Temple of the Living God

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 (ESV)...

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

"I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

Therefore go out from their midst,

and be separate from them, says the Lord,

and touch no unclean thing;

then I will welcome you,

and I will be a father to you,

and you shall be sons and daughters to me, 

says the Lord Almighty."

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God."

If you've heard these verses before, you've probably heard them in the context of "don't get married to a non-Christian". And that indeed is one application, but not the only one. The language used here is very strong, and Paul uses a series of questions to drive the point home, the answer to each question being "None". Then he comments that we are the temple of the living God, and as such we ought to not yoke ourselves with unbelievers, with wickedness, or with idolatry.

The fifth question in the series, "What agreement has the temple of God with idols?", reminds me of the many times in the Old Testament that Israel mixed idol worship with their worship of the one true God, in their culture and also in the physical temple. 2 Kings 21 is an example - the king Manasseh (possibly the absolute worst king in the history of Judah) built altars to idols and set carved images in the temple. In instances like that it's easy to see what God was so angry - people were worshipping false gods and committing all kinds of indecent acts in the very house He'd set aside for worship of Himself. It makes me angry too.

Now why do I bring this up? First, both here and in other places in the New Testament, it is emphasized that we - the body of believers in Christ - are the new temple of God. Jesus made it possible by His death and resurrection for us to become a dwelling place for Him. And it's clear in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit resides in us (John 14-16, Ephesians 1:13-14, 2 Corinthains 5:5). So we are the temple, God's dwelling place. And that's astounding. 

In Corinth, idolatry was very cut and dry. There were actual temples to false gods in the city, and meals and celebrations dedicated to these idols happened all the time. The believers there apparently participated in such feasts, and Paul is calling them out, telling them to stop. They were mixing idolatry with their faith in Christ, bringing idols into the temple.

For us, idolatry isn't as black and white. But it is no less of a struggle. What are the idols you struggle with? For me, the biggest is probably my own pleasure or comfort - I seek to serve and please myself all the time. Some specific things I go overboard with are sports, Lost, Springsteen music, even food. I don't actually bow down to these things, but I do at times give them a place above God in my heart. These aren't bad things in themselves, but I can run after them more passionately than I run after Christ.

Another relevant point to be made is this: in our culture, moral wickedness abounds, and it's so easy for us to lazily give in to compromised moral standards. We watch terrible content in movies and TV, letting sexually explicit images or ideas come into the temple. We download illegally, making excuses as to its morality. We engage in immoral behavior in relationships with the opposite sex.

It's convicting and sobering to come face-to-face with the fact that these things - subtle idolatry or compromised morality - are defiling God's temple in much the same way that Israel set up physical idols in the physical temple. Praise God that He is so gracious to us, because we're full of sin! Seeing the depth of our unrighteousness gives us a deeper appreciation for how gracious God is in redeeming us through Christ. And that's the first application - no matter how wicked we are, God's grace reaches us - He forgives us. How freeing and how wonderful! Praise Him!

The second application is pretty simple - if we're the temple of God, we ought to take seriously the call to holiness and singleminded devotion to Christ. He's the only object of our worship. Seeing the greatness of His grace and the glory of who He is produces in us deep love and passion for Him. For me, I want to keep this Scripture passage in mind and ask God to convict me when I'm straying toward idolizing something as stupid as the newest episode of Lost, to put my focus on Jesus, the king and creator of all things. And I want to be more adamant in the fight against sin. It's so easy to take a lazy approach to holiness - compromising when no one is looking, giving in to little looks or thoughts, justifying questionable behavior. I want to live with integrity in even the small things as well as the big, so as not to defile the temple of the living God. The last verse in this passage says, "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God." Every defilement, even the little ones. Tough, but worth it. God is so good.

What this passage is not leading us to apply is to be legalistic - our motivation is God's grace, not the producing of external righteousness. And it's not leading us to separate from the world to the extent that we put ourselves in a bubble, unable to affect change in culture. We can live set apart from sin and avoid being "unequally yoked" with unbelievers yet still be a part of the culture around us. In fact, that's what Scripture calls us to, and that's what Jesus did. And that's what will enable us to be change agents in culture and be a witness for Christ. Our holiness is a huge part of our evangelism. People are more responsive to our message of redemption and life change in Christ when they actually see that life change in front of them. 

