Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,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?Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own;
15 sermons cite this verse
… Jenny, read it to us starting in verse 19. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price, God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. And it feels like maybe you go, that's semantics, but it's not. It's the biggest difference in the world. It's the difference of ownership. Because then every day, it's not like, Lord, if it's not too busy, could you help out? I really could use your help in my life. It's not. It's because of the cross. It's his life. You were bought with the blood of Jesus. I was bought with the blood of Jesus. So every day, purpose comes from ownership. How something's treated comes back to who owns it, right? You don't just go get in a random car and just drive it away. And you don't just pick up a laptop at the coffee shop while the owner's in the bathroom, right? Possession is nine-tenths of the law. So I think nine-tenths or maybe 99.999% of God's will is remembering who owns who. And if I'm my own, then yeah, I just got to be like, well, Lord, could you give me a little input? Like, maybe I'll crack the fortune cookie open and it'll kind of give me a little bit of a sign how I can live my life and fulfill my goals. But once I remember that at the cross, he paid …
… Spirit is with us, but he's also in us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ. If you feel it or not. If you feel him or not. 1 Corinthians 6.19 says, don't you know your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you whom you have from God. The Holy Spirit can be resisted. Now why would anybody want to resist the Holy Spirit? Here's the Holy Spirit who helps us in our prayers. Here's the Holy Spirit who teaches us. Here's the Holy Spirit doing so much work in our life, sealing us and much more. Why would anyone resist him? But they do. Remember young Stephen on the day that he was martyred was standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin, religious leaders of the day. And he said, you stiff-necked people of uncircumcised hearts and ears, you're just like your fathers. You always resist the Holy Spirit. So if you're not a believer, the Holy Spirit's life is to awaken you to your need of Christ. When he has come, he will convict or convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. That's what Jesus said in John 16. When he has come, he'll convince you. He's the one that shows you your need for Christ. So you can be sitting in church or hearing a message or wherever you are, and the Holy Spirit makes you aware of the fact that you need Jesus. But that doesn't mean you're a Christian yet, because you can …
… He says, your body, he's asking this question of the Corinthians, he says, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. Part of glorifying God and serving God and being a disciple may very well be making sure I'm taking care of my body well enough so that I'm not a drain on the system later on. Do you see this is sort of a moral issue? That if I'm not taking care of my body and I'm abusing my body, then the likelihood is I'm going to use a much larger portion of that health care resource that's out there in the years to come. And so if I'm having multi-million dollar surgeries down the road because I didn't care enough to take care of myself, and I'm drawing that resource to myself, what this might say to us is that one way that you love your neighbors, you love yourself, is by taking care of your own body so that it's healthy enough so that we're not needing to use that much healthcare resource for us. …
… It says, or do you not know that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit? Who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. for you were bought for a high price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. God no longer dwells in the ark today. God dwells in you if you are in him. His presence is alive in us. So let me just ask you the question, do we live in the spirit? Or do we sometimes feel tempted when our hunger is being diminished to leave God on the peripheral of our lives? when in reality, he wants to be central in you. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Come on, I believe this today, that God has called us as his people, not just to carry the title, but to carry his presence forward. Can we be the ones in our families and in our cities who say, you know what? God has been neglected, but I wanna bring him back to the middle. …
… context of debauchery and all kind of crazy, unholy living, and he's coming down to make a conclusion in 1 Corinthians 6. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. Now that's a whole collection for another day and another time. That's recommended for you, by the way. You are not your own. You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies. In other words, well, the algorithm is studying me like a hawk, trying to learn every tendency I have, trying to learn about every weakness, every potential way I can be exploited, every way that I can be enticed. It is watching me like a hawk. It is not neutral. It has a purpose and a plan. And mostly the purpose and the plan is to sell me to somebody so that I will click on something and pay somebody some money at the end of the day. …
God's word for us today is 1 Corinthians 6, 19-20. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. You can't ask, even though you want to. You can guess, but don't say it out loud. You're hoping the other person will volunteer and tell you what you're wondering, but that's not going to happen. So you're left to wonder. It's just a simple question. What did you pay for that? Someone has a new car, a new house, a new boat, a new almost anything. Now, you're glad for them, so that's not the problem. It's just that you're naturally curious and you want to ask, Faye, just wondering, what did that set you back? Now, again, we're not going to actually ask this. After all, if it's a new car, just go to the dealer's website. You'll see the price that's posted. …
… The presence of the Lord is in us. 1 Corinthians 6.19 says, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you? So why is this important? Why the ark go first? Simply because they wanted to be led and dwell in the presence of the Lord. They didn't want to do this without being in the presence of the Lord. Before Israel confronted the wall, they centered their life around the throne. See worship as obedience means that you dwell in the presence of the Lord. Grab this picture. The trumpets go first, the ark in the middle, the people behind. The trumpets and priests, ark, people. The wall was not the center. The presence of the Lord was the center. Their problem was not what they were centering themselves and their conversation and their thoughts and their feelings around. They were centering themselves around the presence of the Lord. They were being led by the presence of the Lord. The question I have for you today is who's leading you? What's leading you? When you see the wall in front of you, when you see that diagnosis in front of you, when you see all those things in front of you, what is leading you? Your problem or the presence? Joshua and the people of Israel wanted to be led by the presence of God. …
