Anniversary 5

1 Corinthians 3:8-9, 16-17

During one of many visits to a church member with health issues she told me she had heard that I once was a teacher. “I can’t imagine that. You have always been just ‘The Pastor’ to me.”

Some people have trouble imagining us in any role other than the one we are in. Sometimes we may have trouble imagining ourselves as anyone other than who we are now. But in truth we can be many things, at times being more than one thing at one time – mother, daughter, sister, friend. Or we may be a father and farmer, while also being an expert in giving encouragement.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul is reminding the people in the church at Corinth of who they really are. What are two tasks mentioned at first? To what three things does he then compare the believers? In verses 16 and 17 Paul makes a familiar comparison. What is it?

Most of us have heard that our bodies are temples to God. The expression or comparison has been used mostly on a physical level. As God’s temples we are to preserve our bodies – do no harm to ourselves. Don’t smoke. Don’t drink. Don’t eat bad foods. Don’t injure ourselves.

But God’s temple is more than just a physical building. God’s temple is a spiritual place, a place where we can all go to intentionally encounter God.

If we are God’s temples, if we are sacred, then we can be a place where others might encounter God. How can that be? Knowing we are each a temple, a sacred entity, then we must behave accordingly. We must work to be good and holy, like any other temple, allowing others to experience God – His mercy and love, His grace and compassion – through our own behaviors, words, and attitudes.

Just as few people would willingly desecrate a house of worship, a house of God, so few people should be willing to cause harm to themselves or another living person, for we are all temples of God. And just as people may come to a house of God to find the presence of God, people should be able to come to you and experience God. After all “God’s Spirit lives in you.”

But it also means that you may look for the Spirit of God in others around you as they are God’s temples too.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you show another person that the Spirit of God lives in you?