1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Southern U.S. residents would have a different way of rendering this verse:
Do y’all not know that y’all are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in y’all?
When Paul writes passionately about being God’s temple here, he does not mean that we all carry God’s Spirit around inside us individually. Rather, he means that together, we as the church are the dwelling-place for God’s Spirit.
This is quite an important thought. Together, we are building a place where God’s Spirit will live, a place for God’s Spirit to be at home, a home base from which (through us) God’s Spirit will go into all the world in love.
Kinda makes you re-think church, doesn’t it?
At least in our culture, church is considered the kind of thing you do to meet a certain need in your life. Maybe you need to make friends, so you join a church; or you feel the need for something for your kids, something spiritual, so you join a church.
And this is all fine, I suppose. But the fact is that once we grow to a certain level of maturity as Christians, we begin to realize that church isn’t really about us or our needs at all. It’s about giving our all to an intentional community for the community’s sake, so that the whole community is strengthened with God’s Spirit to go and serve.
And so failing to “hold up our end of the bargain” does not only hurt us, but hurts the sturdiness of the temple we’re building together.
Let me encourage you, especially as we head into the summer, to not take the summer off from your faith or your church. Many ministries—at least at Exton—take some Sabbath resting time during the summer. And I for one think that’s OK and healthy.
What’s not healthy is to totally disappear from the church, absent even on weeks you are in town and available. It’s not healthy for you and it sure isn’t good for that temple we’re building together. Together, we want to give God's Spirit a home built with care and love!
Southern U.S. residents would have a different way of rendering this verse:
Do y’all not know that y’all are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in y’all?
When Paul writes passionately about being God’s temple here, he does not mean that we all carry God’s Spirit around inside us individually. Rather, he means that together, we as the church are the dwelling-place for God’s Spirit.
This is quite an important thought. Together, we are building a place where God’s Spirit will live, a place for God’s Spirit to be at home, a home base from which (through us) God’s Spirit will go into all the world in love.
Kinda makes you re-think church, doesn’t it?
At least in our culture, church is considered the kind of thing you do to meet a certain need in your life. Maybe you need to make friends, so you join a church; or you feel the need for something for your kids, something spiritual, so you join a church.
And this is all fine, I suppose. But the fact is that once we grow to a certain level of maturity as Christians, we begin to realize that church isn’t really about us or our needs at all. It’s about giving our all to an intentional community for the community’s sake, so that the whole community is strengthened with God’s Spirit to go and serve.
And so failing to “hold up our end of the bargain” does not only hurt us, but hurts the sturdiness of the temple we’re building together.
Let me encourage you, especially as we head into the summer, to not take the summer off from your faith or your church. Many ministries—at least at Exton—take some Sabbath resting time during the summer. And I for one think that’s OK and healthy.
What’s not healthy is to totally disappear from the church, absent even on weeks you are in town and available. It’s not healthy for you and it sure isn’t good for that temple we’re building together. Together, we want to give God's Spirit a home built with care and love!
posted by Rev. Michael Jordan at 3:27 PM
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