“Temple Desecration”
Text: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
1-21-2024
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” This is the question that St. Paul posed to the Corinthians. But don’t you find it rather odd that he would ask that at the end of his discourse about sexual purity? That might just be a logical conclusion, assuming you don’t know the context of his words. However, if we dig a bit deeper and see the broader picture of Paul’s world as well as the circumstances in Corinth then this will make perfect sense. And we’ll also see how it speaks just as powerfully to us Christians today.
First of all, what kind of imagery do think Paul had in mind when he said that believers are God’s “temple”? Well, as you may recall, he was born and bred a Jew. Paul was steeped in the history, the beauty, and sacredness of their temple which stood in Jerusalem. King Solomon built it nearly 1,000 years earlier. It was erected with reverence and no expense was spared when it came to the costly materials used in the construction. Why? Because this is where God would dwell among His people. This is where they would offer up holy prayers and sacrifices to their God. And this is where they would hear and receive the Lord’s blessing upon them.
As a practical point, when I read about the size of that building, I always wondered how many people it took to keep it clean. We know that there were certain tribes of the Jews who were assigned this sacred duty. Just imagine all the dirt and dust that they must have had to keep ahead of. And yet, there was a different kind of cleanliness that the Jews concerned themselves with at the Temple. There were various segregated courtyards that surrounded it and depending on your status you may or may not be allowed to get close to the actual sanctuary. Uncircumcised Gentiles, that is non-Jews, had to keep their distance. In fact, there were signs posted around the Temple grounds threatening death if these “unclean” people dared to desecrate this holy place by trespassing into areas they were not allowed. To the Jews, their presence would pollute the purity of it.
Keep in mind, the Temple had been through some tough times prior to this, which may explain the Jewish hypersensitivity about it. In 586 B.C. the Babylonians invaded and destroyed this holy place. It was a heartbreaking blow to the Jews. The Temple was eventually rebuilt. Well, destruction was bad enough, but there was an incident that was even more outrageous to the Jews. There was a foreign king named Antiochus Epiphanes who had conquered the region in the second century B.C. He had tried to force the Jews to adopt his Greek culture which included their pantheon of gods. He wouldn’t allow them to practice the rituals of their religion like offering sacrifices and circumcision. Naturally, the Jews resisted. Epiphanes was furious so in 168 B.C. he launched a surprise attack, killing thousands. But to get his point across, the soldiers also went into the Temple and erected a statue of the Greek god Zeus. Guess what else they did? They had sex within the holy chambers of the Temple as a way of honoring their god. Then they sacrificed a pig on the altar. Pigs were unclean to the Jews. This was more than insulting. It was the ultimate desecration of their holy Temple. Long story short, a group of angry Jews called the Maccabeans, fought back and reclaimed the Temple. And through a long, tedious process they cleansed the Temple of this defilement and restored it.
Okay, now fast forward a couple hundred years to St. Paul and the Corinthians. Corinth was a Greek city where Paul had gone and preached the Gospel. They too had temples; LOTS of temples to all kinds of gods. And like the Jews, they had their sacrifices and rituals. But their method of worship was far different. In order to gain the attention and blessing of their gods they would perform sexual acts at their temples. To facilitate that, the Corinthians had thousands of male and female prostitutes available, free of charge. So when the they thought of worship, sex (and lots of it) was a natural component. Paul came along and taught them that all of this was an abomination to the true God. Instead, he taught them how to worship the Lord with pure hearts and minds and to lead sexually pure lives with their bodies which meant reserving this act only for husbands and wives.
