temple of the Holy Spirit

Epistle for January 14, 2024

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is writing this letter to a group of Christians he knows pretty well. His second missionary journey brought him to Corinth for about 18 months, from about 50 to 52 A.D. And in his third missionary journey he stayed in Corinth for about three months, sometime between 56 and 57 A.D.

He is likely writing this letter to Corinth either from Philippi or, more likely, during his longer tenure at Ephesus where he stayed for three years.

We are reminded that this was an extremely volatile time in the early church. The message of the Gospel was brand-new to these Corinthian Christians and they had many questions about doctrine, practice and morality.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 in particular seems to be one answer on a list of several very important questions they had for their spiritual mentor. Some of the questions must have gone something like this — was wisdom the way to salvation, or faith? what about sexual relations, and marriage and divorce? how should they handle disputes? what about eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols?

Paul patiently answers each of their questions. But here, Paul is addressing the issue of sexual promiscuity.

It seems that Corinth in particular had a reputation in the ancient world for sexual libertinism. Prostitutes plied their trade in this port city that drew sailors, soldiers, and merchants from all over the Roman world.

And the message of Christian freedom that Paul brought may have been misconstrued by some of these early Christians who thought that they could be devoted to Christ and still live a sexually promiscuous life.

So Paul applies the message of the Gospel to the very practical aspects of human life. He quotes those who are arguing that sexual promiscuity is perfectly natural and normal, and then demolishes their arguments.

The advocates of sexual permissiveness say:

“All things are lawful for me,”

and Paul answers:

but not all things are expedient.

The advocates of permissiveness say:

“All things are lawful for me,”

and Paul says:

but I will not be brought under the power of anything.

Once more:

“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,”

And Paul answers:

But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

These libertine Christians are arguing that Christian freedom means the Christian can live how they choose — and after all, just as the body’s need for food is natural and normal, so is sex.

Paul’s response is that we are not to be brought under the power of anything. He sees the intoxicating, addictive power that sex has in a person’s life. Moreover, he argues that the body isn’t meant for sexual self-indulgence but belongs to the Lord.

So, there are three primary arguments he makes against sexual promiscuity:

One, that we are raised with Christ in his resurrection and have become a part of his spiritual body, as he will develop later in 1 Corinthians 12. If so, then when a person unites with a prostitute he is de facto uniting Christ’s body with prostitution.

He refers to Genesis 2:24:

Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.

But he is clear that we are instead to be united with Christ in spirit.

Two, Paul points out that sexual behavior is intensely intimate and personal. Other sins are external, but sexual behavior reaches deep into one’s inmost being.

His third and most powerful argument is this:

Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

In other words, if all of the arguments he has presented are true — that our bodies are to be united spiritually with Christ, not sexually corrupted by promiscuity; and if sexual sin deeply impacts the psyche of a person — then it follows that we are not merely ‘believers,’ but that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The logic here is that the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in the believer. The body has become a sacred residence for the Holy Spirit.

And, conclusively, he asserts that the Christian doesn’t belong to him or herself, but to Christ who has purchased their freedom from sin through his death on the cross.

The bottom line is, they are to:

glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

To engage in promiscuous sexuality is to unite Christ with sexual immorality, to pollute the temple of the body, and to betray the one who has purchased believers through his death.

APPLY:

This is a sensitive topic that deserves more than a few paragraphs. But I’ll try to be brief.

We live in a sexually obsessed culture, especially those who live in the West. A click of a button on your computer will conjure up images that can penetrate to the dark places of a person’s imagination. The message of our culture, especially popularized by the Playboy Philosophy introduced in the 1950’s, is that “sex is normal and natural and should be enjoyed as often as possible with as many different people as possible.”

Coincidentally, this was pretty much the same kind of sexually permissive culture that Paul encountered in the Greco-Roman world.

So, we must find the balance. Paul is not saying that sexuality is inherently bad, something that some of our Christian ancestors seemed to think. He understands that sex is a good gift from God, but that it is also to be expressed only between a husband and wife. This is rooted in his understanding of creation and the revelation of Scripture (see 1 Corinthians 7:2-5).

On the other hand, we as Christians must understand that our sexuality is a deeply intimate part of our identity. We must understand that, as our allegiance to Christ must be primary in our lives, so our sexual fidelity to our spouses must reflect that devotion. And we must understand that we don’t belong to ourselves, we belong to Christ.

We are also aware that because our pleasures can become deeply addictive, they can lure us away from a devotion to Christ.

Two principles in this passage have tremendous implications in so many areas of our bodily and practical lives.

First:

your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God.

If that is so, then not only must we guard our sexual nature, but we must be careful what we eat, drink, ingest, read, watch on t.v. If we wouldn’t have sex in church why would we do so something so shocking with our own bodies? If gluttony does damage to our bodies, are we not damaging the temple of the Holy Spirit? If we smoke cigarettes… I think the implications are clear.

