You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? No one will get by with vandalizing God’s temple, you can be sure of that. God’s temple is sacred—and you, remember, are the temple. (I Corinthians 3:16-17 MSG) You are the temple. Those words indicate more than an 'idea', or an 'image' we can wrap our head around - they indicate a statement of fact. God's presence dwells in his temple - you! What are some of the characteristics of a physical temple? They were places of devotion, dedication, and they facilitated worship of some form. In much the same manner, we are devoted to him, dedicating our time and talents into his service, and become instruments of his worship. In the time these words were penned, the Temple was a 'sacred' space - there was something unique about what happened 'inside' the temple. A person entered, but they rarely left unchanged. Something happened when there was a connection between th...
Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely. (I Corinthians 3:9-15 MSG) A long passage today, but one with very specific instruction: There is but one foundation for the church - Jesus Christ. We can have no other foundation for our life, nor can the 'physical gathering together of believers' that we call the ...