August 30, 2022
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Through the centuries, God’s people have learnt by His word, a progressive transition of temple references—consistently meaning a dwelling place for the LORD—to our very bodies.
In keeping with Satan’s ploy of casting doubt upon God’s ways, the Jews questioned the authority of Jesus early in His earthly ministry, just after He cleansed the temple:
“What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. John 2:18-21
Since we are taught that our bodies are also meant to be a dwelling place of the Lord’s Spirit, we are to actively cultivate daily communication with God—our prayers correspond to breathing and time in His word is eating—fortified and aided by the indescribable benefit of the intercession of Jesus, our High Priest, in the heavenly sanctuary. This daily interaction is essential to our spiritual livelihood. In this context, Daniel’s vision of the work of the antichrist suddenly becomes clearer, giving us a prophetic heads-up as to the devil’s ways: he wants to oppose the daily (Daniel 8:11) and obscure the reality of the heavenly sanctuary (v.13) where the risen Christ intercedes for us. He causes us to disregard our bodies as God’s temple by denying His health laws. Through human representatives, the devil speaks pompous words against the Most High (Daniel 7:25). These pompous words are delivered with great authority (Revelation 13:2). They are deceptive lies that replace the word of God with contradicting ideas.
Therefore, laying aside…all deceit…and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ . . . the chief cornerstone. 1 Peter 2:1-6a