Your body is not your own, but a dwelling place

Sunshine’s Reflections

 

Good morning!  Happy Tuesday!

TFTD:  Your body is not your own, but a dwelling place

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (New International Version)

 ¹²“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. ¹³“Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”¹⁷But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.  ¹⁸Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. ¹⁹Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (New King James Version)

¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body^[a] and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Your body is not your own.  You should not do with it what you please.  Even though you have access to many things in this life; that doesn’t mean that everything is good for your body.  Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  It is a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit to rest and rule however you cannot put anything into the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. As believers, our bodies are members of Christ himself.  We are a physical extension of Christ.  Christ dwells in us and we carry out His task.  The scripture poses a deep question in 1 Corinthians 6:15 and I’m paraphrasing (but please search the word for yourself) Since you are a member of Christ would you unite Christ with a prostitute?  Let’s make it plan and apply it with our daily life since you are a member of Christ would you take Christ to the bar and get drunk, to that man or woman’s house whom you are not married to and engage in sexual activities, to the casino and gamble, to the street in order to fight, to the many people who you lie to, and the list goes on?  Every time we engage in ungodly activities we are taking the Holy Spirit which lives in us into those places.  OUCH! 

How serious do we take our relationship with our body to Christ?  How many of us honestly care for our body has holy temples to the Holy Spirit?  Since the Holy Spirit dwells within us we should take care of our temple.  We should read and study the word of God.  We should not be slothful; we should exercise and eat properly.  We should not indulge in activities and behaviors that are contrary to the will of God.  We should not allow anyone else to treat our bodies any kind of way.  You need to know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells within you and the Spirit has been sent from God.  Your body does not belong to you.  God sent His Only Son to die for you and bought you at a very expensive and yet selfless price.  

What are some ways that you can glorify God with your body?  Take time to think of how you care for your body; could you do better?  Is the Holy Spirit’s dwelling place within you fit for kingdom building or kingdom demolition?  Some people can see the God in you by looking at you; what does your temple say to them?

Food for thought: Take serious inventory over how you care for the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.  Would you take your parents or children to the places that you go now or participate in the activities that you do now?  If you wouldn’t take them then you should not want to take the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you. 

Have a blessed day. 

Mrs. Nicole “Sunshine” Ellis   

Can’t breathe: Try Spiritual CPR: Consistent in praying, Persistent in pursuing the knowledge of God, and Resistant to temptation.   

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