"The Temple of the Holy Spirit"

1 Corinthians 6:19, "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?" MY body is "good" and wonderful gift from God. Paul said, "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection ..." (1Corinthians 9:27). The key word here is "discipline." Paul wrote, "For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come" (1Tim 4:8).

Is my Christian practice consistent with Jesus Christ? I am not a sinner because I sin? I sin because I am a sinner. God looks into my heart for my spiritual obedience rather than perfection. I will never be perfect as long as I live in my body which is why God's grace is more than sufficient. In order for me to understand God's grace, I need to understand God's holiness. A person without having the Holy Spirit in the heart will not understand God's holiness therefore a person will define God's definition of sin in a human point of view (rather than spirit). Is God's grace cheap? Becoming a disciple, following Jesus Christ requires personal cost, giving up your selfish "me" and become like Christ. In God's grace through Jesus Christ, I am free from bondage of sin. The Book of Hebrews explains that Jesus is the mediator, the executor, of The New Covenant (The New Testament). The word mediator comes from the verb "to mediate" which means a mediator is one who stands between two parties or two factions needing to be reconciled eternally. Christ through His death and resurrection, every legal hindrance has been met and satisfied. The only way to get in is to believe Him with my heart which is sealed by the Holy Spirit. Because of Christ, I am a Christian. My life as a Christian takes work and requires the commitment of my heart, mind and body. Christ is not outside of me but He is inside me. Since Christ is within me, I must listen to His Word and walk in His steps (2 Corinthians 4:10). God looks in my heart and I must express my whole heart otherwise, God is not impressed with my outward works—my acts of worship, my spiritual works and my spiritual giving. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10 that I am "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do."

My heart is where God meets us because that is where I make my decisions. My heart is the core of the temple. My heart is where my desires and motives are located. It is important to understand that my heart is the state of my "flesh" because my flesh search for pleasure, pride, passions and selfish motives. I am to serve God from my heart because I am the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:16), that God will search me and try me, and know my thoughts (Psalm 139:23). I have to remember that I am in Christ that Paul wrote in Romans 7:18 "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." Paul wrote again in Galatians 5:17 "For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." Biblically, as a Christian, I am no longer "in the flesh" as Paul wrote: "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom 8:9). The Greek word for "dwells" is okv (oike), which means "I inhabit." "If Christ is in us, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10). In other words, my human body is subject to death (and is already dying) because of sin, however my spirit is alive in Christ. I have eternal life in my possession, even though my body is dying because of sin."My temorary body is decaying at the same time, my inner being is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16). "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25).