The text in view is in Paul's first epistle to the church at Corinth. It's that nasty "sexual immorality" section when Paul "inconveniently" refers to "homosexual behavior" as one of the things that would preclude someone from inheriting the kingdom (1 Cor 6:9-10). (Not the point of this post.) Moving on, he goes on to talk about "All things are lawful for me" (1 Cor 6:12), but warns that not all things are profitable. In that part, he warns believers not to be joined to a prostitute. He says that the sexual union is actually a special union ... "One flesh" (1 Cor 6:15-16), and "your bodies are members of Christ," so ... "Flee sexual immorality" (1 Cor 6:18). "Or," he goes on to say (noting that the "or" is significant), "do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Cor 6:19-20). The text has been used to argue against smoking ... or even more. Logically, if your physical body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, it's not simply wise to take care of it. It's mandatory. That is, smoking, eating poorly, failing to exercise ... anything that is detrimental to your physical body would need to be classified as sin. Is that what Paul is saying?
I don't think he is. Why? You decide, but here's what I see. Paul wrote that "you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you" (1 Cor 3:16), but that "temple of God" refers to the body of Christ, where that "you" is plural ... "All you believers." In chapter 5, Paul was concerned about protecting the Church from sexual immorality. In Ephesians, Paul wrote about the "the holy temple" that is the Lord's "in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit" (Eph 2:19-22). The suggestion throughout Scripture is that there is one temple of God, not multiple temples. The "multiple temples" concept was purely a product of the pagan world with multiple gods. I would argue, then, that the "temple of the Holy Spirit" in 1 Cor 6:9 is a reference to the "one temple," and, therefore, that the "body" in view there is the body of Christ and the concern is the glorification of God in the body of Christ. The subject in the text is temple prostitutes. I think this is a reference to damage to the body of Christ by merging those in the body of Christ with idolatry.
I could be mistaken, but there seems to be other problems if we're going to say that our physical, temporal, short-term bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. First, it puts an emphasis on the physical when the whole aim is ... to stop being physical someday. That is, "the flesh" is typically sinful and we're supposed to move on from that. Second, if it is a reference to our individual physical bodies, we're looking at a serious problem. We shouldn't be eating Twinkies, failing to exercise, or doing anything physically detrimental, not as a suggestion or a matter of health, but as a problem of sin. Every overweight believer is sinning. You know what? It's probably a sin to go skydiving or other risky ventures as well. Maybe that's hyperbole, but you get the idea. It's not "smoking" ... it's anything that is not healthy, and anything that is not healthy is sin. Do we need to be concerned about personal piety? Absolutely! We are stones in the building. Should we take care of our health? Of course! Our bodies are ours as a stewardship, not a possession. But repeatedly Scripture is concerned about the heart more than the body, and it seems to me that this line of thinking that makes our bodies actual temples of the Holy Spirit turns that notion on its head.
I can't but help to connect this with the warning to the Jews who has said, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." We can't ignore the physical, but we also can't focus solely on the physical. I like your connection to the body of Christ. It makes a lot of sense in context and out.
ReplyDeleteI'd never thought bout the body being the larger body. It definitely makes a lot of sense. I can also see that the other interpretation could still have some validity as well. While I agree that our physical bodies do not represent what we anticipate for eternity, I (and I presume you) would think that taking care of the physical bodies that are made in the image of YHWH is a good thing. I think that your interpretation could be valuable for those who make gods of their physical bodies, while opening the door for those who don't take care of their bodies to go too far.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger question this seems to raise is about the role of our physical bodies, when our ultimate hope is the transformation of our physical bodies.
I appreciate this helpful post in response to my question from 9/30/25. Your thoughts here were convincing, and I would concur. As I commented the other day, I have always heard the phrase, “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,” used as a personal admonition regarding one’s physical health and well-being (as if I could harm or grieve the Holy Spirit within me though poor nutrition, disease, injury, etc.). (It’s another instance where isolating a verse from its context--i.e. purity within the church in Corinth--easily leads to misinterpretation.)
ReplyDeleteClearly, our physical bodies are gifts from God to be cherished and used for His glory and therefore stewarded as reasonably well as possible, but we also know they are corruptible (1 Cor. 15, Gen. 3:19). A passage I found helpful in thinking about this is 2 Cor. 5:1-5, where Paul compares his body to a tent--a somewhat flimsy, temporary dwelling--to be replaced by a permanent heavenly structure from “God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (v. 5). While we appreciate and utilize the “tent” and take care of it for its best service in this life, we truly cherish our position within the imperishable Body of Christ--the true Temple of the Holy Spirit.