When I was in high school and playing tennis, I was told that if I started lifting weights that it would help my tennis game…and so I started a weight lifting program.  And it did help me…but somewhere along the way, my motivation for lifting weights began to change.  I mean, I still wanted it to help me get better at tennis, but part of my motivation began to be trying to build a body image where I was more respected by my guy friends and one where maybe I was a little more noticed by the girls. 

I mean it’s hard to miss all of the pictures of guys on magazine covers, in the movies, and everywhere else…and it seemed to me that if they got all of the attention then maybe I would start to get more attention if I could look like them.  And so, I started spending a lot more time in the weight room with all of these guys who are loading up like 3, 45 pound weights on each side of a bar and bench pressing it, and I’m over there with like 1, 10 pound weight on each side…and they are all just kind of shaking their heads and had this look on their faces that said… “what is this dude doing in here?”

But it didn’t stop me b/c I was determined to get stronger and bigger.  And I did get a little stronger, but no matter how hard I worked…no matter how much I worked out and how much I ate, I just didn’t really get that much bigger.  When I graduated from high school, I was like 6ft tall and 140 pounds.  And I was so self-conscious about it…I hated being the skinny little tennis player…it was part of my identity… and wanted desperately to be someone different! 

We’ve been talking throughout this summer about identity…and trying to understand so much more about our identity in Christ.  And so much of what we have been talking about has been at the spirit level…the new creation that we become in our spiritual union with Christ.  But this morning I want to ask the question, what about our bodies?  What role does our body have in the make up of our identity?

In other words, “How should we view our bodies?”  Because there are a lot of different ways that people view their bodies…

I mean some of us have the view that our bodies are meant to be trophies.  A trophy is something that is meant to be on display and shown off…and this is how some of us view our bodies…It is here to be put up on a pedestal and shown off.  And so, many of us will work out constantly in the gym, are on the strictest of diets, use supplements, and have medical procedures done…and when we get it right, we want to show it off to get attention and admiration…But others of us will never get there…and we will feel like our bodies are not good enough to be put on display and so we live in hiding or we live in shame.

So that’s one way some of us view our bodies…but others of us view our bodies as garbage cans, and we eat anything and everything in sight and we abuse it w/drugs or too much alcohol…just constantly dumping garbage in it

Some of us view our bodies as amusement parks.  They are here to bring us pleasure, so we view pornography, experiment sexually, and sleep w/others outside of marriage (whether that’s before or during our marriage, or both).

Some of us view our bodies as instruments of power…and we use it to get something we want…we manipulate others with our bodies…

And so there are a number of views we have of our bodies, and the thing is, a lot of times we don’t just hold to one of these views but we drift back and forth between these views at different times of our lives and sometimes hold several of them at the same time…

And so I think that a lot of us are often really confused about our bodies and what they mean to our identity.  So…let’s see if we can clear some of this up and see how God views our bodies who created them…Let’s see what He says about our bodies and our identity.

And I want us to see something that Paul says in 1 Cor. 6 to the church there about their bodies…

But before we look at it, here’s what you need to know about Corinth and the culture there in the 1st century…  This was a culture which was impacted by Greek Hellenism and things like Gnosticism.  And in this culture there were a lot of views of the human body just like there are a lot of views of the human body today. 

One of the main views held was what was called dualism in which people thought of the invisible qualities of human beings as being separate and more important than the visible body.  They didn’t believe that the body would be resurrected…just the spirit. 

And having this type of view of their bodies led some to think of the body as evil, and that it needed to be punished to purify the spirit… but it led others to think that the body completely unimportant since it wouldn’t be resurrected and that meant that it didn’t really matter what you did w/your body…you can treat it like it’s a trash can/an amusement park or whatever.

And this was impacting those who were now in the church.  Many of those in the church had taken on a cultural view of their bodies which led them to certain actions.  [And this is what we have been saying throughout this identity series though, right?  What we believe about ourselves is often the biggest influencer of our behavior!]

And so, some of those in the church were in fact treating their bodies like trash cans or amusement parts…many of them were very promiscuous… many of them were involved with prostitutes which in the pagan world was considered part of their pagan worship.

And so with this false view of their bodies and it leading to these kinds of actions & unhealthy behavior, Paul says this to them in 1 Cor. 6:19…

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

Paul says, guys here’s the right way to view your body: It’s a temple!  Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who of course is God Himself!

And here’s what I want you to see…in Paul communicating to them and really to us today that our bodies are temples says 3 things:

1.      Your body is a valuable dwelling place of God

The temple in the O.T. was the dwelling place of God…and of course as Paul indicates here, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you when you put your faith in Jesus for salvation.  Jesus came to this earth and died for your sins so that you would be an acceptable dwelling place for Him to come live.

So, this communicates that your body has value and worth.

And listen, here is something else I want you to see…Did Jesus wait until you got your body all straightened out and looking the way you think communicates value before He came to live in you???

NO!  He considered it a valuable dwelling place just the way it is…Just the way He made it…

So that’s the first thing that your body being a temple communicates, it is a valuable dwelling place for God.

