Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. (NIV)
“It is my body, so I can do what I want with it. “It is my life, so let me do what I want to do.” Sound familiar? We hear these statements all the time from the halls of our schools to the corridors of government, from the nightly news to the so-called news of the entertainment world. The Christian response to any such statement is, “No, it is not.”
It is not your body and it is not your life. Life is a gift wrapped in a loaner package. Every breath we draw and the tiniest hair on our heads belong to God, whether or not we follow Christ. For those who do claim to follow Him, there is the addition of the Holy Spirit, Who transforms the gift and life we have from God into His very temple on earth.
So what are you doing with the temple of God that you actually are? Has it become a billboard to flaunt your sexuality in the way that you dress? Has it become the local dump where you toss fat- and calorie-laden junk made of high fructose corn syrup? Is it a place from which flows the love and grace of Christ? Is it a source of truth and love among those in its neighborhood?
Father, I am grateful indeed for the gift of life and the gift of the body that I have. Forgive me for the many times when I used these gifts for nothing more than my own pleasure and at times even for the intentional pain of others. May Your Holy Spirit flow from me in all that I do, say, and think. In the name of Christ Jesus, my Lord, I pray. Amen.
Copyright © 2010 by Steven R. Perkins
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