I have been journeying through Isaiah and 1 Corinthians in my devotional time. This morning I was particularly struck by a verse while I was reading through 1 Corinthians 3:5-17. It reads:
16Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, NKJV)
The New Living Translation reads like this:
16Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? 17God will bring ruin upon anyone who ruins this temple. For God's temple is holy, and you Christians are that temple.
Wow! God's Word is calling the Church holy. Why is it holy? Because God is in the Church by way of His Holy Spirit. How did the Holy Spirit get in the church?
8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8, NKJV)
4And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:4, NKJV)
The Holy Spirit is in the Church because He is in each person that has accepted Jesus into their life as their Lord and Savior. It says in Romans 8:11 (NKJV), "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the His Spirit who dwells in you". The Holy Spirit is where? In the Christian. He is dwelling in the believer. Wait a second. God's Word is calling the Christian holy. We are holy and the Church is holy because of the Spirit that is dwelling in the believer and the believers make up the body of the Church. Pretty awesome. Now that we see that. Lets get onto the main point.
14And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For 'the two,' He says, 'shall become one flesh.' 17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. (1 Corinthians 6:14-17, NKJV)
We share the same Spirit with Christ because it is His Spirit that dwells in us. IN THIS UNITY, WE ARE IN CONSTANT FELLOWSHIP WITH THE TRIUNE GOD. It's all caps because I'm making sure it sinks into knowledge, not just yours but mine as well. Anyways, knowing this, why are we so PASSIVE about sin? When we sin, we are defiling the temple because we are inviting something bad (sin) into the fellowship of something good (God). When you're watching something pornographic, you're watching it in the fellowship of God. When you're gossiping to a friend, you're gossiping in the fellowship of God. And so on. Isn't that crazy!
How about, when you're reading God's word, you're reading in the fellowship of God. When you're singing praise and worship tunes, you're singing in the fellowship of God. I would say these are much better options. Which one should you do?
The Bible is very clear about not quenching the Spirit. That means, when you are about to sin and you feel the Spirit in you telling you not to do it, but you do it anyway, you have just quenched the Spirit. You put Him out because you didn't heed His warning. He's warning us to not sin to keep us holy and to keep our fellowship with God pure and undefiled.
I am by no means perfect. I falter on a regular basis just like you, but think about the next time you falter, or are about to falter, Who you are including in that falter.
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