WHAT AM I?
(part two)
INTRODUCTION: The bible refers to Christians in certain ways which are important for us to understand so we know all of what we are in this newness of life. Last week I talked about how we are a child of God. We are born again-we are entering a new world- the spiritual world; the world of God. As a child of God we need to grow and mature. Today we’ll look at two more things we are in Christ. First, as a Christian, I am a temple of God; I am a house for the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38 says there are two things I received when I accepted Christ-I was forgiven of my sins and I received the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has taken up residence in me. We’ll see what that entails. Next we’ll see that as a Christian I am a slave to God. Normally, the world slave would be appalling but in the case of being a slave to God it’s not appalling; it’s appealing! We’ll find out why.
1) I am a temple of God. 1st Cor. 6:15-20. Earlier, in chapter 3 Paul talks about the fact that the church collectively is God’s temple. Here he highlights that we as individual believers are God’s temple. It’s the same principle in being the bride of Christ. The church collectively is Jesus’ bride but each Christian as an individual is a bride of Christ.
We are a temple of the Holy Spirit because when we were born again the Holy Spirit came to dwell within us.
Here in this passage Paul makes a distinction between sexual immorality and other sins. It’s not that he’s saying sexual immorality is the worst of all sins, he’s saying it’s unique in how it involves the unifying of two bodies in an unholy way.
The point he makes in verse 15 is something we need to think about-no matter what the sin is. I think it goes along with the popular phrase, “what would Jesus do?” It’s as if Paul is saying, “Could you see Jesus hooking up with a prostitute? Never! Well guess what? Since the Spirit of Christ now resides in you that’s essentially what you’re doing when you commit sexual immorality.”
I like how Paul put things in perspective for us. We need to see that when we are committing sins like this we are uniting something holy with something unholy. We are taking ourselves, something that has been set apart for holy purposes, and connecting with something that is unholy.
We are vandalizing the temple of God. Not too long ago some kids spray-painted graffiti on the side of the church. It was offensive and I was upset. But as I think about it, that’s what’s happening when we sin; when we dishonor the temple-we are painting graffiti on God’s house.
Even though Paul is addressing sexual immorality, if we contemplate all that is included in our bodies being a temple of the Holy Spirit we can see how every area of our lives are affected. My mind is a part of my body. Therefore, I need to honor God with what I think about. My heart-I need to honor God with my feelings and emotions. My eyes are a part of my body. I need to honor God with what I look at. My ears-I need to honor God by what I listen to. My mouth-I need to honor God with my words. My hands-I need to honor God with what I do with them. My feet-I need to honor God with where they take me. My body as a whole-I need to honor God by taking care of it. So we can see how every area of our lives is affected when we process all that is involved in our bodies being a temple of the Holy Spirit.
2nd Cor. 6:14-7:1. Paul isn’t saying don’t have anything to do with unbelievers. If that were the case no one would be spreading the gospel. What he means is do not be uniting with them in deed and purpose. We are new creations now-we are called to separate ourselves from our former way of living. We can be around those who still practice evil as long as we’re not affected by it.
In Matthew 5 Jesus said we are the light of the world. We need to let our light shine in the darkness. But if we allow darkness to invade us again then we won’t stand out; we’ll blend in. We need to be people who make it obvious that there’s something different about us. I always need to remember that I am a temple of the living God and so I need to be careful to keep myself clean.
When something is dirty and dingy it’s dull-there’s no shine to it. But when something is cleaned and polished it brightens up; it sparkles. I don’t know about you but when our place gets messy-stuff scattered around, laundry and dishes are piled up-it changes my mood; it brings me down-because I don’t like the way it looks. But when everything is cleaned up and the place is neatly organized it brightens my mood because it looks better.
One of my pet peeves is when someone leaves their trash on church property. And seeing things like gum or cigarette butts in the sidewalk really irks me. It makes me think that people have no respect for church property. I’m grateful for the people that serve the church by keeping it clean. They understand the importance of having a clean church. However, as important as that is, there’s something that’s more important-keeping ourselves clean as a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Remembering that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit motivates me to keep my life free from contamination. I recognize the privilege of having the Spirit of God being willing to take up residence in me. I understand the benefit of having the spirit of God right there at all times, guiding me, enlightening me, empowering me. So, I don’t want to do anything that will contribute to silencing His voice. I don’t want to do anything that will block His light from shining in me and through me so others can see it and be drawn to God. What am I? I am a temple of the living God.
