There’s a verse that many people
use inappropriately to get their Christian friends or family members to quit
smoking, to exercise, and to eat more spinach.
It’s in I Corinthians 3:16, and it reads, “Do you not know that you are
the temple of God and in that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
Here’s why that verse is used
inappropriately in getting people to take care of their bodies. Paul is not talking about the human body, but
the body of Christ. The “you” in the
text is plural. It should read as though
Paul were writing from Atlanta, Georgia, “Y’all are the temple of God and the
Spirit of God dwells in y’all.” And every
first century Christian would read it that way.
Therefore, Paul’s injunction is only relevant to the deeds of the individual
as they affect the whole community of faith.
Think gossip, prejudice, stinginess, and jealousy rather than switching
from Marlboros to some electronic cigarette.
There’s something equally as
instructive about this verse and that’s the translation of the Greek word for
temple. In English the word temple
connotes the entirety of the building.
If that’s what Paul meant, he would have selected a different Greek word
altogether. The word he uses means only
a part of the temple. It’s the word for
the Holy of Holies or the Most Holy Place.
You will remember that this site was visited only once a year on the Day
of Atonement by one person, and one person only, the high priest. And the reason he was restricted to one visit
a year was because the Ark of the Covenant was there - the place where God
Himself resided.
When you understand all of that,
you begin to see the wonderful and amazing statement Paul is making in I
Corinthians 3:16. He’s saying that God’s
place of residence on earth is in the midst of His people. He is saying that the people of God,
corporately, are now the Holy of Holies, the very dwelling place of God. Once we
understand what the Apostle Paul is saying, the ancient invocation of the prophet
Habakkuk takes on new meaning: “The LORD
is in His holy temple. Let all the earth
keep silence before Him” (Hab. 2:20). In
other words, “God is here so be awed!”
This Sunday we begin our new series
entitled: Joy, a study of the Book of Philippians. As I mentioned last week, it’s a perfect
sequel to The Signature of Jesus; for
what Paul tells us over and over again in this four-chapter letter of joy is
that the church is the dwelling place of God, therefore be awed and rejoice! Think of it.
All of the justice, righteousness, and loving kindness God commands His
people in Micah 6:8 now becomes evidenced in His body the church. Why?
Is it because His people are so special?
Is it because the New Testament believers are so far superior to the Old
Testament ones? Hardly! It’s because He now dwells not only among
them, but in them, I mean “us”!
As you know every letter Paul
writes is addressed to the church. And
every letter is divided into two parts – the indicative and the
imperative. The indicative is a
description of all Jesus has done for us.
The imperative is his encouragement to us to appropriate His finished
word and live it out. His letter to the
Philippians is no different. But unlike
every other letter Paul writes, this letter begins with unbridled joy and it
ends the same way. And one of the
reasons is that there appears to be no particular conflicts among the brethren
at Philippi. It’s a remarkable thing
really. Here in a city that was named
for Alexander the Great’s father, the St. Louis of Macedonia – the gateway from
Europe to Asia, a city that was home to three major cultures and an untold number
of minor ones, a city with wide socio-economic stratas; and yet, among the
church at Philippi there was no apparent strife. Perhaps that is why, as Paul sits under house
arrest in Rome, he’s inspired by the Holy Spirit to write a letter of
monumental joy; an unfiltered description of what the Signature of Jesus looks
like when the body is operating under the control of its head – Jesus Christ.
Each of the messages in this series
begins with the word “Joy”. This first
week we focus on the opening eleven verses were we see Paul’s “Joy in God’s
People”. In preparation for Sunday’s
message you may wish to consider the following:
1. What
is the back story to the hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”?
2. What
would prompt someone to say, “Christ I like.
Christianity I like. But
Christians I can’t stand”?
3. How
does the post-Ascension Jesus do justice and love kindness in Acts 9?
4. What
does: “Summa Epistolae; Gaudes, Gaudete” mean?
5. What
does Martin Luther mean when he says, “The church is my mother, but she’s a
whore”?
6. What
is the meaning of the word “saint”?
7. What
does Paul mean when he says, “saints in Christ Jesus”? (verse 1)
8. How
do you interpret verse 6? Is he talking
about individuals or the corporate body, or both?
9. What
is the meaning of “partnership” in verse 5?
10. What
do you think C.S. Lewis meant when he said that when Jesus captures a soul He
finds its desires to be not too strong, but too weak?
See you Sunday as we look at our:
Incomparable Identity
Inevitable Change
Inexhaustible Vision
And find in it….Pure JOY!
