Temple Talk

"What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19) 

And now, for a bit of "temple talk," if I may, about out bodies, which this verse refers to as "the temple of the Holy Ghost." You must admit, it's a popular subject today. If the Victorians were guilty of trying to ignore the body, we now try to immortalize it. Millions of dollars are spent yearly in a frantic attempt to beautify, strengthen, slenderize, soften, de-wrinkle, tan, and simply maintain these bodies of ours. All the while, our bodies seem to be working just as frantically for the opposite results!

As Christians, we're often taught that certain unhealthy habits are in reality sins, because they "harm the temple of God." But anyone who reads the last eight verses of this chapter will soon realize that the great defiler of the body is fornication, not things we consume. It's the one sin a man or woman can commit that is actually an affront to his or her own body (v. 18), the supreme act of dishonor to the physical home in which God has given us to live; and the one that provokes those dreaded words pronounced in Romans 1:24: "God also gave them up."

God created us sexual beings, but know this: our bodies were not made for fornication. "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body" (v. 13). To satisfy holy, sexual desire by unholy, sensual means is to try to substitute a light bulb for the sun or a sparkler for a star. It isn't natural. It goes beyond immorality to blasphemy.

Fornication (any sexual activity outside of marriage [1 Cor. 7:2]) is never the will of God (1 Thess. 4:3), and should never be committed or condoned by anyone naming the name of Christ. For the Christian, it represents gross defilement of the chosen home of Holy Spirit of God. No other physical sin sinks to its level.