You Are the Temple: Understanding God’s Presence in You
Rev. Aniekan "Mbomboyo" Okokon ·
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. — 1 Corinthians 6:19–20
When Solomon finished the temple he asked the question everyone should ask: "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!" It was a fair question, and for a thousand years the answer was a building with a curtain. Then it was a Man. Then, at Pentecost, it was a people - and Paul, writing to the least holy church in the New Testament, told each of them they were a temple.
What a temple is for
A temple is where God is met. That is the first thing to know about yourself as a believer: you are a place where God is present, not a place you go to find Him. Prayer is not a journey to the temple. It is turning around inside it.
Do you not know?
Paul asks it as a rebuke, because the Corinthians were living as if they did not. The argument of the chapter is about the body - what they did with it, who they gave it to - and Paul's answer is not a rule but a fact. That body is a temple. You would not do that in a temple. You are one.
What it means in practice
- Your body is not a container to be used up. It is a dwelling to be kept.
- Your habits are liturgy. What you do repeatedly in the temple is your worship, whether or not you meant it as such.
- You are never in a place where God is absent, because you brought the temple with you.
- You are not your own. That is not a loss of freedom; it is the end of the loneliness of belonging to no one.
Glorify God in your body
The command at the end is the point of the whole thing. Not "be careful with your body" but "glorify God in it" - eat, work, rest, love, serve in a way that shows Whose house this is. Solomon's temple was filled with glory when it was dedicated. Yours has been, already. Live like it.