Theme: Worship with your Bodies
Text: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Greetings:
Introduction: we have started the month with the covenant of Rest, enter into the rest of God. We have meditated on the significance of Work and Rest based on Genesis 2:1-3. Now we have come to understand that we worship God with our Bodies. Our physical bodies are the Temple of God, honor one another as the temple of God, as the temple of the Living God, and as the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, honor God with your bodies. Worship God with your bodies.
Joke: Tommy told his mom, "I don't want to go to Sunday school anymore, it’s boring. I want to go to the adult service with you and Daddy."
He sat in the main sanctuary for the first time, and he noticed a display of A few photographs of men and women were displayed.
Tommy asked his mom what it is. She told: "These are some members of our church who died in the service."
Tommy said: "Oh, Then, I'll go to Sunday school from next week."(Adopted).
1. Honor the Temple – Your Body
Temple denotes the "abode of the gods" and refers to a structure or building associated with, dedicated to, and set apart to be a dwelling place for a deity (Acts 17:24, Matthew 23:16). Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The body is made of flesh and blood. The body is decorated with clay. The body is ash, a cloud of dust, and components of mud. But God expects us to Worship Him with the beauty of Holiness in this body.
Paul says that your body is the house of, the inner sanctuary of, a temple of God. Paul emphasizes the significance of the temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:16). Paul says that a temple is a place of worship. The proprietor of the body of a believer is Holy Spirit. So, our bodies are not at our disposal. They are to be used for the purpose for which God designed them, at conversion, the body becomes a Cathedral, a Temple after receiving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit seals his eternal salvation immediately at the point of initial salvation. (Ephesians 1:13,14).
Your bodies are the Temple of God because it was created or built by God, dedicated to Christ, and inhabited by the Spirit of God (Benson). Our body is so constituted, as that it may be the temple of God, His peculiar and perpetual habitation (Bengel). God does not dwell in an auditorium, but in the body of the believer. A building is not the sanctuary; believers are the sanctuary. We do not have the right to do with our bodies what we wish. We can’t abuse our bodies for our own pleasure. Here, Paul elevates our bodies to the level of being temples, holy places, that house the Spirit of God. Mysteriously, we carry His Spirit in our bodies (ref: Bible Ref.com).
This temple needs daily to be sanctified by the truth of His Word (John 17:17), and by the washing of the water of His Word (Ephesians 5:26, John 13:10). We need to practice "pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father" and "keep ourselves unstained by the world." (James 1:27). "Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (2 Corinthians 7:1) "If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth." (1 Peter 1:17). (Precept Austin).
2. Honor Temples of God – Other Bodies
There are world-popular Temples, Cathedrals, and holy shrines all over the world that are very attractive. People fight for them, even Sacrificing their lives to safeguard the sanctity of the temples. There are incidents where people and leaders have lost their lives due to disputes and ill-treating such places. But Paul says that we all are the Temples of God. We are the sanctuaries and holy places. How do we treat one another?
Paul in his Second Epistle to Corinthians mentioned that we are the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:16). He further narrates how our fellowship plays a vital role in the building of the holy temple of God (Ephesians 2:21).
You are like the living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Though many members form one temple, the whole congregation being that which each is in miniature individually. Just as the Jews had one temple only, so in the fullest sense all Christian churches and believers form into one temple (Jamieson Fausset).
According to Tertullian, (the Theologian), all Christians have become the temple of God by virtue of his Holy Spirit sent into their hearts and consecrating their bodies to his service. They should make chastity the keeper of this sacred house, and suffer nothing unclean or profane to enter into it, lest the God who dwells in it, being displeased, should desert his habitation thus defiled (Benson).
So, despise not anyone based on their appearance, color, class, background, deformities, and infirmities. All are creations of God. He created everyone, such as the blind, deaf and dumb, and disabled and differently-abled. He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors Him (Proverbs 14:31). All are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28), all are in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), and God created the rich and the poor alike (Proverbs 22:2), He is the Lord of all (Romans 10:12). All have sinned and fall short of Glory (Romans 3:23). Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). Do nothing from rivalry or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves (Philippians 2:3). God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). And made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 1:6).
Spurgeon: Your life is hidden with Christ in God and the Spirit seals you, anoints you, and abides in you. By the Spirit, we have access to the Father. By the Spirit, we perceive our adoption and learn to cry, “Abba, Father.” By the Spirit, we are made partakers of the divine nature and have communion with the threefold, holy Lord.
Andrew Murray: The Holy Spirit is the power of God for the salvation of men. He only works as He dwells in the Church. He is given to enable believers to live wholly as God would have them live, in the full experience and witness of Him Who saves completely.
3. Honor God with your Temple - Worship
William Barclay explains that in the ancient Greek culture a slave can earn money and deposit it little by little to pay for his ransom and be freed from his master to become a slave to the god of a Temple. But here Christ has bought all of us. Therefore, honor God with all your body. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1).
Worship with all your body, soul, mind, heart, thoughts, emotions, intentions, plans, and purposes. Some thought and argued during the days of Paul that our bodies will die and decay, it doesn't really matter what we do with them. It's only the spirit in us those matters. But we are urged to honor God through our bodies, soul, and spirit. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’ (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22:37).
Glorify God by temperance, chastity, and purity of your bodies. Magnify him by faith, hope, and love, by humility, resignation, patience, meekness, gentleness, long-suffering, and universal benevolence. Glorify him with your body and your spirit. Yield your bodies and all your members, as well as your souls and all their faculties, as instruments of righteousness to God. Devote and employ all you have, and all you are, entirely, unreservedly, and forever, to his glory (Benson). Surely a Christian would never put himself into the power of any bodily appetite (Matthew Henry).
As truly as the living God dwelt in the tabernacle of Moses, and in the temple of Solomon, so truly does the Holy Ghost dwell in the souls of genuine Christians. As the temple at Jerusalem and all its utensils were holy, separated from all common and profane uses, and dedicated 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 (Adam Clarke). Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things, from that which is defiling, profaning, degrading, etc., He will be a vessel or instrument (Romans 6:12,13) for honor worth, merit), sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared.
How do you use your tongues, legs, hands, eyes, and ears? Are they glorifying God or bringing disgrace to God and to one another? I am accountable to God for the way I control my body under His authority. I am responsible for using what He has given me. It also means that I must exhibit in my own body the life of the Lord Jesus, not mysteriously or secretly, but openly and boldly. “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection” (1 Corinthians 9:27).
We are responsible for these, and we must never give way to improper ones. But most of us are much more severe in our judgment of others than we are in judging ourselves. We make excuses for things in ourselves, while we condemn things in the lives of others simply because we are not naturally inclined to do them (Oswald Chambers).
