Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body. I Corinthians 6:19-20
Once in awhile during my morning time with Jesus, I look back through my prayer journal to refresh my memory about things He has said to me in the past. Today was one of those mornings. As I reached a particular page, my eyes fell on the scripture quoted above and the notes I had jotted down with reference to it. It seemed as if I was reading them for the first time, though I know I wrote this down over a year ago. Have you ever experienced that? Something you think you 'know' suddenly bursts on your consciousness with a fresh and deeper understanding?
Before we were born, my friends, before we took our first breath, before we did anything right or anything wrong, we were already 'bought with a price' - the precious and powerful Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was shed for you and for me when as yet we were still in the mind of God. More than 'you were created' and more than 'you are sustained', you were bought which is the most powerful reason for seeking holiness.
You and I - we're not 'our own'. We are His property, His servants, His friends.
We were bought not with silver and gold but with something infinitely more costly.
We were bought by Someone who said, 'I'll take on what they deserve, Father. I'll die in their place.'
He bared His back to the whip, said not a word when they crowned Him with thorns, did not resist when they drove in the nails, suffered the insults of those who mocked Him and prayed only 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.'
How many times has He said that since?
The price was priceless - the pain, the agony, the feeling of being deserted by His Father, the mockers and the scoffers, the absence of His disciples, the grief on His mother's face...
As certain as is our redemption, just as certain is it that we were 'bought with a price' and therefore you and I have ceased being landlord of our own bodies, our possessions, our everything. The greatest event of our biography is not the day of our birth but the day of our second birth - the day you and I finally understood that we were 'bought'.
Jesus didn't take out a mortgage on you. You're not one third His and two-thirds your own. There is no lien on you. Jesus paid the full price with the currency of His very own life's blood.
Therefore, beloved brothers and sisters, the only rational conclusion is 'Glorify God in your body!'
We have no right to injure or pollute our body - it's not yours. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul reminds us.
We have no right to waste our energies on worthless pursuits. We were made for much better.
We really have no right to entertain 'foreigners' in the temple of the LORD - demonic influence, fleshly inclinations, self-centeredness. When the flesh or the devil knock on the door of your house, we need to be ready to say, 'Sorry, foreigners are not welcome in this house of God.'
I know couples who've spent thousands of dollars in the process of adopting a child.
The Father spent more than all of them combined in order to purchase YOU.
Let us renew our dedication to glorifying God in every aspect of our daily life.
Ask yourself today: what kind of temple am I? How often am I conscious that this body my spirit lives in is temporary at best?
Its whole purpose is to display Jesus to the world.
Does it?