The problem was that some of the folks at Corinth had a difficult time breaking their old habit. There was a Greek philosophy that some of them still held onto that said what you do with your body doesn’t affect your spirit. That’s what the opening verses of our text are referring to. Earlier in 1 Corinthians Paul told them to not sweat it if they bought meat in the market place which had been offered to an idol. They hadn’t participated in the worship of that false god so what they put into their stomachs was no big deal. However, some folks applied that to the sexual act too. They figured that they could go on visiting the temple prostitutes and this somehow didn’t affect them spiritually. Paul makes it clear that this is wrong on all levels. What you do with your body does indeed affect your soul! Engaging in this kind of immorality was a participation in the worship of false gods and violated God’s clear commands on the sanctity of marriage and our sexuality.
And here’s where the part about being the temple of the Holy Spirit comes in. Like the Temple in Jerusalem, their bodies had been dedicated to the worship of the Lord. By being Baptized, God had consecrated them as His holy Temple where He would dwell. They had received the Holy Spirit and His presence within them had sanctified their bodies for His holy purposes. These bodily Temples were to remain clean and undefiled by their sins of the past. And that’s where the rub came in. Engaging in those sexual acts was tantamount to what Epiphanes were doing. They were desecrating God’s holy temple– their bodies. In essence, they were worshiping a false god within their bodily temple and offering unclean sacrifices in a place that was supposed to be dedicated to God and Him alone. This was more shocking and revolting to Paul than even the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple. The finely cut stones, cedar wood, gold, silver, and bronze of that temple were costly but they could be replaced. The temple of their bodies had been built with something far more precious. The innocent suffering and death of Jesus and His precious blood shed on the Cross were the payment for these temples of God, and that is irreplaceable. Knowing that, how could they even dare to desecrate God’s temple with their vile sins?
Isn’t it interesting how nothing really changes? As believers today we are tempted to Corinthianize our faith life. We act as though the sinful things that we do with our bodies somehow won’t affect our souls. Take Paul’s example about sexual purity. Nowadays when the Pastor dares to speak out against any and all sex outside of marriage, the common response is, “Preacher, stay out of my bedroom! What I do with my body is my own business. So, butt out!” Like the Corinthians the society around us is saturated with all kinds of illicit sex and promotes it. By engaging in it, we’re desecrating the bodily temple of the Holy Spirit who resides within us. And I would remind you that it isn’t just premarital sex, extramarital affairs, or living together that’s covered here. The orgies of lustful thoughts and little pornographic parties that we throw inside our own heads are just as vile to God as the rest of this stuff.
But you’ll totally miss St. Paul’s point if you think it’s only sexual immorality that can pollute and desecrate God’s holy temple in your body. Any and all sin that we commit is detestable to the Lord. He is not pleased nor will He simply wink at the vile thoughts, words, and actions that we invade His temple with. Through our selfishness we are setting up a statue of ourselves and worshiping that as our god. All of this is going on within the holy place of our bodies which He has consecrated as His own. The temple of your body was purchased with a price that is far more costly than any jewels or precious metals of this earth. Like the Corinthians, your bodily temple was purchased with the precious blood of Jesus on the cross. It was set apart for His holy purposes. How then can we defile His temple with our sin?
The bad news is that every single one of us here today has desecrated our bodily temple of the Holy Spirit. It needs to be cleansed and purified to make it fit for the proper and holy worship of the true God. And isn’t that what you’re here for? We don’t come here to give something to God. Rather, we come here to receive His precious, cleansing forgiveness. We come here to confess our many sins to Him and ask Him to purify His temple within us. The good news is that He does so; willingly, lovingly, again and again. He removes the defiling, desecration of our sin so that our bodily temple is holy and fit for Him to dwell in. He assures you of that as you hear His Word of life in the Scripture readings. In the preached Word, the Holy Spirit identifies the areas where sin may still be defiling you and how the Lord offers you His forgiveness. And He invites you to come to His holy table to receive the very body and blood of Christ which was shed to purchase and build His holy temple within you. From these holy temples we are able to offer up our acceptable prayers and praise to God. Now, as the sanctified temples of the Holy Spirit, you can go forth into our world and “glorify God in your body.” May God grant that all we think, say, and do will honor His holy presence within us. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!