Our bodies are His Temple--Part 1

Part 1

Have you ever stopped to think about this? Our bodies are His temple. Well I have been digging into the Bible to find out if I understood this correctly.  

Lets start with Romans 12:1-2 from The Message:

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Now the NKJ version:

1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

He wants us to present our bodies as a holy and acceptable living sacrifice. (Don't start thinking strange thoughts on me now at the word sacrifice!) As we live day to day God wants us to remain holy--clean in an unclean world. I know all too well that it is way too easy to start acting like everyone around me whether its saying bad words, reading filthy books, driving with an attitude, or treating someone with little thought of how they will accept what I have said or done. Its easy! Yet we are clearly told to be different, to not give in to the ways of the world. 

14Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? 15And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?16And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will dwell in them

And walk among them.

I will be their God,

And they shall be My people.”

17Therefore

“Come out from among them

And be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch what is unclean,

And I will receive you.”

18“I will be a Father to you,

And you shall be My sons and daughters,

Says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

Lets take a look at what the word yoked means so we have a better understanding of this scripture passage. 

Yoke- a wooden frame for joining two draft animals: a wooden bar held on neck by thongs around neck. (Nave's Topical bible Reference System)

Yoke- #7 something that couples or binds together; a bond or tie. (Dictionary.com)

Plain as day, don't hang around or hook up with someone who does not serve the Living God. Yes, we are to show unbelievers His love, but we shouldn't spend all our time with them because they will bring us down to a worldly level. I for one do not want that!

For part 2 of this study we will look into verse 16 where is says, "For you are the temple of the living God..." 

So, Choose to live a holy life! 

13Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 

1 Peter 1:13-16

I'll leave you with this: make the decision today to separate yourself from the worldly ways of your peers. Separate yourself from your non-believing friends by sharing time with them in short increments, and if you don't have many friends who serve the Lord Jesus you can find more who do. 

Part 1= separate yourself from the ways of the world

Part 2= how our bodies should be treated since they are His temple