Paul
writes about us being God’s temple in 1 Corinthians 3:10-17 (The Message);
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. 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.
The
call here is that we cannot build anything of lasting value unless it is based
on Christ. Jesus Christ is the foundation to our life and ministry. What we
build on this foundation is of most importance. At the end of our life
everything will be revealed, and Scripture says it will be revealed with fire.
If the things that have been built survive this test then the builder will
receive a reward for their faithfulness.
The
materials mentioned in this passage shows that we can choose to build with
things that have value and last, or revert to what is easy and don’t. When
Christ through the Holy Spirit comes to live in us then we become God’s temple.
We should revere and respect what belongs to God. We must take care of His
temple – physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Amen?
