1 Corinthians 6:19-20 What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?… I. WHOSE THE CHRISTIAN IS. Before the apostle tells us this, he makes it evident that we must have some master. "Ye are not your own!" You are bondmen. And this is no mere figure of speech. I know that if we look around us, it does not appear true. Freedom, independence, is the boast of earth and the pride of man; but go into heaven, and the very sound of it would dismay. The creature's real glory and happiness consist in his willing dependence on the God who made him. And this the Christian feels. While others are proudly asking who is lord over them, he knows himself to be God's property. And this is true of the Christian at all times. God says concerning every living soul and every clay-built dwelling-place a soul has occupied, "They are Mine." II. HOW HE BECAME GOD'S. There were several ways by which one man might become the property of another. 1. He might be born of a slave, and the owner of his parent would have a right to him also. And if Christian fathers could entail a glorious bondage on their children, what pangs and fears would many be spared! 2. He might be purchased. And this was a transaction so common that all would enter into the meaning of any illustration drawn from it. Money transferred the Greek slave from one master to another; so the blood of Jesus is the means whereby the sinner is rescued from his native thraldom, and brought "into the glorious liberty of the children of God." By sin he became the servant and property of Satan. The blood of Christ makes an atonement for the transgressor's sin; in a legal sense, it does away with it, and thus annihilates that on which Satan's title to him rests. III. WHAT GOD MAKES HIM. A temple, which imports — 1. A rebuilding, a restoration. Man was originally the temple of Jehovah, but sin entered, and, in one short hour, this noble piece of Jehovah's workmanship became a mournful ruin. Some traces indeed of its original glory may still be discovered, but to what do they amount? They serve only to show the greatness of its degradation. His lofty understanding overthrown; his affections, which once rose to the skies, now grovelling on the earth; a spiritual being, and yet bounded in his ideas and enjoyments by material objects. But the blood of Christ having ransomed, now the grace of Christ transforms him. In the very hour when he becomes the Lord's, a work of restoration is commenced within him, that never ends till it brings shape and beauty and glory out of a mass of ruins. And this is sanctification. 2. Dedication. It is this which distinguishes a temple from every other building. The purchased sinner is consecrated to holy purposes. 3. Residence, the abode of the Deity within it, to whom it is consecrated. We must labour to take in the idea of God dwelling within us; not carrying on His work of mercy in the heart like a bystander, but as leaven works in the meal, mingling itself with the mass it is changing. To the man of the world this is all a mystery, perhaps a delusion. And no wonder. It is understood only by experience, and of things like this he has had no experience. To the man of God it is a blessed reality. God never enters the heart alone; blessings unspeakable follow in His train — light end purity and joy. IV. WHAT GOD EXPECTS FROM HIM — glory. Now the glory of God is not such a glory as results to a man from the circumstances in which he is placed; its source is to be found in God's intrinsic excellences. To glorify Him, therefore, is to bring these excellences into light. And the redeemed sinner does this. 1. Passively. His very redemption is an amazing exhibition of the Divine attributes. In this point of view, the creation of a world is as nothing to the salvation of his lost soul. 2. Actively. We are so to live and act that all who see us may be reminded by us of God. Now it is by the body chiefly as an instrument that the work must be done. The seat of religion is the soul, but its effects will be visible in the frame which the soul animates. (C. Bradley, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? |
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