June 16, 2021: God’s Building Project

“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? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19–20, KJV).

I was involved in a church building project. Every thought and action that went into that project was about how beautiful we could design and make the building function as a place where God would be pleased. Once the building was finished, I would never ever think of filling it up with junk.

Notice that God is calling our bodies His temple—His building project. It belongs to Him. A temple is a place where God’s Spirit dwells. The Holy Spirit wants to live within me.

The psalmist says that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14, KJV). That should give a person reason to rejoice, knowing that we were created by God.

Don’t forget, we were bought with a price! That tells me that God came from heaven in the form of a man, and suffered the penalty of death that should have been paid by all of us sinners. His sacrifice gave us the privilege to believe and accept Him so that we can receive forgiveness for our sins.

Can I defile the bodily temple of God? Do I fill it with junk? How do I abuse it? Am I feeding it properly, both physically and spiritually? We need to take care of this body that God has created.

Lord, please allow the Holy Spirit to fill us up, and let us overflow. Amen.

Jim Buchanan is the pastor of the Cumberland and Frostburg churches in Maryland.