Here’s the 2nd thing:

2.      Your body is beautiful and magnificent

Did you know how elaborate and detailed the specifications were for building the temple in the O.T.?  I mean parts of the temple were overlaid with pure gold…curtains of twisted linen, embroidered blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, bronze clasps, silver bases, fine gems, and on and on…this thing was beautiful & magnificent.

So I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that if Paul calls your body a temple, not only is it saying that it is valuable b/c it’s a dwelling place of God, but that it is a beautiful and magnificent dwelling place for God.

You may think your body is junk, but God says it’s a temple. 

Here is the 3rd thing:

3.      Your body as a temple communicates your holiness

The temple was considered a holy place.  But it not because of all of the beautiful and valuable elements used in building it, but because God was holy and He dwelt there.

 Inside the temple, in the innermost part of the temple was what was called the Holy of Holies…it was the dwelling place of God.  God was holy and dwelling in the innermost part of that building and His holiness permeated the building from the inside out, so that it was considered a holy place. 

And listen, if God lives in you, this makes you holy as well.

In Colossians 1:21-22, the apostle Paul says…

21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation

Guys, Jesus is holy and when you are spiritually united to Him, you become holy as well…this is part of your identity. 

And your body being a temple communicates your holiness in Christ.

But I also want you to see something else that Paul said about our bodies, not here in 1 Corinthians but in 2 Corinthians…

In 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul says…

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us

The treasure he is referring to is Jesus.  The jars of clay are us…our bodies… Now the thing is, jars of clay were fragile and could easily be broken.  And so, it was a metaphor to show the Corinthian church that Jesus in us is the real treasure. 

So one of the things it shows us is that while our bodies are temples and beautiful and magnificent and holy dwelling places of his, they are also fragile and breakable due to the effects of sin in our lives.

But here is what Paul goes on to say a few verses later…

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

Paul is saying that even though my body is a jar of clay and is getting beaten down in this world and death is at work in it, b/c the Life of Christ is in me, His life is getting expressed through me (through the cracks in the jar) so that you are experiencing His life through me.

And so what this shows us is that the same thing is true of you.  The life of Christ is at work through your body to express His life to a lost and dying world around you…

And so, you become an instrument of righteousness…a vessel that God uses to manifest Christ to this world.

So that’s why Paul could say what He did in our verse in 1 Cor. 6 that we were looking at…

19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

For you to be brought into God’s family, it cost Him the life of His one and only Son.  Jesus purchased you with His blood on the cross.  And now, as God’s child, Paul is saying that this makes your body not yours, but His! 

He is the rightful owner of your body.  He placed Jesus in you so that He can now use your body as an instrument to manifest Jesus to the world…to show Jesus to the rest of the world through your body…so your body is His, for that purpose…for Christ’s Life to be expressed through you! 

So what does this practically look like in our lives when we live from who we are in Christ in the bodies…what does it look like to honor God with our bodies and allow the Life of Christ to be expressed through us?

First, it means that if you have viewed your body as that of a trophy or at least should be a trophy, you can live free from that bondage.  If you have lived enslaved to having to look like something in a magazine and starve yourself or build a certain physic to earn an identity…you can be free from that bondage.  If you grasp that your identity comes from being God’s child and not the way you look, it sets you free.  You begin to appreciate how God made you…you understand a healthy perspective on aging and not feel like you have to have things surgically taken care of in order to matter…to maintain a certain image and identity!

Also, when we understand our identity being temples, the Spirit will lead us to have a healthy perspective on working out/eating better.  Your body is not a trash can…so the Spirit is not going to lead you to abuse it with drugs and too much alcohol…He’s not going to lead you to eat anything and everything that you want and totally destroy the vessel that God wants to use to put His glory on display.

Don’t hear that and think bondage to working out and we are supposed to only eat kale or something.  There is freedom in Christ to enjoy all things, but if our body is a temple, the Holy Spirit is going to lead us to moderation and maintaining this vessel that He is using to express His life through.

Ok, so I think you get what I am saying…let me switch gears now, and talk about how it practically means that your body is not an amusement park.  Knowing that “Your body is not your own,” means that you don’t use it in any way that you want for personal pleasure.  Our culture has done a really good job of convincing everyone that your body is your own and that it should be used for anything and everything that you feel…it should be used to bring you pleasure…that it is okay and perfectly natural to be satisfied at any time and in any way.  But let me be clear…what culture says is true, isn’t always the truth.  God’s truth as the Creator and Designer of all things establishes truth – and His truth is eternal. (Paul…culture in Corinth)

So here’s the deal, God created sex…and if God created sex, it is a good thing – b/c all of God’s creation is good.  God created it, as a good thing, for us to enjoy…it’s not evil.  But God also created sex to be a part of a certain context, and that context is within marriage.  

So, practically understanding that our body is not our own…that it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, means that as a vessel, the Spirit is going to lead us in this area to experience the joy of it in the context of marriage.

So listen, our identity truth for today, as you already know by now I’m sure is that IN CHRIST, YOU ARE A TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.  And knowing that changes everything about how you view your body.  It will give you a proper perspective of your looks, your diet, working out, your sexuality, and anything else related to your body…and ultimately how the Lord uses it to express the Life of Christ in you and through you to a lost and broken world who needs Him in their life as well…

And we pray that they will see Him clearly through us and receive His love and forgiveness into their lives as He leads.