Temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17-20)

But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
(1 Corinthians 6:17-20 NASB)

These verses are so convicting—or at least they should be.

You have been bought with a price: The Son of God, Jesus Christ, chose to come to earth and take on human flesh. He chose to suffer betrayal, a sham “trial,” and excruciating, beyond-our-comprehension pain. He chose to die a humiliating death.

For you. For me.

He paid our penalty for our sins, and He paid it with His own life.

And when we accepted the gift of salvation through His sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection, the Holy Spirit—part of the triune God—took up resident in each and every one of us.

God Himself resides in us. Each of us is a temple of God! But do we truly understand this amazingly mysterious concept?

I don’t think we do. Not really.

Because if we really, truly did, we would take so much better care of these temples of ours.

We would, indeed, flee immorality. We would treat our bodies with respect, with dignity. We would make wiser choices. We would remain pure and clean. We would fill our hearts and minds with thoughts that edify and help us to become stronger in our faith.

And frankly, even though Paul is writing about not using our bodies for immoral acts, we would do even more to keep our temples healthy and strong. We would eat better and exercise more. We would avoid things that break our bodies down.

Think of it this way: The God of all creation calls to say He’s coming to visit your home. What would you do to prepare it for Him? What kind of feast would you create? How diligently would you clean?

Well, He’s not just visiting your home; He’s living in you. Inside of you.

So how is your temple? Is it clean and fresh and full of good things? Does the Spirit feel welcome? Or is He competing with all the junk and clutter?

I don’t know about you, but I have some housekeeping to do …