Living Temples

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 35: Living Temples

Opening Thought: I’m sure most of you have heard the expression, “your body is a temple”. You can think of this notion in two ways. The first is to think of it as your body being the dwelling place for your own spirit, your body is the home for your personal spirit or soul. Since our spirits can be affected by moral and ethical engagement, one should do everything to keep the soul from being tainted. Just like you would want to support a strong and healthy home to care for yourself and family, your body is the home for your soul. This effort would include the dwelling’s physical foundation as well, thus it would be beneficial to not pollute the dwelling with sin. The second way of looking at this, and the way the Biblical reference looks at this, is that the body becomes a temple for the Holy Spirit, one of the persons of the Trinity will dwell among you as a Christian, thus we should treat the body as a temple worthy of shut a visitor. It would be like if Royalty were coming to stay at your place, you might tidy up the mess before they got there to show respect, but in this case, it is God who will dwell amongst you, how much more respect should you show to God’s presence. And since God is an eternal presence, this means it is not just tidying up for one day or two, rather for your entire life with God.

If you put both of these notions together, it makes it clear, that to honor God, and to protect the self, you should aim to treat your body as a temple and care for it dutifully, which includes the avoidance of sin.  

The devotional begins with: 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.

Second Thought: Two thoughts come to mind when reading this scripture reading. First is that it is unsettling to think that Ravi Zacharias would have utilized this particular passage for his work, while he himself was falling to the temptation of sexual sin and immorality within the context of his sexual misconduct scandal. I hope, for Zacharias’ sake, that he did not write this chapter in outright hypocrisy, rather, it would be nice to believe that he wrote this out of some determination from the Spirit trying to pull Zacharias back from the edge of his iniquity.

The second is, that when I have often heard the expression “your body is a temple” in life, it has rarely been associated with sexual immorality. Rather it seems that it has been more of a reference to avoiding fast food or used as a discouraging claim against smoking. I think most people can see the general wisdom of thinking about the body as something sacred, however the idea of it frowning upon a hedonistic approach to sex does bode well in how people want to live, so that portion is just left behind. Looking at Zacharias’ misconduct, it speaks volumes about how destructive the temptation of sexual immorality can be and how it can taint the temple of the body. I wonder how many people would be unwilling to consider sex morality (as opposed to sexual immorality), by a biblical standard, as a standard to try to live by, I would bet most wont. If this passage is truthful in its claim, that sexual immorality dishonors the Spirit, how many of us hold temple tainted by such actions?

Continual Work: Consider your body as a temple which will host a visit from God. What should you change about your physical interactions within the world, to help to ensure your body is a temple which honors God, and does not dishonor God? Are the changes that you would need to make changes that you are willing to make? If not why, and what does that say about your dedication to God and the faith.   

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: One thing to consider is that good body health and good bodily moral health are both beneficial to the overall spiritual health of the individual. If you abuse your own body with unhealthy activity, it can contribute to all sorts of negative emotions, situations, and long-term suffering. As someone who has struggled with bodily pain, I can attest that if you do not feel healthy in body, it can be detrimental to your spiritual growth. You cannot keep all things away from wearing at the temple, but there are many things you can keep out.

Prayer for your day: God help us find the strength to pay our respects to you by treating our bodies as a place to call home, and as temples for your Spirit to dwell. If we can be mindful of that, we will learn that we do not own our bodies, rather You, as creator of all, own everything, we are merely stewards along for the ride. In Christ’s name, Amen.  

Artistic Close: Do you ever get that good feeling of 'setting things right' when your cleaning, its like your putting order into chaos. There is a reason for that, we are creature born to chaos but called to balance that by the will an order that is God. Our spiritual life is not much different. 

Hygiene, Moral Upkeep, Spiritual and Physical Work and Exercise, Good Diet, and Emotional Support (individual and Communal) are all ways we need to keep ourselves healthy and clean. If we move to far away from any of these, we run the risk of leaving ourselves in ruins. Stay clean, as you would clean a house which was to host royalty.

Woman using a damp sponge to clean dust collected on a windowsill. Original image sourced from US Government department: Public Health Image Library, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Under US law this image is copyright free, please credit the government department whenever you can”.