1st Corinthians 6:19-20
Our body - a Temple of the Holy Spirit
We have all heard people say: "It's my body" and
"I can do what I want so long as it doesn't hurt anyone else."
We have probably said something along these lines ourselves
from time to time.
But the bible makes it clear that our bodies are not our own;
at least not completely.
God made them through our parents, and in a way loaned them to us,
and we are accountable to Him on the Day of Judgement
for how we have used them.
To the Atheist the human body is nothing more than a physical set of organs
hung onto a framework or scaffolding of bones,
which are protected by a very thin covering of flesh,
fueled by oxygen and food, and lubricated by blood.
There was no ‘Plan’; we are the result of accidental evolution, from monkeys!
There is no purpose to life
and after it there is only oblivion.
To the Christian, however, we are more than what can be seen or smelled
or touched or heard,
because our bodies contain something of God, planned by God;
made in His image; whether people believe that or not.
The Ancient Greeks used to think the human body was irrelevant,
and that only the psyche, ‘soul’ or mind or intelligence was important.
This led to Antinomianism, the belief that what a person does with their body is unimportant,
Because it is what they do with their mind that matters.
This meant a person could eat, drink and be merry,
getting up to all kinds of sin with their bodies,
as long as they did not do anything wrong in their minds!
How convenient; how ridiculous.
The Jews had no such illusions;
they believed the human body was a creation of God, reflecting His glory;
and had to be treated with respect, and used morally; used for His glory.
In the Bible, in Psalm 139 v 14 it says ‘We are fearfully and wonderfully made; and that ‘God’s works are wonderful’.
We are god’s works as much as mountains and rivers are.
Our body temperature can only fall or rise by just a few degrees,
and we will die f our temperature gets too hot or too cold,
and does not return to normal in a short space of time.
Just a few days without water or a few minutes without air,
and our bodies will die.
A fall of a few feet, a few well placed blows, especially to the head,
or a small puncture almost anywhere between the waist and the neck
and our bodies will die.
Even those with the best trained, most fit, strongest bodies
need food, air, water and shelter around them in order to survive,
so we must be very careful how we treat our bodies.
We must take care of our bodies physically.
The Queen, the President, the Prime Minister, the millionaire, the tramp:
all of us need a certain amount of food, drink, exercise, and sleep,
and everyone, whether believer or unbeliever
must avoid hot, sharp, or jagged objects.
We must not touch certain chemicals
or eat anything that would hinder our body's normal function.
This means that we must avoid anything which harms our body,
even though it smells, tastes, or feels good.
Drinking alcohol, abusing drugs, smoking, overeating -
all these harm the human body.
So to take care of our body we must avoid them.
Not only are physical things, too much or too little, important to the human body, but also emotional things.
How we feel affects how well our body functions.
If we are happy, positive, confident, loved, appreciated,
good chemicals encourage our metabolism to flourish.
If we are sad, negative, down, rejected, lonely, discouraged,
bad chemicals have the opposite effect
and can lead to illness and depression.
When we have a good attitude and everything is going well,
our blood pressure stays within reasonable limits,
our heartbeat is steady,
and we are calm and relaxed.
On the other hand, negative emotions like worry, fear, and guilt
make our blood pressure rise,
our heart pound,
our muscles tense.
So to help keep our bodies healthy, we must watch our diet and our attitudes.
The Bible makes it plain that over and above food and exercise and taking care of our physical and mental well-being,
our bodies and our health are affected by moral or spiritual beliefs and actions.
I read somewhere that patients in hospitals who have some religious faith, any religious faith, recover quicker than those with none.
When we obey God's law we enjoy the benefits of His promises, and we feel good.
We might not always be punished at the moment we disobey,
but a clean conscience goes a long way towards having a good attitude, which in turn helps to keep our bodies fit and healthy.
This is because our body is not just a physical thing,
it is a vessel or vehicle that contains the real ‘us’.
Within our human body is a soul or a spirit
just like the soul or spirit which God breathed into the first humans,
Adam and Eve in Genesis 2 verse 7.
He did not do this to any other life-form,
which is why man is essentially different from any and every animal.
