"If any man defile the Temple of God, him shall God destroy;..."

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Sep 3, 2016
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Paul said, "Do you not know that you are the Temple of God (where the Holy Spirit abides), and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (That makes the Born-again Believer His permanent home.)

He also said, "If any man defile the Temple of God (our physical bodies must be a living Sacrifice, which means that we stay Holy by ever making the Cross the object of our Faith [Rom. 12:1]), him shall God destroy (to fail to function in God's prescribed Order [the Cross], opens the Believer up to Satan, which will ultimately result in destruction); for the Temple of God is Holy, which Temple you are" (We are "Holy" by virtue of being "in Christ." We remain Holy by the Work of the Holy Spirit, Who demands that our Faith ever be in the Cross, which has made all of this possible.) (1 Cor. 3:16-17).

This Passage has a double meaning:
1. It speaks of individuals who are Spirit-filled but defile the Temple, which is the physical body along with the spirit and the soul. This can be done by any number of ways: alcohol, drugs, immorality, envy, jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness, etc.

2. It has, as well, a second meaning, which is even greater. It speaks of the Body of Christ as a whole, in other words, the Church, which has turned away from the Cross of Christ to other things. By other things, we are referring to humanistic psychology, the wisdom of this world, or schemes devised by men, which are not the Cross of Christ. Jesus Christ is the Source of everything we receive from God, and the Cross of Christ is the Means, and the only Means, by which all of these things are given to us. When I say, "All," I mean "all." He plainly tells us that if we defile this Temple, He will destroy it exactly as He destroyed the Temple of old. That destruction was carried out by the Roman Tenth Legion, which completely destroyed it in every capacity.

The physical body of the Believer is the House of God. The biggest danger for modern Believers, as it regards "defiling the Temple of God," is placing their faith in something other than Christ and the Cross. It doesn't matter what the other thing is, if it's not the Cross of Christ, the Lord cannot bless it.


JSM