By Mary Bea Miller
Do you not know that your body is the temple, the very sanctuary, of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received as a Gift from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 The Amplified Bible
I was expecting a very different topic when I volunteered for the post with this Scripture verse. But after I got into it a bit, I realized it wasn’t at all saying what I thought I was going to write about. So, I had to start with a completely blank slate. Not a bad thing when you’re studying the Bible. Here’s what I learned:
SIX ARGUMENTS: Verse 19 begins the sixth of 6 arguments in this chapter which all start with the words, “Do you not know”. This one goes right to the core of the defense of moral purity.
OWNERSHIP: The stated reason that we are required by God to abstain from sex outside of marriage has to do with ownership. “You are not your own.”
Americans don’t swallow this one very easily. Anyone with a sin nature would have trouble with it, I guess. But this verse is worded so plainly and put so simply, it leaves precious little room to wiggle out of it. I really love the comprehensive lists used to illustrate Whose we are, whose we are NOT and how we got there, found in Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible:
“the saints, who are neither their own, nor other men’s, nor satan’s, but God’s; not only by creation, but by choice and covenant; and Christ’s by gift, by purchase, and powerful grace.”
PURPOSE BUILT: When we were traveling in Ireland once, we met the owners of the very nice B&B where we were staying. They explained to us that they built it themselves, and designed it specifically to be used as a B&B. Now if you have stayed in a few B&B’s you might have noticed that some are easier to stay in than others. That is because most of them started out as homes, not enterprises. They were built for families, not paying guests. But this place in Lisdoonvarna was “purpose built”. And it was noticeably easier to stay in than most of the others. This verse in 1 Corinthians says the same thing about us. We were ‘purpose built’ by God, for Him to live in. He built it with His occupancy in mind, just the way He likes it. Then paid for it AGAIN, with His own Son, because we had let in an enemy who had acquired squatters’ rights, and had to be forcibly evicted.
Clarkes’ Commentary on the Bible has this to say:
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost – What an astonishing saying is this! As truly as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic tabernacle, and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians; and as the temple and all its utensils were holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated alone to the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians are holy….And ye are not your own? – Ye have no right over yourselves, to dispose either of your body, or any of its members, as you may think proper or lawful; you are bound to God, and to Him you are accountable.
GLORIFYING GOD: As much as we love using the verses saying things like “God sees my heart” as a defense for a behavior of which someone might disapprove, this verse makes a strong case for the point that our outward actions have a real capacity to bring God glory…..or not (implied). And just in case we try to spiritualize it, Paul adds the prepositional phrase “in your body”. Sound of another door slamming shut. But it’s not just Paul. Matthew and Peter seem to agree.
Matt 5:16: Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. …
1 Pet 2:12: Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. …
So here I am at the end of a pretty hard-nosed chapter of Scripture. Exits have been blocked, every way of escape is closed. Unlike many churches over the centuries, I refuse to draw conclusions as to what this means to your life, besides what it says explicitly regarding fornication, but each of us is left to ask the Holy Spirit ourselves. It truly is the only honest response to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. What do I do that might be inappropriate for a house of His? In what ways do I act as if I have retained ownership?
Because I long for my temple to be a place that glorifies Him everyday, all the time, I will be asking these hard questions, and listening hard for His loving response.
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