AP

1 Corinthians 6:19-20   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 honour God with your bodies.

It is easy to read this statement of Paul without realising the full extent of how his message must influence every part of our being – the way we think, the way we act, the way we speak, the way we relate to each other, the way we organise our priorities and our daily schedule.

The early Christians in Corinth, both Jews and Greeks, who had been gripped by the Gospel message Paul had preached and taught among them, and who had responded in repentance-and-faith, were already starting to let worldly attitudes and worldly practices creep back into their life as a redeemed community.  There was rivalry and party spirit (Chapter 3), unhealthy criticism of the leadership (Chapter 4), sexual immorality (Chapters 5 & 6), ungodly litigation and abuse (Chapter 6).

To bring them back to the reality of what their conversion actually was, Paul had to remind them that they personally, in their earthly bodies, were God’s new ‘temple’, his dwelling place.  The Holy Spirit of God inhabited them!  He had taken over possession of their whole being; they had surrendered to him their rights to themselves, to run their lives on their own terms, as the ‘natural’ man always does.  And God’s taking over full control of their lives was not an ‘invasion’, an ‘illegal occupation’ on his part; he had actually purchased the ‘deeds’ of their lives at full market value: nothing less than the precious blood of Jesus, his beloved!

This is both a warning and a challenge to us today.  It is a warning about how easily and how quickly we can slip back into our old worldly habits under the constant bombardment of peer pressure, even from within the fellowship of the Church.  This is especially the case now that our whole culture takes for granted, and assumes as the norm throughout the media (sitcoms, advertising, news reporting, etc), that there is no Creator-Redeemer God, who has revealed his absolute truth in his inspired, infallible Word, the Bible, and to whom we will all, one day, be held accountable on the basis of this truth.

It is dangerous because it can happen subtly enough for us not to notice the gradual decline, especially when we are ‘all doing it’ and no-one wants to ‘stick their head above the trench’ or ‘rock the boat’.  It is a challenge for every one of us to critically assess everything we do, everything we say, everything we read or watch, and every hour and dollar we spend, by asking: “Does this thing that is now occupying my thoughts/attention/time/energy truly honour God?”

– Bruce Christian