1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” This episode talks about how important it is to study the word of the Lord and to treat your body as the temple that it is. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Your Body is a Temple
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
I thought this verse was a good one for me today because yesterday I did not honor my body. Yesterday I took full advantage of the fact that it was Father’s Day. I ate cookies for dessert, after breakfast. I had ice cream a little later in the day. Then I may or may not have had another cookie or so. I also did not do any exercise yesterday but I did sit on the couch with Tony and watch about six or seven hours of TV. That is not taking good care of my body. Yesterday I was not treating my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit within me. I like how this verse starts off by giving you the benefit of the doubt. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?” The reason I say giving you the benefit of the doubt is because He is saying, “did you not know?” In other words, maybe you didn’t realize that your body was a temple, so this is your reminder. The bad news is, you can’t use that as an excuse anymore because I just shared this verse with you.
This is one of those times when sometimes I feel like learning about scripture can make life harder. I remember thinking once, ok maybe more than once on my journey, wouldn’t it be better if I didn’t learn this stuff, if I didn’t study scripture? The reason I felt this way was because God is calling us to live a better life. He is calling us into so much more. However, that call is not easy, and it requires sacrifice. If you study the Bible and learn how God wants you to live, it can limit what you can do. I remember thinking on numerous occasions that if one of the requirements for something to be a sin is that you know it is a sin, then what if I stopped learning. What if I stop reading how God wants me to live and then if I do something I am not supposed to do, it won’t be a sin because I didn’t know any better. Have you ever had thoughts like these? Be honest, have you? I think this is normal. I think it can be scary to live life as a Christian. Especially in a world that doesn’t value the Christian lifestyle.
There is so much that goes against the Christian lifestyle surrounding us these days. There are so many tv shows that are so graphic either with sex or violence. The music as well, seems to be getting worse and worse. Then there are so many restaurants that offer such gluttonous foods. You can have any kind of food you want delivered to your house within the hour these days. At least it used to be a little harder to over indulge. You would at least have to drive to the grocery store and pick out what you wanted. Now you can just sit at your computer and click on all the junk you like and then someone will bring it right to your door. It is so simple and yet, not helpful in a lot of ways.
I was listening to the Bible in a year podcast with Tony yesterday and I remember saying I can’t believe how God’s people in the Old Testament kept turning away from God. They saw amazing miracles and yet, they kept turning away. However, this morning I can understand it. The allure of the world is overwhelming sometimes. The want to just do what everyone else is doing can be hard to resist. The TV shows look so interesting, the idea of sleeping in on Sunday instead of going to mass looks appealing, and it can also be so easy to get sucked into gossiping, why not everyone else is doing it? There are things that I know I shouldn’t be doing, but what if I didn’t know, would that be better. Could I blissfully go about my life doing things that are wrong, but not actually sinning, because I don’t know for sure they are sins? I was going to write the answer to this question is no. However, I don’t actually know if that is true or not. My hunch is that we have a duty to learn and grow and remaining ignorant about our faith and God’s word just so we can go on living in a way we are pretty sure God wouldn’t approve of but don’t know for sure because we are avoiding learning about it can’t be ok. I am pretty sure that is a loophole that God would close.
However, even if we could do that, I am glad I am not. I am glad I am learning more about His word and How God wants me to live. Yes, learning and studying scripture does mean that we are limited in doing things sometimes. However, He is limiting us from doing things that are not good for us. They are not good for our soul. He is protecting us, just as we are protecting our children when we tell them they can’t eat candy for every meal. We are not trying to be mean, we know it isn’t healthy and they will get sick if they eat candy for every meal. The Lord is doing the same. He know’s our soul will get sick if we watch too much violence and sex on TV. He know if we eat too much junk, we will get sick. He knows the more we follow the ways of the world, the further away from Him we will get.
On the other hand, the more we learn about God and His ways, the closer to Him we get. The more we study His word and try to imitate the way He wants us to live the more God blesses us and pours down His graces on us. I don’t know if you can remember a time when you weren’t living your life according to God’s purpose or God’s plan, but if you can I bet your life wasn’t going as good as it does when you are living according to God’s plan. Studying the scripture is a blessing because we get to know God on a deeper lever. We develop a more intimate relationship with Him and that is so much better than anything the world has to offer. The ways of the world can be enticing and sometimes living the Christian lifestyle can feel restrictive, especially if you are surrounded by others that don’t understand it. However, whatever you are sacrificing to live according to God’s ways is nothing compared to what God sacrificed to save you and me.
The verse above says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” I believe this verse is a great reminder to us. The first thing I think of when I hear this verse is of course food. It is a reminder to me to not eat everything that I want to eat. Since my body is a temple and I should Glorify God in my body, I should probably take care of it. That is not to say I can’t enjoy anything that is not good for me, it is just a reminder that moderation is important. This verse is not just about food though. We should also glorify God with what we do with our bodies and what we wear on our bodies. I like how the verse says, “you are not your own, you were bought with a price.” Since this is the case, we should act accordingly and treat our bodies as the temple they are.
We are beyond lucky that God sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. The least we can do is create an environment where the Holy Spirit can happily dwell. Think about it, if you were a guest living in your body, would you want to stay there? I know that may be a weird question but I think it is an important one for us to ponder. When we do we might come up with some things we are doing that we may want to change. If not, no worries, maybe you are doing a great job living the way God is calling us to live. If you do notice some things you want to change, know that you aren’t on your own changing them. God will help you if you ask. He is always willing to give us the strength we need to make changes. Take some time today and think about this verse. Am I glorifying God in my body, with my body?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you and we are so grateful that you gave us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. Help us to make our bodies a temple to the Holy Spirit.
Help give us the strength to say no to all that is bad for our bodies. Help us to have the strength to not over indulge. Lord, renew the desire to learn and study your word. Give us the desire to walk in your ways, even when it is hard. Even when others aren’t walking in your ways. Give us the strength to go against the grain of the world Lord, this world that knows nothing of you. Lord you are the Light of the world, and you are the hope of the hopeless. We are so grateful for all you do for us and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!