Do You Not Know That Your Body Is The Temple Of The Holy Spirit Who Is In You?

Do You Not Know That Your Body Is the Temple of the Holy Spirit Who Is in You?

—1 Corinthians 6:19

This question comes in the context of the apostle Paul’s admonition to “flee sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). And Paul clearly stated the reason for this admonition: because “you are not your own. . . . You were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (vv. 19–20). Sandwiched between these two verses is the striking question, “Don’t you know that your body is God’s own temple?”

You’ve probably noticed: sex sells in modern America. It sells blue jeans, music, cars, computers, cameras, even mouthwash. Everyone is talking about sex today—everyone except for moms and dads in the home, and preachers and teachers in the church. So young people learn about sex from the hottest new entertainers of this day and the media—voices that too often fill their minds with immoral, if not utterly wrong, information. More than one generation in America has been raised with little to no moral absolutes, so relativism has taken root, influencing the thought processes of too many individuals away from God’s truth. What was yesterday’s shocking behavior is today’s norm. What used to slither down the darkened back alleys now struts proudly down Main Street.

Two thousand years ago the apostle Paul confronted this very issue head-on when he wrote to a Corinthian culture as depraved and perverted as our own today. In the midst of all the decadence and perversion, Paul asked the Corinthians—and us: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?”

AN ADMONITION

Notice the force and urgency of Paul’s admonition “Flee sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). Of course he was not exhorting us to flee sex. Within the marriage relationship, where it is intended, sex is pure and beautiful. When Paul said, “Flee!” he was addressing sexual immorality. The Greek word from which we get immorality is the same root from which the word pornography comes. Paul was commanding God’s people to flee sexual encounters and acts that fall outside the biblical boundaries.

Paul admonished believers to flee, to run, to get out of there. While a slave in Egypt, Joseph did exactly that—he resisted Pharaoh’s wife’s seductive advances. Joseph said no at the very onset and fled immediately. Like Joseph, we are to consciously, purposefully, and even perpetually run away from sexual immorality whenever we notice it lurking.

Some individuals, however, try to fight rather than flee. Overconfident, they think they can resist the temptation and handle the situation. To this Paul simply said, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls” (10:12). I think it’s quite significant that Paul didn’t say, “Fight sexual immorality.” He admonished us to “flee sexual immorality.”

The reason we should run from every temptation to sexual immorality is because it can devastate three types of relationships—with others, with our own selves, and with God. In other words, sexual immorality affects our witness to others, our own sense of worth, and our worship of God. Sexual sins leave a mark on our soul and have an insidious way of mastering us. They can too easily define us and dominate us. So “flee sexual immorality” is the admonition to follow.

AN ADMISSION

Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. In the New Testament, two Greek words translate into our English word temple. One is used to describe the entire temple complex in Jerusalem: the Temple Mount, the Court of the Gentiles, Solomon’s Portico, the colonnades, and all the inner courts. The second word is used exclusively to describe that sacred space just beyond the veil in the Holy Place of the temple, the sacred space known as the Holy of Holies. It was there that God visited His people on the annual Day of Atonement. Significantly, when Paul wrote that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, he used this second word. He asserted that the believer’s very body has become the Holy of Holies to God and the very dwelling place of His Spirit.

In the Old Testament, when God visited the Holy of Holies in His shekinah glory, He inhabited the space between the cherubim over the mercy seat of the ark. But today, in our dispensation of grace, He has chosen the bodies of His believers as His own sacred dwelling place. In the Old Testament, God had a temple for His people; since New Testament times He has His people as His temple. That means you and me!

Even people involved in illicit sexual sins would probably not think of committing those sins in a holy place; they wouldn’t think of desecrating a church altar with their sin. So believers should recoil even more at the thought of committing such sin at all, for it is our very body that is God’s temple, not some physical edifice. As Paul reminded the Corinthians, our bodies were “bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20); our bodies are not our own, so we have absolutely no right to injure or defile what does not belong to us.

AN AMBITION

Finally, the apostle Paul set forth an appropriate ambition or purpose for our lives: “glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:20). Our ambition in life is not to act according to our personal whims or desires, or to satisfy our personal pleasures. Our purpose in life is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was very clear and straightforward: we ought to glorify God in all that we are and all that we do. This command is in the imperative mood, the very strongest language possible. Glorifying God is not an option for a believer. We are commanded to radiate the life and love of Christ with our whole being, and that includes our bodies.

God calls each of us to purity—to purity of mind, purity of motive, and purity of morals. Your body is God’s temple, the place where His Holy Spirit has come to dwell. Therefore you are not really your own: you are purchased with the high price of Christ’s blood. Therefore, glorify God with your body as well as your spirit. They belong to Him.

Q & A: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” If you didn’t realize this before, you should now. You are so indescribably valuable to Jesus that He purchased your redemption with His own blood. Even before you were born, He knew you (Psalm 139:15). And now He has engraved your name on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16). But that is not all. Today, right now, He has also chosen to make your body His own Holy Place, where He has taken up residency. No wonder Paul would later say, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15). No wonder we should glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which belong to Him!