2) I am a slave of God. Rom. 6:15-23. Everybody is a slave. We’re either a slave to sin or a slave to God. Jesus said in John 8:34 that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. And since everyone sins (Rom. 3:23) everyone is a slave to sin. Jesus went on to say that if the Son sets you free then you will be free indeed. So, the only way we can have our freedom from slavery to sin is through Jesus setting us free.
And when we are set free from our bondage to sin we become slaves of righteousness. That might not sound like freedom but it is. We read in verse 20 that when we were slaves to sin we were free from the control of righteousness. When we were held in bondage by our sin we had no ability to be righteous. Our righteous acts were like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). No matter how commendable our good deeds were before we were born again they did nothing to earn God’s favor because it can’t be done-it counts for nothing in God declaring us righteous. No, only when we surrender to Christ are we declared righteous and are now free to do acts that lead to holiness (vs. 22).
As a slave to Christ we are free to love God and others because we have been shown what real love looks like. We are free to serve God and others because we have been shown what real, sacrificial service looks like. So we can see that being a slave to God is a blessing, not a burden.
We think of the word “slave” and we get a negative image in our mind. We don’t like the idea of someone else having control over us. We don’t like the idea of someone else telling us what to do. But, as we saw earlier, everyone is a slave. When we were slaves to sin it may not have felt like it because it’s not like that’s all we did was sin 24/7. Regardless, we were in bondage to our old nature.
The bible says the old nature is hostile to God; it will not submit to God. Rebelling against authority is old nature behavior. “No one’s going to tell me what to do.” The reality is in some way, shape or form we’re under the control of someone. It starts out with being under our parents’ control. Then we go to school and deal with teachers and principles. Then we learn about police and governmental authority. We go to work and we’re dealing with our boss’ authority.
And we can probably think of authority figures who abused their power. Because of that, the word authority leaves a bad taste in our mouth. But Jesus wanted to change that image so we will not be apprehensive to give him control. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus promised rest but that would come when we would be willing to take his yoke upon us which means to come under his control. We would be reluctant to come under Jesus’ control until we learn that his control is not something to be afraid of. Where a typical master would be ruthless and uncaring, Jesus is gentle and humble. Where a typical master would only care about getting the work done, having no concern for your welfare Jesus calls his control easy and light. Not that it’s easy to live the Christian life but compared to living under the control of the sinful nature, which is heavy and burdensome, it is.
Making Jesus our Lord affords us certain privileges. We are given help to do everything Jesus asks us to do. We are given the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish his will. We now have access to his love, peace, and joy. We are now able to have wisdom, humility and hope. None of these blessings are available to us unless we allow Jesus to reign in our lives.
Jesus told us in John 10:10 that Satan’s purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. There’s no hope in that; there’s no love, no joy. Jesus went on to say that his purpose is to give the fullness of life. The fullness of life is not found in material things; the fullness of life is found in what money cannot buy. Jesus offers us that. The hope, love and joy you’ve been looking for all your life is found in the one who’s control you’ve been resisting.
Another blessing we have in being a slave to Christ is that we are not just servants to him, we are also his friends. John 15:13-15, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
Jesus said that we are not servants but friends, since we have been allowed to know our Master’s business. He didn’t mean we weren’t servants at all anymore (vs. 14, “you are my friends if you do what I command”) but that we are more than servants-we are friends. A typical servant would only know what the master wanted him to do. We are more than that to Jesus. Yes, we know what Jesus wants us to do but more than that. We are given insight into the mind of our Master. We are shown things that are happening that are part of the Master’s business. We are not just called to serve Jesus; we are given the privilege of working along side of Jesus.
And a typical servant wouldn’t have the opportunity to know their master on a personal level. A typical master wouldn’t want to have a personal relationship with his servant. That’s where Jesus is different. He wants us to know him personally. He opens himself up to be known. He wants a close bond with his servants. He loves us. Masters don’t love their servants but Jesus is different. We are a slave to God, and that’s a good thing; because the alternative, being a slave to sin, will only destroy us.