Again, the Apostle doesn’t argue that we shouldn’t enjoy healthy sexual relations with our spouse, or take pleasure in a good meal — but immorality pollutes the temple of the Holy Spirit, and excess in eating and drinking can cause damage to it.

Finally, Paul declares that:

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

This is a wake-up call to narcissistic Christians. We have a tendency to think that our bodies belong to ourselves. We hear that rhetoric in relation to sexual morality, reproductive rights, and even the consumption of food or drugs.

‘I can do what I like with my body’ is the one thing a Christian cannot say. We are not our own. We are bought with a price. That price was the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.

RESPOND:

Sometimes I treat my body, as a friend once said, as though it were an endlessly renewable resource. As though it will always bounce back no matter how I treat it. I eat too much of the wrong foods at times. At such times I need to remind myself that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes I am very careful about eating nutritiously, getting enough exercise, and even occasionally fasting as a way of reminding myself of my dependence on God. At such times I need to remind myself that I do these things because my body has been bought with a price.

Lord, we live in a sexually permissive culture, when sexual fantasies abound and are readily available online. And we in the West live in a culture where food and drink and drugs are readily available. Remind us that you have purchased us through the precious body and blood of Jesus, and that we are to treat our bodies with great care as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“bought with a price” by Martin LaBar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for January 17, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

He is likely writing this letter to Corinth either from Philippi or, more likely, during his longer tenure at Ephesus where he stayed for three years.

Paul patiently answers each of their questions. But here, Paul is addressing the issue of sexual promiscuity.

The advocates of sexual permissiveness say:

“All things are lawful for me,”

and Paul answers:

but not all things are expedient.

The advocates of permissiveness say:

“All things are lawful for me,”

and Paul says:

but I will not be brought under the power of anything.

Once more:

“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,”

And Paul answers:

But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

These libertine Christians are arguing that Christian freedom means the Christian can live how they choose — and after all, just as the body’s need for food is natural and normal, so is sex.

So, there are three primary arguments he makes against sexual promiscuity:

He refers to Genesis 2:24:

Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.

But he is clear that we are instead to be united with Christ in spirit.

Two, Paul points out that sexual behavior is intensely intimate and personal. Other sins are external, but sexual behavior reaches deep into one’s inmost being.

His third and most powerful argument is this:

Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

And, conclusively, he asserts that the Christian doesn’t belong to him or herself, but to Christ who has purchased their freedom from sin through his death on the cross.

The bottom line is, they are to:

glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

To engage in promiscuous sexuality is to unite Christ with sexual immorality, to pollute the temple of the body, and to betray the one who has purchased believers through his death.

APPLY:

This is a sensitive topic that deserves more than a few paragraphs. But I’ll try to be brief.

Coincidentally, this was pretty much the same kind of sexually permissive culture that Paul encountered in the Greco-Roman world.

We are also aware that because our pleasures can become deeply addictive, they can lure us away from a devotion to Christ.

Two principles in this passage have tremendous implications in so many areas of our bodily and practical lives.

First:

your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God.

Finally, Paul declares that:

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

This a wake-up call to narcissistic Christians. We have a tendency to think that our bodies belong to ourselves. We hear that rhetoric in relation to sexual morality, reproductive rights,and even the consumption of food or drugs.

‘I can do what I like with my body’ is the one thing a Christian cannot say. We are not our own. We are bought with a price. That price was the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.

RESPOND:

PHOTOS:
“you-are-not-your-own_1024” by jubileelewis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for January 14, 2018

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

He is likely writing this letter to Corinth either from Philippi or, more likely, during his longer tenure at Ephesus where he stayed for three years.

Paul patiently answers each of their questions. But here, Paul is addressing the issue of sexual promiscuity.

The advocates of sexual permissiveness say:

“All things are lawful for me,”

and Paul answers:

but not all things are expedient.

The advocates of permissiveness say:

“All things are lawful for me,”

and Paul says:

but I will not be brought under the power of anything.

Once more:

“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,”

And Paul answers:

But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

These libertine Christians are arguing that Christian freedom means the Christian can live how they choose — and after all, just as the body’s need for food is natural and normal, so is sex.

So, there are three primary arguments he makes against sexual promiscuity:

He refers to Genesis 2:24:

Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.

But he is clear that we are instead to be united with Christ in spirit.

Two, Paul points out that sexual behavior is intensely intimate and personal. Other sins are external, but sexual behavior reaches deep into one’s inmost being.

His third and most powerful argument is this:

Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

In other words, if all of the arguments he has presented are true — that our bodies are to be united spiritually with Christ, not sexually corrupted by promiscuity; and if sexual sin deeply impacts the psyche of a person – then it follows that we are not merely ‘believers’ — our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The logic here is that the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in the believer. The body has become a sacred residence for the Holy Spirit.

