Think, Act, Be, Day 11-1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
When we are in Christ, we undergo an identity crisis. Our old loyalties to family, nation, religion, work, and values change. We realize that Jesus has paid a very high price for us—his life—and now we are bound to him. Under ordinary circumstances, a person would live under an enormous sense of guilt, shame, and remorse over what we did to Jesus. Instead, because of his mercy and freedom, he gives us a chance to live as members of his body. We become a living temple, a holy space where people can have access to Jesus today. Others see us, and they can see what it would look like for Jesus to live in our world. For believers, there are a lot of things we could have probably done in this world had we not met Jesus. But because Jesus caught up with us and changed everything about us, we choose now not to participate in some behaviors because it’s not the behavior a Christian temple would condone.
For instance, take the extreme example of sexual intimacy with a prostitute that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 6. We would be horrified by this kind of behavior by a follower of Christ, and so we should be. Paul uses that example and takes the discussion to a deeper level for the believer. It’s pretty easy for most believers to recognize the sin of this kind of sexual intimacy. A follower of Christ, however, recognizes the need to examine everything in our bodies. Because we are bound to Christ, Paul invites us to view everything going into and coming out of our bodies like the doorway of a temple. He invites us to treat everything about our bodies as sacred space. We ask ourselves—are these the kind of behaviors that Jesus would engage in if he were living my life today? Do the foods, words, attitudes, friendships, emotions, internet sites, groups, emails, money, television programs, family, sports teams, weapons, radio talk shows, and books that you digest and share cause you to live like Jesus? Yes, it would take a revolution to change all of that—which is exactly why we need to surrender it all to Jesus.
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,”[a] and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple[b] of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20