Skip to main content

Temple

 Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)

 

Before we deal with how well, or how badly, we live the reality of today’s passage, there’s a philosophical idea we need to address.  It’s a type of dualism.  According to this idea, the body and the soul are separate entities that strive against one another. This means that what the body does doesn’t matter because it’s the soul that lives forever. The body can be manipulated to better suit the “wearer.” This is how a man can be trapped in a woman’s body or vice versa. This is also where we get the “It’s my body, I can do what I want to with it” and “my body, my right” idea. Of course, while that is proclaimed, the moment a virus comes along, it gets dropped.

Christianity doesn’t teach that the is any less “you” than the soul or mind is. And that’s where our problem comes in. If the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, we should treat it as such. It should be cared for, treated with dignity, but also educated and disciplined.

This is where too many of us say, “Yeah, right.”  Often, our bodies seem like our gods, not a part of us. Our bodies want, and they want what they want now. Food is probably the thing that most tempts me to treat my body more like a brothel than a temple.

In addition to our bodies quoting Little Shop of Horrors, “Feed me!” we face the challenges of entropy. Things tend to break down. How can the body be a temple of the Holy Spirit when the roof leaks in four places and the hinges on the doors creek every time we try to open or close them? Or when the termites of COVID-19 get in and start eating away.

In all of this, the only answer I can come  up with is to take the matter to the Carpenter and ask for help, and to keep today’s passage in our minds – and perhaps on our refrigerators and mirrors

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more