DON’T DESTROY US!
1 Corinthians 3:14-17
14 If the work which someone has built survives that fire, he will receive a reward. 15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will lose it. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. Because God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.
our body is his temple
Note to the editor: I am intentionally using incorrect grammar here. I have to, because Paul did. It should not be corrected. We should not be thinking in our minds that it should read “my body is his temple.” The word “you” appears three times in verse 16, and each time it is plural. The same thought reappears in 1 Corinthians 6:19, and in 2 Corinthians 6:16. The church is Christ’s body on earth. The warning is against those who would destroy it by causing division and rivalry.
Yes, it is true that we should take care of our physical bodies by not defiling them or abusing them and keeping them healthy. But this passage is about a different kind of health. We should be just as diligent to keep our churches (his church) healthy.
LORD, help us to be just as diligent to stay healthy as your church as we are to stay healthy physically.
Thank you for such a timely message I needed most. By the way, do you have an editor for your sermons? I just saw a mention of an editor here.
Thanks, Lionel. No, I do not have an editor for my sermons and devotionals. I, myself edit a number of publications. I just used that phrase “Note to the editor” as a way of pointing out that the English was not going to be grammatically correct. Blessings.