Lord, let us live radically holy, set apart lives, fully devoted to Christ, as a part of the culture around us. And use us to lead others to you through it. Help us live as You lived, Jesus, and help us hold fast to Your grace when we stumble. And let us do it together - we, collectively, the church, are the temple of the living God. Thank You - Amen!

--Jason

Holiness and Evangelism

"Christians need to be in the world, not of the world."

"Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words."

"We have to be culturally relevant."

We've all probably heard or used one, if not all, of these quotes before.  And they're good, true statements.  But I think sometimes we take them too far and use them as excuses.  Excuses not to take the uncomfortable step to share our faith, or to compromise our moral standards to watch a certain movie or TV show because lots of other people are, or to conform our behavior and speech to that of the people around us.  So what is often the result is that we end up not really appearing any different than the rest of the world around us, and the message of life change that we preach is not backed up with evidence in our lives.  I've certainly been guilty of these things before.

You may have heard me speak about the book unChristian, by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, and the findings of their research.  One of those findings is that people outside the church largely think Christians are hypocritical and judgmental.  I want to be a person, and for Cru to be a ministry, that helps to change those perceptions by not making some of the same mistakes the church has made in the past, and seeking fresh, new ways of sharing the Gospel.  We want to present a different and more Christlike picture of Christianity, while not altering or compromising the message of the Gospel.  This is why I bring up the subject of holiness.

One reason people see us as hypocritical and judgmental is because there is a disconnect between what we say and what we do.  Christians say that they are set apart and have a different moral standard, but our actions often fail to show it.  Here's some stats from the book:

• 84 percent of young people outside the church say they know at least one committed Christian, but only 15 percent thought the lifestyles of those Christians were significantly different from the norm (unChristian, pg. 48)
• According to countless surveys, born again Christians are just as likely as non-Christians to: gamble, visit a pornographic website, visit a psychic or medium, steal, get drunk, use illegal drugs, lie, take revenge, and talk bad about someone behind their back (unChristian, pg. 47)
• Christian adults identify "lifestyle" (being good, not sinning, doing the right thing) as the main priority of their faith (unChristian, pg. 48-49)

Taking those 3 results together, it's easy to see why those outside the church label us "hypocritical".  Morality is stated as a priority, but not actually pursued in practice.

I've been reading 2 Kings lately, and a number of times reference is made to the fact that Israel "walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel" (2 Kings 17:8), and "followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them that they should not do like them" (2 Kings 17:15).  God had called Israel to be set apart and different from the rest of the nations, worshipping Him alone and not engaging in the idolatry and wicked practices of the nations around them.  In this way they were to represent Him to those nations.  But they consistently failed, entering into idolatry and the very same wickedness and moral failure of the nations around them.

Do you see the parallel?  Christians are called to represent Christ to the people around us, living holy, set apart, changed lives.  But according to evidence that's not true of the church in general.  Just like in Israel, there are some who are living obediently, but apparently most are not.  And so our representation of Christ is poor.

That's why the call to holiness is so important.  If we are going to effectively reach people and reach culture for Christ, we must be living lives that are indeed different, transformed and set apart.  The New Testament repeatedly calls Christ-followers to be set apart, to put off the old self and put on the new.  As an example, look at this passage from Colossians:

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.  But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."   (Colossians 3:5-14)

Similar passages can be found in Ephesians 4:1-3, Ephesians 5:1-21, Galatians 5:16-26, and Romans 7:14-8:17, to name a few.  I strongly encourage you to take a look at these passages and spend some time thinking about them.

I'm not advocating the type of holiness that is just an outward action stuck on the exterior of our lives - that's not authentic life change.  Jesus spoke against that very trait of the Pharisees.  What we need is real holiness, authentic heart transformation, the kind performed by the Holy Spirit deep down in our hearts.  We ought to pray for it and seek it diligently, asking Jesus to remind us of inconsistent areas and places of sin, and praying for the power and discipline to escape those areas.  We need to surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives - He is the one who sanctifies and changes us.  He convicts us of sin so we can confess and repent of it, and He produces the fruit of self-control, love, kindness, goodness, etc. in us.  And when those transformations are happening (because we'll never be perfect, our sanctification is ongoing), imagine how much more effective our evangelism will be!  Not because we pridefully pat ourselves on the back and say "look how moral and good I am", but demonstrating real work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and the deep joy and satisfaction that life change brings.

Without this type of holiness, our hope of being "in the world, but not of the world", or of "preaching the Gospel without using words" will be nullified.  I pray that I can only practice what I preach!

Jason