And, conclusively, he asserts that the Christian doesn’t belong to him or herself, but to Christ who has purchased their freedom from sin through his death on the cross.

The bottom line is, they are to:

glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

To engage in promiscuous sexuality is to unite Christ with sexual immorality, to pollute the temple of the body, and to betray the one who has purchased believers through his death.

APPLY:

This is a sensitive topic that deserves more than a few paragraphs. But I’ll try to be brief.

Coincidentally, this was pretty much the same kind of sexually permissive culture that Paul encountered in the Greco-Roman world.

On the other hand, we as Christians must understand that our sexuality is a deeply intimate part of our identity; that as our allegiance to Christ must be primary in our lives, so our sexual fidelity to our spouses must reflect that devotion; and that we don’t belong to ourselves, we belong to Christ.

We are also aware that because our pleasures can become deeply addictive, they can lure us away from a devotion to Christ.

Two principles in this passage have tremendous implications in so many areas of our bodily and practical lives.

First:

your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God.

Again, the Apostle doesn’t argue that we shouldn’t enjoy healthy sexual relations with our spouse, or take pleasure a good meal — but immorality pollutes the temple of the Holy Spirit, and excess in eating and drinking can cause damage to it.

Finally, Paul declares that:

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

‘I can do what I like with my body’ is the one thing a Christian cannot say. We are not our own. We are bought with a price. That price was the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.

RESPOND:

PHOTOS:
“you-are-not-your-own_1024” by jubileelewis is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for February 19, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul continues to enlarge on the metaphor he introduced previously, that the church is God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:9). This applies to the Christian Church in general and the Corinthian Church specifically. He decisively resolves any doubt about where the church’s allegiance should be. Although he claims credit as a wise master builder, who laid the foundation for their church upon which another pastor may build, he makes it crystal clear that Christ is central:

For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Paul also calls Christ the chief cornerstone in Ephesians 2:20.

The lectionary editors have chosen to skip verses 12-15, which continue to develop this metaphor of building. In these verses, he uses interesting imagery, declaring that if a church leader builds with good material or shoddy material (gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble) their workmanship will be revealed on the Day of the Lord. All of it will be tested by fire, and only the good material will endure. The good workman shall be rewarded, the poor workman’s work will be burned up and his work come to nothing, although he himself may be saved, but as through fire (verse 15).

This suggests that there are degrees of reward — much like the parable of the talents that Jesus tells in Matthew 25:14-25.

But in 1 Corinthians 3:16-23, Paul returns to his description of the church, and the threat of divisive arrogance.

He calls them the temple of God, because God’s Spirit lives in them. Note the distinction — they are not God’s temple because they are inherently unique — they are God’s Temple because they are filled with the Holy Spirit (for more on this metaphor of the temple of God please see the Apply section). Here Paul is speaking of the church collectively as the building of God.

And Paul has a stern warning for those who would undermine or harm this temple:

If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.

Paul continues with this warning tone:

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.

This theme of human wisdom versus God’s foolishness is recurring. It seems that there was a clique of believers at Corinth who thought they were superior to other Christians, that in fact they had a superior knowledge. It may well be that this was an example of the proto-Gnostic theology that would later plague the church. Gnosticism stressed a hidden, esoteric knowledge that was given to the wise.

So Paul is saying that those who think they are wise should become fools — i.e., humble themselves and acknowledge their ignorance — so that then they may learn wisdom. Only those who are humble are teachable.

And Paul once again asserts the same thing he does earlier in 1 Corinthians 1:25:

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.” And again, “The Lord knows the reasoning of the wise, that it is worthless.”

He quotes from two Wisdom books of the Hebrew Bible to provide more evidence — Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11.

Finally, he points out that there are grounds for boasting, but not in human wisdom or accomplishment. He says that he and other teachers may have taught them these things but all that they have comes from Christ. And this includes present reality as well as the reality to come:

the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours.

The reason for this clear:

you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

APPLY:

The key metaphor in this passage relates to the building and establishment of the church as the temple of God. Paul, as the founding pastor at Corinth, was the master builder. Other builders came and worked on the temple also — he names Cephas and Apollos. But the most important feature of this temple is that Christ is the foundation:

no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.

A little later he will use the same metaphor to describe the physical body of the individual Christian, as a means of warning them about sexual immorality:

don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

This is a little like a Russian Nesting Doll — the individual Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit is a smaller version of the corporate Body of Christ, also filled with the Holy Spirit. Both are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And their holiness is derivative — it comes from the Holy Spirit, not from themselves.

Another image that reinforces this metaphor of the temple of God, made up of many smaller stones, comes from Peter:

You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:5).

RESPOND:

There are several great hymns and songs that celebrate this metaphor that the people of God are themselves the temple of God, a building made of living stones.

