December 13, 2019 DO YOU NOT KNOW
1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19 “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” “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?”
These two verses highlight two truths we must know in our inner man if we are to live as believers according to the desires and plans of God. First, we must know that GOD dwells in us and that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. That sounds simple enough-but have we yet grasped the awesome truth that the creator God lives IN US? I am not sure we will fully grasp this truth and the impact of it until we are with the Lord in heaven, but at least to some degree we can grasp it, and even as we begin to understand it, life takes on new meaning. Seeing ourselves as a temple of God affects how we perceive ourselves-our physical bodies and our spirit; since we are the temple of God, the choices we make concerning our bodies and our spirit should reflect this amazing truth. Obviously, we are to never ‘worship’ our physical bodies as apparently many do, but we are to be good stewards of our physical bodies, and we also must nourish and keep our spirit in good health. It is no doubt that the spiritual is more important than the physical, but the spiritual is to impact the physical. Romans 6:10-11 makes this truth clear: “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” The second truth we must embrace is ‘that we are not our own.’ This truth is the acid test of our walk with the Lord; we are called to die to self, to abandon ourselves-our life- fully to the Lord and live under His lordship. From our heart, we must desire His ways more than our ways. Not being our own means that our trust and our allegiance to Him is the main thing in our lives. God wants us to experience life to the fullest, but that is possible only when we die to our preferences and embrace the Lord and His ways with all of our hearts. As believers, we can live primarily focused on our lives; we can even be focused what we must do if we are to be ‘good’ Christians-that’s still the self-life. The scriptures are clear; we are called to die to self and to live as fit temples of the Holy Spirit. Let us daily die to ourselves, knowing that we are not our own. Who are we living for? Ourselves or for Him?
Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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