Or we could listen to the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. So I said, this is more than comforting funeral balm. It is also a counter-cultural statement of human identity. You will set your life, your marriage, your child-rearing, everything about you on two different trajectories. Do you say, first of all, about yourself, I am all that I own. Me, my, myself, I, I am me, I can engineer me, I am okay, whatever comes from me is my authentic self. Or do you first confess, as the Heidelberg Catechism states, you want to know who I am? I don't belong to me. And remember the question. This is not rubbing your nose in it. This is the answer to the question, what is your only comfort? The world is giving you false comfort, a false gospel telling you, if only you claim your authentic self, you will be happy. …
… is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body? Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Why would he tell them to be pure if they're already pure? Why would he tell them to be pure, to pursue purity, if he's already made them pure in Christ? It's because while God has declared us pure in Christ and sees us as pure in Christ, in Jesus, he hasn't made us fully pure yet. While God declares us pure in Christ and sees us, he really sees us in Christ today, justified as pure, he hasn't made us fully pure yet. He will, but he hasn't done it yet. We're all still impure this side of heaven. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, 1 John 1, 8. …
… commits is outside the body. The sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Now that was totally counter-cultural in Corinth and it's totally counter-cultural in the United States. In a culture that says it's okay, it's good, it's even necessary to indulge your sexual desire outside of biblical marriage. God says, no, you flee. Run from any and all sexual immorality, which we've seen before refers to any sexual thinking, desiring, or acting outside of marriage. And it's right after Paul writes this. So remember, the chapter division wasn't in the original letter. It's just there to help us. So right after Paul says, flee from sexual thinking, desiring, acting outside of marriage. He says in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 1, now concerning the matters about which he wrote, it's good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman, but because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. In other words, if you want to indulge in sexual activity, thinking, desiring, acting, then get married and do so with your wife or your husband. But as long as you're single, don't flee, which requires God's grace, God's help that God promises to give by his Holy Spirit who dwells in you. And this world desperately needs single followers of Christ who will counter …
… He says, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom you have from God? You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Or you could say, Christian, Christian, Your schedule is not your own. The clock is not your own. Your energy is not your own. You are bought with a price. Glorify God in the way you manage your calendar, the clock. So closing questions for you. Are you more prone to be selfish with your time and attention or careless? We're going to go fall on both sides of that. There may be some here that need to increase their care. Others that need to increase their faith, their love. Are you more prone to overschedule or underschedule? next question what is your present calling in life or callings your particular job you have right now your marital status you have children or not what are your callings and think first and foremost about the good you can do for others in your present callings than dreaming about all sorts of good outside your callings first. …
… is with men again 1 Corinthians 6 19 to 20 or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God you are not your own for you were bought with a price so glorify God in your body again the connection between the inward and the outward but it begins on the inside not on the outside. Finally, in the new covenant, another has taken our penalty. you and I are not worthy to approach God who dwells in unapproachable light and coming as close to God as you and I have come requires death and that's exactly what was paid on our behalf so that we might approach God so that we might know God and so that God might indwell us. Christ died for sin once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. All we like sheep had gone astray. Each of us had turned to his own way. …
… the Holy Spirit living in that believer. Even to the Corinthians, Paul says, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is in you, he said in chapter 3. The Holy Spirit is in you, he said in chapter 6. So this is a remarkable reality. And He is the Spirit of truth and He is the Spirit of Christ. In Romans, it says in chapter 8 that if any person doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to Christ. Conversely, anyone who belongs to Christ possesses the Spirit of Christ. So if there's anything that describes a Christian, it is that, that a Christian is one in whom the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth lives permanently. It's not something we have to attain. It's not something we have to achieve. It is the reality of salvation, transformation, regeneration, that the very eternal life that is in us is because the Spirit of Christ is in us. …
… his own body, and that can include even venereal disease. Don't you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you're not your own. You've been bought with a price. or glorify God in your body. And back in verse 15, He said, don't join your body, the temple of the Spirit of God, to a harlot or a prostitute. If you're living in any kind of perverted love, you're either outside the kingdom, or You are disobedient, sinful, and headed for divine chastening if you are a true believer. So, immorality, never to be named among you. It shouldn't even appear. I remember years ago when evangelicals were sort of applauding the fact that they found out the Catholic priests were immoral. And now all of a sudden it caught up to evangelicalism. There's no way to protect from false teachers and false Christians, but among those who are true believers, it shouldn't even be named among you. …
… be a better person? No. Not by willpower. He says flee immorality by fleeing to Christ. Verse 19, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is now in you? You got him from God. You are not your own. You're bought at a price. So glorify God. So glorify God with your body. Basically, Paul says there's two things that will give you the power to do this. The first is the blood of Jesus. He purchased you from your sin. He died for all the ways you messed up. And that means he deserves your sexual purity. It also means that if he died for you, he'll give you the ability to do what he commands. if Jesus went to a cross for you, he's going to provide you with the power you need to obey him. Right? So do it because of the blood of Jesus. And that kind of leads to the second thing he points to, the Holy Spirit. You may feel like you don't have the strength to overcome this, and you're probably right, but Christ in you does. Because Christ, who never sinned, who never stumbled sexually, faced all the temptations we face, was tempted in all the ways like we are, yet without sin. He now lives in you. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, Paul says, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. That's not my might, it's not my power anymore, it's by my Spirit, says the Lord. Greater is He that is in me now than he that is in the world. …