Opening illustration: Many years ago, Indian youths would go away in solitude to prepare for manhood. One such youth hiked into a beautiful valley, green with trees, bright with flowers. There he fasted. But on the third day, as he looked up at the surrounding mountains, he noticed one tall rugged peak, capped with dazzling snow. I will test myself against that mountain, he thought. He put on his buffalo-hide shirt, threw his blanket over his shoulders and set off to climb the peak. When he reached the top he stood on the rim of the world. He could see forever, and his heart swelled with pride. Then he heard a rustle at his feet, and looking down, he saw a snake. Before he could move, the snake spoke.
"I am about to die," said the snake. "It is too cold for me up here and I am freezing. There is no food and I am starving. Put me under your shirt and take me down to the valley."
"No," said the youth. "I am forewarned. I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite, and your bite will kill me."
"Not so," said the snake. "I will treat you differently. If you do this for me, you will be special. I will not harm you." The youth resisted awhile, but this was a very persuasive snake with beautiful markings. At last the youth tucked it under his shirt and carried it down to the valley. There he laid it gently on the grass, when suddenly the snake coiled, rattled, and leapt, biting him on the leg.
"But you promised ..." cried the youth. “You knew what I was when you picked me up." said the snake as it slithered away."
"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body."
Let us turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and 6 and see the instructions for keeping our body.
Introduction: Addressing the aspect of how we take care of our bodies physically. Some are obsessed with food intake and exercise. They are more concerned about how they look rather than being healthy. But do we pursue that as passionately or are more concerned in taking care of this body’s spiritual health? Which is more important to you? This does not justify that one has to be a glutton and eat whatever and how much ever. But one thing is sure that we should eat as much as our body requires and burn out that is just baggage and a burden on our bodies to drag wherever we go. We must understand that our physical body which is ultimately going to perish and be eaten by worms but our spirit has the potential to spend eternity with Christ! The passage here clearly asserts that the spiritual condition of the body is more important than the physical.
Now Paul returns to that figure, and denounces the judgment of God upon all who would defile his house by their carnal divisions. In that temple the Spirit dwelt, as the ‘Shekinah Glory’ had dwelt in the temple of God at Jerusalem; it was therefore a holy temple, and an awful sin to defile it. Under the old dispensation, death was the penalty of polluting the temple. Today that temple, you are ... what are you doing with it?
There is a liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, in which we must stand fast. But surely a Christian would never put himself into the power of any bodily appetite. The body is for the Lord; is to be an instrument of righteousness to holiness, therefore is never to be made an instrument of sin. It is an honor to the body that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead; and it will be an honor to our bodies, that they will be raised. The hope of a resurrection to glory, should keep Christians from dishonoring their bodies by fleshly lusts. And if the soul be united to Christ by faith, the whole man is become a member of his spiritual body. Other vices may be conquered in fight; that here cautioned against, only by flight. And vast multitudes are cut off by this vice in its various forms and consequences. Its effects fall not only directly upon the body, but often upon the mind. Our bodies have been redeemed from deserved condemnation and hopeless slavery by the atoning sacrifice of Christ. We are to be clean, as vessels fitted for our Master’s use. Being united to Christ as one spirit, and bought with a price of unspeakable value, the believer should consider himself as wholly the Lord’s, by the strongest ties. May we make it our business, to the latest day and hour of our lives, to glorify God with our bodies, and with our spirits which are His.
How to keep your body?
1. Sacred (temple treatment) ~ 1 Corinthians 3: 16
The apostle here carries forward and completes the figure which he had commenced in regard to Christians. His illustrations had been drawn from architecture; and he here proceeds to say that Christians are that building that they were the sacred temple which God had reared; and that, therefore, they should be pure and holy. This is a practical application of what he had been before saying. Just because God’s Spirit dwells in us we have become a temple of God; and if that is so our very bodies are sacred. You are God’s building. As the whole congregation of Israel were formerly considered as the temple and habitation of God, because God dwelt among them, so here the whole Church of Corinth is called the temple of God, because all genuine believers have the Spirit of God to dwell in them; and Christ has promised to be always in the midst even of two or three who are gathered together in his name. Therefore where God is, there is his temple. The idea is derived from the mode of speaking among the Jews, where they are said often in the Old Testament to be the temple and the habitation of God. And the allusion is probably to the fact that God dwelt by a visible symbol - “the Shekinah” - in the temple, and that His abode was there. As He dwelt there among the Jews; as He had there a temple - a dwelling place, so he dwells among Christians. They are His temple, the place of His abode. His residence is with them; and He is in their midst.
Illustration: Among the pagan also, temples were regarded as sacred. They were supposed to be inhabited by the divinity to whom they were dedicated. They were regarded, as inviolable. Those who took refuge there were safe. It was a crime of the highest degree to violate a temple, or to tear a fugitive who had sought protection there from the altar. So the apostle says of the Christian community. They were regarded as his temple - God dwelt among them - and they should regard themselves as holy, and as consecrated to his service. And so it is regarded as a species of sacrilege to violate the temple, and to devote it to other uses. Address how people in Asian countries regard, honor and respect their temples …
2. Holy (dwelling place of HS) ~ 1 Corinthians 6: 19; 3: 17b
What an astonishing saying is this! As truly as the living God dwelt in the Mosaic tabernacle, and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians; and as the temple and all its utensils were holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated alone to the service of God, so the bodies of genuine Christians are holy, and all their members should be employed in the service of God alone.
