1 Corinthians 3:16-23 Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?… Take the figure in connection with any of the kinds of habitation spoken of in Scripture — 1. The home. 2. The tent. 3. The palace. 4. The temple — it exhibits a most comforting truth to us.To be God's home or dwelling, His tent or tabernacle, His royal palace, His chosen temple, of which that on Moriah was a mere shadow, how solemn the admonition as to personal holiness conveyed to us by this! In God's temple there is the blood, the fire, the smoke, the water, the lamps, the incense, the shewbread, the cherubim, the glory — all consecrated things, and all pertaining to what is heavenly! I. WHAT INTIMACY WITH GOD. Acquaintanceship with Him who has made our heart His home is the least which could be expected. He must be no stranger to us. There must not merely be reconciliation — for that may consist with some degree of distance — but intimacy, peaceful friendship, loving acquaintanceship. If God be our inmate, how intimate ought we to be with Him in all respects! Of an old Scotch minister it is said (as the finishing stroke in his character), "He was one very intimate with God." So let it be said of us. II. WHAT CALMNESS OF SPIRIT. In all false religion there is excitement, in true religion calmness. Man is never more truly and deeply calm than when filled with the Spirit of God. The tendency of much that is called religion in our day is to agitation, bustle, noise, unnatural fervour. God keeps His temple in perfect peace. III. WHAT SOLEMNITY OF SOUL If God be inhabiting us as His temple we ought surely to be solemn men — called to a solemn life, speaking solemn words, manifesting a solemn deportment. Should the world's rude laughter echo through the aisles of the Divine temple? or its uproarious mirth ring through the holy of holies? IV. WHAT RECOLLECTEDNESS OF THOUGHT AND FEELING. With God dwelling in us, shall we allow wandering thoughts or forgetfulness of the Divine presence to prevail. Let us gather up our thoughts and keep them gathered. V. WHAT SPIRITUALITY AND UNWORLDLINESS. "God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." We need the spiritual heart, shutting out the world from a shrine which Jehovah has entered and made His own. If we are temples of the holy Ghost, and if His temples are holy, then are not such things as the following shut out? — 1. Vanity. How inconsistent 1 2. Pleasure. Can a lover of pleasure be a temple of the Holy Ghost? 3. Politics. What have the poor party politics of this world to do with the worship of this glorious temple? Can the smoke and dust of the world commingle with the incense of the golden altar? 4. Covetousness. Absorption even in lawful business is inconsistent with our being temples of God. Let us not grieve that Spirit whose temple we are. Let us allow Him to fill us wholly, and to cast out all that is unbefitting the holiness and glory of His habitation. Parallel Verses KJV: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?WEB: Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you? |
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