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"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; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
Paul writes that our human bodies are the place where the Holy Spirit resides. When you embrace Jesus as your Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit of God comes within you to take up residence. This is the gift of God Himself, and we are no longer our own; we belong to Him.
Verse 20 contains such wonderful theology. We were bought at a price; the price paid for our eternal salvation was the life of Jesus Christ, the perfect sacrifice for our sins. In the Incarnation, God the Son took upon Himself human flesh and walked among us, died for us, and arose from the dead so we could be restored to God and live an abundant life on earth and eternal life in heaven.
Paul says "therefore." In light of this great fact that God has purchased us for Himself, we are to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, because we are God's own possession. This teaching completely nullifies Greek dualism that says the spirit is all that matters, and the body is evil and insignificant. In C.S. Lewis's masterpiece, Mere Christianity, he points out that physical matter is important to God; He made it. So, we can say matter matters. God has created these bodies, and His Son took on a human body, and we are the very temple or residence of the Holy Spirit.
God commands us to glorify (the Greek word is doxazo and it is in the imperative mood of command) Him in our body and in our spirit. We are to worship God with our bodies and spirits. God created our bodies and spirits that make up our existence. How we live, what we think, how we conduct our very lives, both in body and in spirit, should be an act of worship to God. Overindulgence in the body or bitterness in the spirit are not glorifying to God. We could expand this to include many other sins of flesh and spirit that we should avoid.
Many followers of Jesus do a great job of glorifying God in their spirits, and that is wonderful. Every day we should pray and read the Bible, and every Sunday we should be in fellowship with other Christians in a local church. But are we as intentional about our physical bodies? True, the spiritual is more important than the physical, as these bodies will eventually waste away, and one day in eternity we will receive a new, resurrected body. I am so excited to live in that body!
May God strengthen you and empower you to glorify Him in your body and in your spirit; both are incredible gifts from God.
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