You are God’s Temple
OPENING PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you today because we desire to know you more and to do your will. Your Word is holy and powerful -- please open our hearts to your message and bend our willful spirits to your ways. You are ever-faithful, and ever-present.
READ:
"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.” I Corinthians 3:16-17 (NIV)
REFLECT:
Paul asked a very important rhetorical question here: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple…?” How much of our Christian life depends on our understanding and remembering this? In early Jewish times God’s spirit lived symbolically in the Ark of the Covenant. But because of Jesus’ death on the cross, God sent his spirit to dwell within each of us as believers. In addition, as we gather with other believers, we the local church, are the dwelling place of God.
Consider the converse: If your body was just an empty shell, flesh and bones, what would it matter what you did to it? As it turns out, you are not just any old vessel, you are a temple. Christians have no shrines, altars, or crucifixes because we are the temple and God lives within us. If you wonder how serious God is about this, consider verse 17. He will destroy the person who destroys his temple (you!). So, how we take care of our physical bodies is a true reflection of our relationship with God.
APPLY:
The sacred promise that God lives within us and that we are his temple might deserve some reexamining. Today, if time permits, do a deep dive into this subject. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 and Romans 12:1-2; and explore how your physical body, God’s temple, can reflect the glory of God.
CLOSING PRAYER:
Thank you, God, for sending your son to die for our sins. Thank you for sending your spirit to live within us. Help us to be worthy of being your temple. Amen.
WORSHIP: