Care for the Temple
Care for the Temple
Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. – 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
When I was twelve years old, I had a weight problem. The problem was that I only weighed about 100 pounds. When I was 18, I only weighed around 120 pounds and I was six feet tall. Somewhere along the way one of my New Year’s resolutions became that I was going to gain weight. But it didn’t seem to matter how much I ate I didn’t gain any weight. But over the years that has changed and how it has changed! Now whenever I eat almost anything it immediately shows up as pounds gained.
Having the appropriate weight is just one of the aspects of taking proper care of our bodies. We know what we need to do. We need to reduce our intake of calories. We need to eat more fruits and vegetables. We need to be exercising on a regular basis. Even a small amount of exercise appears to have health benefits. In the newspaper one morning there was an article about how people who fidget gained less weight than those who did not.
The Temple was a holy place where nothing unclean would be allowed. If the proper procedures were not followed the priests knew they ran the risk of God striking them dead. The cleanliness of the Temple and the care of the Temple was a deadly serious business. It should not be any less for us. We know that a good diet and proper exercise will reduce the probability and even prevent the occurrence of some diseases. In addition, we will reap a harvest of other benefits. We will have a higher sense of wellbeing. We will have more energy. Depression and even headaches will be less of a problem.
In addition to the physical there is a spiritual side of taking care of the Temple. We need the proper spiritual nourishment. As Jesus says in Matthew 4, “Man does not live by bread alone….” We need an intake of the Word of God every day. We need to have communication with our Lord on a continuing basis. We need to continue to assemble together so that we can be “provoked (stirred up) unto love and good works.”
As we know it is highly unlikely that we can do all of this on our own. The truth is we can’t. But God can. We “can do all things through Christ.” We must include God in whatever program or plan we have for taking care of the Temple if it is to be successful in the long run.
Let us resolve together to get started on taking better care of the Temple!
(This devotional has been updated and was originally written and sent by email on 01.12.1999.)