What is the main point of this passage? Well, these verses follow a section where the Apostle Paul has been really working on the Corinthian church about the divisiveness and disunity that exists amongst them. So when he explains that the body is a temple and what real wisdom looks like, he is offering us two things. First, he is sharing some deep truth with us that we need to understand - we are living temples of the Spirit of God...do you think of yourself that way? Do you think about the worth that you carry...do you think about the power at your disposal? This is something we need to understand as Christians if we are going to be the people that God has called us to be. We also need to get it through our thick skulls that no matter how smart we think we are...we really have no idea what is going on in the universal plan that God is working out in every moment. Instead of acting like we know everything and arrogantly judging God an others, we should probably walk in humility because that is where true wisdom is found. Secondly, Paul is telling us the secret formula for how we should be treating people (especially fellow Christians) through these deep truths. If we choose to see other people as infinitely valuable temples who house the Spirit of the Living God and choose to walk in humility rather than arrogance...I think we will be amazed at how much more Christ-like our faith communities would become. When people chose to see the value in others and treat them mercifully...good things happen!!! Real relationships happen!!!
What part of this passage spoke most deeply to you? The first two lines that I read, really hammered themselves into my brain. Paul starts out with a piercing question - "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" He asks it so boldly, implying that this is something that everyone who follows Christ should fully understand. And if I am totally honest, I don't live like I truly understand this concept a lot of the time. I have to fight to remind myself that I am a temple of the living God. It is almost effortless for me to forget that God is living inside of me. I ignore His urgings...waste whole days on the meaningless...allow my thoughts and eyes and ears to occasionally bring garbage into the throne room of God - my heart. Paul cut me with the words he wrote so many years ago, and God stepped in to drive home the point. He is here with me now...He always is. He is working in my life and the lives of all the people I come in contact with, and if I chose to exist in that knowledge everyday...everything would be different...everything would be better. The choices I make...the actions I take...the words I speak...the way I treat others...it would all be better...all be more Christ-like, because I would be willingly and joyfully joining in with the work that God is doing in my life and in the world. That is what I want to do...that is who I want to be.
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