One that comes to mind immediately is the old hymn from the 19th century written by Samuel J. Stone:

The church’s one foundation
is Jesus Christ her Lord;
she is his new creation
by water and the Word.
From heaven he came and sought her
to be his holy bride;
with his own blood he bought her,
and for her life he died.

This hymn reminds me that the cornerstone — the solid foundation of the church — is Jesus Christ. Another verse reminds me that though the church may be shaken by the winds of change, as we are today, she will prevail, despite schisms and heresies.

As the temple of God, we are filled with the Holy Spirit even when we are buffeted by hurricanes .

Our Lord, forgive us if we ever try to lay down some other foundation than Jesus Christ in our ministries. Christ alone can withstand the winds and the earthquakes of our culture and our times. Help us to build in such a way that we use the same precious material that Paul and Apollos and Peter all used. And remind us that we are your temple, because your Spirit dwells in us. Amen.

PHOTOS:
“Omaha North Presbyterian Church cornerstone” by Ammodramus is in the public domain.

Epistle for Jan. 18, 2015

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

1 Corinthians 6: 12-20

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is writing this letter to a group of Christians he knows pretty well. His second missionary journey brought him to Corinth for about 18 months from 50-52 A.D., and in his third missionary journey he stayed in Corinth for about three months, sometime between 56-57 A.D.

He is likely writing this letter to Corinth either from Philippi or, more likely, during his longer tenure at Ephesus where he stayed for three years.

Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians in particular seems to be an answer to a list of very important questions they had for their spiritual mentor: was wisdom the way to salvation, or faith? what about sexual relations, marriage and divorce? how should they handle disputes? what about eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols?

Paul patiently answers each of their questions.

The advocates of sexual permissiveness say “I have the right to do anything,” you say— and Paul answers but not everything is beneficial. The advocates of permissiveness say “I have the right to do anything” and Paul says but I will not be mastered by anything. Once more: You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” And Paul answers The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

These libertine Christians are arguing that Christian freedom means the Christian can live how they choose, and after all just as food is natural and normal, so is sex.

Paul’s response is that we are not be mastered by anything. He sees the intoxicating, addictive power that sex has in a person’s life. Moreover, he argues that the body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

So, there are three primary arguments he makes against sexual promiscuity:

He quotes Genesis 2:24 “The two will become one flesh.” But he is clear that we are rather to be one with Christ in spirit.

Two, Paul points out that sexual behavior is intensely intimate and personal. Other sins are external, but sexual behavior reaches deep into one’s inmost being.

His third and most powerful argument is this: 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.

In other words, if all of the arguments he has presented are true – that our bodies are to be united spiritually with Christ, not sexually in promiscuity; that sexual sin deeply impacts the psyche of a person – then it follows that we are not only ‘believers’ but our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The logic here is that the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in the believer.

And, conclusively, he asserts that the Christian doesn’t belong to him or herself, but to Christ who has purchased their freedom from sin through his death on the cross.

The bottom line is, they are to ‘honor God with their bodies.’ To engage in promiscuous sexuality is to unite Christ with sexual immorality, to pollute the temple of the body, and to betray the one who has purchased believers through his death.

APPLY:

This is a sensitive topic that deserves more than a few paragraphs. But I’ll try to be brief.

We live in a sexually obsessed culture, especially those who live in the West. A click of a button on your computer will conjure up images that will penetrate to the dark places of a person’s imagination. The message of our culture, since the Playboy Philosophy of the 1950’s began to popularize it, has been “sex is normal and natural and should be enjoyed as often as possible with as many people as possible.”

Ironically, this was pretty much the same kind of culture that Paul encountered in the Greco-Roman world.

We are also aware that as our pleasures can become deeply addictive, they can lure us away from a devotion to Christ.

Two principles in this passage have tremendous implications in so many areas of our bodily and practical lives.

First, your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you. If that is so, then not only must we guard our sexual nature, but we must be careful what we eat, drink, ingest, read, watch on t.v. If we wouldn’t have sex in church why would we do so something so shocking with our own bodies? If gluttony does damage to our bodies, are we not damaging the temple of the Holy Spirit? If we smoke cigarettes . . . I think the implications are clear.

Again, the Apostle doesn’t argue that we shouldn’t enjoy healthy sexual relations with our spouse, or a good meal – but immorality pollutes the temple of the Holy Spirit, and excess in eating and drinking can cause damage to it.

Finally, Paul’s argument that You are not your own;you were bought at a price is a wake-up call to narcissistic Christians. We have a tendency to think that our bodies belong to ourselves. We hear that rhetoric in relation to sexual morality, reproductive rights, the consumption of food or drugs.

I can do what I like with my body is the one thing a Christian cannot say. We are not our own. We are bought with a price. That price was the body and blood of our Lord Jesus.

RESPOND: