Our Unselfish Temples

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself. - 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT)

I've heard this scripture numerous times before. I've heard it quoted from people who have decided to stop smoking, drinking, doing drugs and those who have wanted to start eating healthier and start exercising. It fits all those motivations rather nicely wouldn't you say?

Even if you don't have a bad habit or you are already eating healthy and exercising this scripture STILL speaks to you. How?

Because EVERYONE is still selfish.

That's not easy to hear is it? I know for me, I immediately want to defend that claim and show example after example of how I'm NOT selfish. But just like those bad habits I mentioned above, all of us share a habit of being selfish. We have this same thing in common even though it might look different from me to you.

Some people are selfish because they want to smoke.

Some people are selfish because they want to drink.

Some people are selfish because they, like me, want to eat whatever they want.

Our habits look different but the commonality that we share is that we are full of our selves. And I didn't really get this scripture until I read the paraphrased version of it from The Message...

Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body! (emphasis mine)

WOW!!

Let people see GOD in and through your body!

When I read that I had a crazy thought.

What if one day I had to give blood for some kind of testing and the lab technician was looking at my blood cells through a microscope and actually seen that God was coursing through my bloodstream!!!

I know that is a pretty far-fetched idea but what if we actually were meant to be that dedicated to God and unselfish?

What if one day you you had to get an x-ray and all of a sudden you heard a commotion in the back of the building because the x-ray technician was able to see that God and His word was buried deep in your bones!!!

Though these examples aren't likely to happen, I still can't help but think that this is how we are supposed to look at this scripture. This is how dedicated and unselfish we are to be to God through our physical bodies.

Imagine what it would be like to be that unselfish!