Every human being has a God-shaped ‘hole’ inside them,
that only He can fill.
According to Genesis 2:7,
we all have something within us that makes us unique:
our soul or spirit. No animal has one.
It is something that God gave us that makes us special:
He literally breathed His Spirit into us.
We cannot see a person's soul or spirit,
yet our soul or spirit is like God; it will never die, even though our bodies do.
The sinner’s soul will live forever too,
but not in the same place or state as the saints!
If everyone would only appreciate that we are different in this vital respect from apes and every other animal;
if everyone appreciated they had a soul or spirit,
as a gift from God,
it would be more important to them than anything else,
and more valuable than their house or car or any other possession.
As Jesus said in Matthew 16:26:
'What good will it be for a man, or a woman,
if he or she gains the whole world, but loses his or her soul?'
This is what is called a rhetorical question,
because it either has no answer or the answer is none.
The human soul is much more important than money.
If anyone thinks money is more important than God,
they are, in a way, denying that God gave them a soul.
Anyone who worships money instead of God is committing a great sin.
Only when we put God first in everything, can anyone be in a proper relationship with Him.
Many people take tranquilisers or anti-depressants
or see counselors or ‘shrinks’
but none of these, and no amount of money can buy peace of mind.
Only God can give us inner peace, or Shalom, or wholeness.
Our soul is more important than our friends.
No matter what they think of us, our friends did not give us our soul,
and they do not control where our soul will spend eternity.
Just because we want to be popular with people
does not mean that we can ignore our responsibility to God.
If they put us in a position where we have to choose between what God says and what our friends want,
we must kindly and firmly tell our friends what we believe
and what we stand for.
True friends will respect our beliefs;
those who don't - well, do we want to be friends with people like that anyway?
Our soul is more important than our family.
Hopefully none of us will have had family members reject us
because of what we believe,
or because we worship God,
but some people are faced with the terrible choice:
give up God or give up family.
I pray that if anyone here is ever faced with this decision
that you will follow God.
You may end up winning your family over to God,
but even if you don't,
God has given us a new family of brothers and sisters in Christ
from the moment we become a part of His family.
So our bodies are not our own,
and we cannot do what we like with them,
and as Christians we should not want to do anything with our bodies
that is not pleasing to God.
St Augustine is credited with saying a strange thing,
in answer to people who asked him how Christians should behave.
He did not recite a list of DO's and DON'Ts,
he said the Christian life could be summed up in just a few words:
'If you love God, you can do what you like!'
That sounded brilliant to the amoral and sinful,
LOVE GOD – AND DO WHATEVER YOU LIKE. (‘I’ll join that group!’
but he did not mean someone could be a Christian
and go around drinking and brawling;
there was a catch: 'IF YOU LOVE GOD'.
In other words, if anyone REALLY LOVES God,
they will not like doing the things He doesn't approve of.
If we REALLY BELIEVE our physical body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit;
that God's Spirit lives, dwells, abides inside us and goes wherever we go,
then we will not want to do anything that would offend, disgrace, embarrass
or dishonour Him.
God's Holy Spirit is in our stomach
so we should not eat or drink anything
that is injurious to our physical well-being.
God's Holy Spirit is in our eyes
so we should read books or magazines or look at pictures or posters
or watch DVDs, films or TV programmes that He would not like to watch.
The Holy Spirit is in our ears
so we should not listen to dirty jokes or gossip or scandal
that He would not like to hear.
God's Spirit is in our minds
so we should not think about, or ponder on or imagine things and ideas
that do not bring glory to God.
God’s Spirit is in our fingers so we should not even touch something that Jesus would not touch.
The Holy Spirit is in our feet so we should not go into any place that is not conducive to God’s glory.
These are challenging things and it is difficult to be perfect; for me anyway;
because no matter how much our spirits are willing, our flesh is weak,
but if we also appreciate that God's Spirit is living, dwelling inside us
at all times,
this means He is always there to help us be the kind of people
God wants us to be; to be like Jesus.
Let us not be embarrassed or worried or guilt-ridden by the teaching
that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
rather let us be strengthened by it and encouraged by it.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
