Ye Are The Temple (2b)

In the new testament, The Corinthian leaders needed to safeguard the unity of God’s temple, and the believers needed to avoid any moral corruption that would “defile” the sacredness of “the temple of God.”

Paul explained while all things are lawful to him, all things are not always proper or helpful.....

Some things are not necessarily sinful, but if they cause our brother to stumble…they should be avoided

The stern warning is that we should not allow things in our lives to have power over us…or to keep us in bondage to it.

1 Corinthians 6:12–20 NKJV

12 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Our bodies are not ours to do with as we please, but rather, they belong to God

If we are true believers, born again…we must glorify God not only in our spirit but also in our bodies..

meaning both our bodies and our spirit should be a glory to God..

when we recieved Christ, we became part of Christ.

therefor as he is Holy, so should we be Holy.

when we recieved the Holy Spirit, we where empowered to live a life that is pleasing to him.

when we allow sin into this temple, in which temple we are, several things can happen.

it can ruin our testimony

our health

our mental well being

and our very salvation

Allowing sin, can cause us to become a slave to the very thing we are hanging on to.

the will of God is for us to be free from the addictions of this world and to have life and that more abundantly.

We have these addictions in our lives because we allow them into our lives

He whom the Son has set free, is free indeed....No longer do we have to live under the bondage of sin.

Galatians 4:9 NKJV

9 But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

We as believers, must constantly be aware of the devils devices...

We find ourselves allowing those things in our lives that bring bondage rather than freedom and liberty....

we sometimes indulge the things that would pull us into the world rather than those things that draw us closer to God.

Galatians 5:1 NKJV

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

we remind ourselves that sin comes to destroy, but Christ came to save and to set free.

we must ask ourselves: do the things that I do bring glory and honor to God

or do they add to our self destruction and sinful nature....does it corrupt our good works and testimony.

do we put ourselves in bondage to the very thing we hold on to.

No matter what we do, we must remember that we live in this body of sin and there will always be a war against flesh and spirit.

from the time we are born to the time we die our flesh will constantly be against the things of God.

we must understand that our flesh will always resist the spirit.

Romans 7:23 NKJV

23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

In the New Testament, the image of the “temple of God” is applied to individual believers who must recognize that their physical bodies are “the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to us by God

We do not belong to ourselves.

For we are bought with a high price.

So we must honor God, as well, with our body”

For this reason, Paul urges Christians, “let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit.

And let us work toward complete holiness in the fear of God”

2 Corinthians 7:1 NKJV

1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

As temples of the living God, we should be holy in everything we do, just as God is holy

The sin or the vices that we allow into our lives can and will bring us into captivity to the laws of sin

A soul that sinneth shall surely die....

Galatians 5:16–17 NKJV

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

when we become born again believers..we must destroy this body of flesh and allow our bodies to be the true “temple of the Lord”

for the bible says, sin separates, destroys and kills

this is indeed the work and desire of the devil.

1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV

20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

The Greek verb translated as “defile” in 1 Corinthians means “to make a mess of or create disorder in; to corrupt, destroy, ruin.

we must remind ourselves that we are ambassadors for Christ

representatives of the very nature and attributes of Christ

1 Corinthians 10:31 NKJV

31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

if we are children of God…our lives will be a living sacrifice and testimony of the glory of God.

1 John 3:4–10 NKJV

4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.

If we allow things in our lives that put us in bondage and glorify not God. we are dishonoring God and the temple of God.

1 Peter 1:16 NKJV

16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

We can see in the bible: that it says a house divided cannot stand.

no man can serve 2 masters

just as the church is called to unity…we also, are called to be in unity with the spirit of God

God has called us to work together in the church so that “the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

And in him, we too, are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21–22). We are not to defile the temple of God but to “make every effort to bring our bodies into subjection to the spirit…

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