Memorise:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1
READ: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Message
The passion of God behind the admonition in today’s memory verse is evident. The goodness of God and His commitment to our wellbeing is far beyond our imagination. Can you comprehend this: that having paid the ultimate price for our redemption, He is still passionately pleading with those of us that are His, for our own sake, to keep our bodies? Though it is in our own best interest, yet He pleads with us. To start with, a
person that says he or she is enjoying himself with cigarette smoking or taking of hard drugs does not know what he is saying. Such a person is destroying himself in bits. Likewise, the fellow given to alcohol is destroying and cutting short his age systematically. What about the fornicator and adulterer? The major vehicle for HIV infection is no other than sexual immoralities such as pre-marital sex, homosexuality,
lesbianism and the likes. Presenting your body as a living sacrifice means denying your body the fashion or pleasures that are at variance with the ways of the kingdom you belong to. This includes denying yourself such aberrations like exposing your body through clothes that are in vogue.
If the body of the believer in Christ is the temple of God, and God is holy, how does a child of God think he or she will be full of the Holy Spirit while unabatedly indulging in evil habits? Somebody must be deceiving himself or herself somehow. The Bible warns us not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). What other possible ways could the Holy Spirit be grieved, if not by rendering His habitation non-conducive for Him to dwell in? Is it not that those defiling His temple (our bodies) are asking Him (the Holy Spirit) to pack up and go elsewhere?
The care of our body includes feeding it with the right things – good food and not junk food that causes obesity, and taking the right quantity of food at a time (gluttony is condemned by the Bible). Likewise, drinks must be non-alcoholic and non- nicotinic. Spiritually, feed on the word of God. Besides, treat the body with natural means for its refreshing like sleeping moderately and not inducing yourself with drugs to sleep. Also, use your body rightly. It is good to work hard, but then, learn also to give it its due rest. Don’t use the body for immorality in any form. Learn not to pamper your body either, it may crave those things that would make it to incur God’s wrath, it is your duty to deny it those things. You can do all these because the power of God through Christ is now in you. God is not demanding what you cannot do.
KEY POINT:
God desires purity of the heart as well as purity of the body.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : 2 KINGS 21-19-23:27 and PROVERBS 25:1-14
AUTHOR : Pastor E.A. ADEBOYE
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