Your Body is a Temple

I’ve got my fair share of insecurities. There have always been things I wish were different about my body. But lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means that your body is a temple of God. The insight I’ve gained is surprising.

This is the kind of theology that even kids can grasp. Accept Jesus, and he will come live in your heart. Everyone knows that. But, do we really believe it?

Bodies and Temples

I have heard this element of our beliefs so many times growing up. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, Karl. So, no, you cannot get a tattoo. Also, no getting drunk. And, don’t even think about sex.

To be fair, I don’t object much to this kind of thinking. It tends toward legalism, and I don’t like that. But, I think it is a fair extension of what we see Paul write in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20:

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 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.”

Indeed, we should respond to the sacrifice of Christ by putting to death our fleshly desires and pursuing him in love. But, I do think there is another facet of this in-dwelling which is rarely highlighted.

Your Body is a Temple

My frame of dust is one of very few places throughout history which the spirit of the Most High has chosen to inhabit. Do you reverence the gift of your physical form, believing that your body is a temple?

When I think of temples, I think of the majestic beauty of the cathedrals I visited in Germany. But, Solomon’s temple was of such surpassing worth and excellence that my mind simply cannot grasp it.

2 Chronicles 22:14 shows us that David provided him with 100 thousand talents of gold. That is over 7 million pounds of gold. That’s over $200 billion dollars, and it’s just the first of the things listed.

Yet, my imperfect body is more suitable to God beyond the unfathomable riches of Solomon’s temple.

Throughout history, we’ve been building temples for God. He has made it clear that, while he will meet with us in these places, he does not dwell in the places we build for him with our hands.

Temples Are Designed With a Purpose

If you look in Exodus, you can see the instructions God gave Moses to build the tabernacle. And, it may not be acceptable, but I’m just going to say it. That bronze age blueprint is a dreary read. Still, you can see that God’s temples are designed with a purpose.

How much greater is the level of detail in the temples which He shaped with his own hands! Our DNA is vastly more complex. But, the parallels are there in our purpose.

Your purpose is so much more than looking a certain way. You are the grounds through which other people can interact with the Holy Spirit that dwells within you.

Your body is precious and holy to God. Love it for what it is. Treat it with the same respect and regard which you would any of God’s other temples.

Do you treat your body with more or less reverence than the church where you go to meet with Him?

Prayer for Today

My prayer for today is that I would treat my body with more respect, and to come to a more mindful awareness of His spirit living within me. That my confidence would grow in that practice.

I am resolved to continue living a life which sets my temple apart for God. I will flee immorality, and I will offer sacrifices which are pleasing to Him.

Scriptures About Your Body is a Temple

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)

“In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:22 (ESV)

“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:12 (ESV)