What is said in 1 Corinthians 3: 16 of the saints in general, are here said of their bodies in particular. The Holy Spirit, in regeneration and sanctification, when he begins the good work of grace on a man, takes possession of his whole person, soul and body, and dwells therein as in his temple. So the Jews call the body of a righteous man משכן, the "habitation" of the Holy Spirit. Now it is most abominably scandalous and shameful that that body, which is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, which is sacred to him as a temple, should be defiled by the sin of fornication: it is added, the Holy Spirit which was in them, as in his temple; which dwelt in their hearts, and influenced their bodies, lives, and conversations; and which they received of God as a wonderful instance of his grace and love to them; that he should be bestowed upon them, to regenerate, renew, and sanctify them, to implant every grace, to make them a fit habitation for God, and meet for the inheritance of the saints in light: their own masters, at their own dispose, to live to their own lusts, or the lusts of men; men have not power over their bodies to abuse them at pleasure by fornication, or such like uncleanness, neither single nor married persons; see 1 Corinthians 7: 4 and of all men, not the saints, who are neither their own nor other men’s, nor Satan’s, but God’s; not only by creation, but by choice and covenant; and Christ’s by gift, by purchase, and powerful grace, and in a conjugal relation to him; wherefore fornication ill becomes them. Let us not forget what 1 Peter 1: 15-16 reiterates “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." For all those who ask, why should we be holy, God gives us a perfect reply and reason. Amen!
Just preceding this passage, Paul talks about keeping yourself away from sexual sins which corrupts our bodies as this is a sin that is committed to and in the body. Therefore profaning and contaminating the temple in which the Spirit of God lives. God being Holy, how can He have an immoral relationship? Therefore be Holy for He is Holy and there is no short-cut or any other route to maintain that holiness in our bodies. Nor can we justify our sinful actions for bringing shame to Christ and defiling the name of God. This is a commandment … let’s keep it!
3. Glorify God (not our own / bought with a price) ~ 1 Corinthians 6: 20
What was Paul talking about when he said our bodies belong to God? Many people think that they have the right to do whatever with their own bodies as long as they are not harming anyone … Although they think this is freedom, they are really enslaved to their own desires. When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit fills and lives in us. Therefore we no longer own our bodies. “Bought at a price” refers to slaves purchased at auction. Christ’s death freed us from sin, but also obligates us to His service. If you live in a building owned by someone else, you try not to violate the rule of the building. Because your body belongs to God, you must not violate His standards for living. And more – Christ died to save not a bit of a man, but a whole man, to save the man in body and in soul. Christ gave His life to give a man a redeemed soul and a pure body. And because of that a man’s body is not his own to do as he likes with; it is Christ’s and He must use that body, not for the satisfaction of his own lusts, but for the glory of God in Christ Jesus. Glorify God with your body and your spirit - Yield your bodies and all their members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God. Devote and employ all ye have, and all ye are, entirely, unreservedly, and forever, to his glory.
Illustration: A missionary in the orient tells how a 20 year-old man approached a temple, removed his sandals, and bowed before the idol. Drawing a dagger from beneath his shirt, in one quick swipe he cut off his tongue and offered it to the silent, lifeless image. In minutes he lay unconscious in a pool of blood at the feet of the statue. God wants our tongues, not cut off and placed before him, but dedicated to his worship, service and honor.
Consequence for keeping the body (temple) unholy ~
(i) Destruction (1 Corinthians 3: 17a)
The Greek word is the same in both parts of the sentence. “If any man ‘destroy’ the temple of God, God shall ‘destroy’ him.” This is presented in the form of an adage or proverb. And the truth here stated is based on the fact that the temple of God was inviolable. That temple was holy; and if any man subsequently destroyed it, it might be presumed that God would destroy him. The figurative sense is, “If any man by his doctrines or precepts shall pursue such a course as tends to destroy the church, God shall severely punish him. The temple of God is to be regarded as sacred and inviolable. This was unquestionably the common opinion among the Jews respecting the temple at Jerusalem; and it was the common doctrine of the Gentiles respecting their temples. Sacred places were regarded as inviolable; and this general truth Paul applies to the Christian church in general - Locke supposes that Paul had particular reference here to the false teachers in Corinth. But the expression, “if any man,” is equally applicable to all other false teachers as to him. If any man destroys the temple of God … Him shall God destroy – Paul talks about eternal damnation of that soul.
Application: Let us back up and reflect on our question today – How to keep your body?
From today’s scripture passage there is no stone left unturned and everything is very explicit and distinct. As believers in Christ, we have a responsibility for the upkeep of this temple (body). Keep this body ~
• Sacred
• Holy
• Glorify God … no matter what!
Keep this body holy for God is Holy and as His Spirit lives in us, we must maintain that holiness.
