holy place" of a building. After Jesus' resurrection, the Holy
Spirit came upon Christians at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13). This is why Paul declared that each individual Christian, and the whole Body of Christ collectively, are the Temple of God, of the Holy Spirit!
What a tremendous honor and responsibility! In his commentary, Matthew Henry points out that, as a result, we need to treat ourselves as the holy vessels that we are, by the grace of God. And, if we don't, we are deceiving ourselves as to the true state of our relationship with God.
"He is deceived who deems himself the temple of the Holy Ghost, yet is unconcerned about personal holiness, or the peace and purity of the church."
For many Christians, this is an area of struggle, in one of the two areas. Many sinful practices harm one's physical body. The "big deal" about that is this: if our bodies/minds are weak, then we decommission ourselves in the great cosmic battle in which we are engaged. (And, be sure, you don't have a choice about whether you are in the battle or not. If you are a Christian, you are.) If we are physically weak, we are less potent a weapon for Jesus Christ. The other emphasis is this: we need to treat our Christian brothers and sisters as "temples of the Holy Spirit" in order to maintain peace and purity in the Church. Holiness...it's not a raging fad, unfortunately.
I want to be sure you get this, though: this type of reverence and holiness for your own temple and also the people of God is not a legalistic holiness. It is rather a holiness that springs from a heart of devoted love. Paul emphasizes this in verses 21-23. "Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." So often, we sin against our bodies because we are trying to feel some emotional void in our lives, an emptiness that only God can fill. Yet, we choose some substance or some other person to use for our own self-gratification. So often, we yield to our flesh and its detrimental longings, longings that hurt us or others in the end. This includes prideful preening within the Church, which leads to the types of envyings and divisions that Paul was exhorting the Corinthians to avoid.
The key to holy living is, at its foundation, (not diminishing strategies like addiction counseling, mental health interventions, liberation from demonic oppressions/possessions, etc.,) focusing fanatically, daily, on the loving One who totally poured Himself out utterly, for each of us, His dear children. When we clearly see all that He has done for us, how can our response be anything other than our outpouring of love, in return?
Holy Spirit, I am in awe that You reside in my spirit. And, I don't totally understand that. But, I take You at Your word that what the holy, inspired scriptures say is true. I thank You for condescending to me, to transform me into Your Temple. Oh, how I long to walk more worthy of Your amazing love and grace. Help me, Holy Spirit! In Jesus' name, amen.
Source:
http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/3-16.htm
For many Christians, this is an area of struggle, in one of the two areas. Many sinful practices harm one's physical body. The "big deal" about that is this: if our bodies/minds are weak, then we decommission ourselves in the great cosmic battle in which we are engaged. (And, be sure, you don't have a choice about whether you are in the battle or not. If you are a Christian, you are.) If we are physically weak, we are less potent a weapon for Jesus Christ. The other emphasis is this: we need to treat our Christian brothers and sisters as "temples of the Holy Spirit" in order to maintain peace and purity in the Church. Holiness...it's not a raging fad, unfortunately.
I want to be sure you get this, though: this type of reverence and holiness for your own temple and also the people of God is not a legalistic holiness. It is rather a holiness that springs from a heart of devoted love. Paul emphasizes this in verses 21-23. "Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." So often, we sin against our bodies because we are trying to feel some emotional void in our lives, an emptiness that only God can fill. Yet, we choose some substance or some other person to use for our own self-gratification. So often, we yield to our flesh and its detrimental longings, longings that hurt us or others in the end. This includes prideful preening within the Church, which leads to the types of envyings and divisions that Paul was exhorting the Corinthians to avoid.
The key to holy living is, at its foundation, (not diminishing strategies like addiction counseling, mental health interventions, liberation from demonic oppressions/possessions, etc.,) focusing fanatically, daily, on the loving One who totally poured Himself out utterly, for each of us, His dear children. When we clearly see all that He has done for us, how can our response be anything other than our outpouring of love, in return?
Holy Spirit, I am in awe that You reside in my spirit. And, I don't totally understand that. But, I take You at Your word that what the holy, inspired scriptures say is true. I thank You for condescending to me, to transform me into Your Temple. Oh, how I long to walk more worthy of Your amazing love and grace. Help me, Holy Spirit! In Jesus' name, amen.
Source:
http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/3-16.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment