His Temple

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

HIS TEMPLE

1 Cor 3:16-17

16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

NIV

We are the temple of God. No longer is there any need for a temple of stone and gold for God does not need that type of temple to signify the place that He dwells for He has us now. It is difficult to understand the reason some still feel the need to have such an elaborate edifice for a place of worship? Do they think the greater the building the more it represents the presence of God? Instead of joining in this kind of temple building, we should be very aware of the building of our spirits, as a fitting place for the Spirit to live in. Surely those temples, or churches of stone and gold can be destroyed by a variety of nature elements, tornados, hurricanes, fire, floods or even a great wrecking ball made with the hands of man. But how can we destroy our temple which is made of flesh and blood, which houses our spirit which the Spirit resides in? It would seem the way to destroy the temple, us, would be to corrupt it with so much sin, it would be unfit for the Spirit to dwell in. Can both sin and the Spirit of God dwell in the same temple? Surely we know that those who have refused to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have also refused to allow God’s Spirit to dwell in them, and they are living in the state of sin and therefore have already destroyed any temple they might have, and we know that someday they will be destroyed. But what about us, we who have accepted Jesus, can we destroy our temple? We know that we cannot be perfectly free of all personal sin, yet we are free of that original sin, Adam left of us with, due to the fact we have been washed in the blood of Christ. So if we remain in Christ, then we, God’s temple, are fit for the Spirit to dwell in. It would seem the only way to destroy this temple would be to walk away completely, turning our back on God, denouncing any faith in Him at all. That would surely bring about complete destruction. Yet, if we allow this personal kind of sin to grow within us and do nothing the put a stop to it, then could we be in danger of not being  fit as His temple? If we recognize this sin, and refuse to repent, accepting it as part of being human, would that put us in danger? And we are not talking about grievous sins like murder, stealing, or adultery, but the little well hidden sins of jealously, envy, bitterness, unforgiveness, gossip, greed, self-centeredness, pride and the like. Could these gone unchecked make us unfit for the Spirit of God to dwell within? Could these cause destruction of the temple? We must remember we are sacred, God has set us apart for His purpose and He has given us His Spirit to teach us and guide us in all truth. We cannot afford to be anything less than His Temple.