(Photo by Selma Komisky)

Temple Dwelling

By Brittney Perez

“Do you 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.” 

– 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)

If you live in America or even if you don’t live in America, I’m sure you have assumptions regarding American food and health. Sad to say, we are known as one of the unhealthiest nations. Aside from eating healthy and getting adequate exercise, which are both important for overall health, the idea of being “healthy” goes beyond weight. To be a healthy person there are a number of things to consider. Obviously one of these things is your physical health, but other aspects are mental health, emotional health, and spiritual health.

I love these verses in 1 Corinthians 6 because they touch on the physical (how you use your body and what you use it for), but also the spiritual. I think more often than not believers forget that, if we have given our very lives to Jesus, then our bodies truly are not our own as this verse states. If that is true, and we were bought with the precious blood of Christ, then we need to be seeking to honor God with our bodies – our whole being. Since we only live once in this life on earth and have eternity ahead of us, we should be seeking to live for heaven now.

Living for Heaven can look like reading in the Word, praying, and being a part of a church community, but it also looks like keeping our bodies in check. Our bodies are very important to how we function in this life. I know a lot of believers will playfully joke about how this body is temporary (which it is) and how one day we will receive our new bodies that are imperishable (2 Corinthians 5:1-10, 1 Corinthians 15:50-56, Philippians 3:20-21) and while this is true, it doesn’t give us a reason to neglect the bodies God gave us here on earth. If we don’t take care of the bodies we have been given we can find everything out of whack.

Aside from the basic desire to be healthy, let us not forget that 1 Corinthians 6:19 says our bodies are TEMPLES of the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us. That’s so crazy to think about. Just how the Old Testament states that God’s glory would fill the temple, He now chooses to live inside each of us (our bodies) who have received Him. It’s such an honor that God’s Holy Spirit lives inside of us and since that is the case, let’s live for heaven and honor him with our “temples.”