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Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
When we surrender our lives to Christ, we are made new. God’s Spirit dwells within us, and we become His temple. But what does it mean to be a temple, and how does that affect our daily lives?
In the 1700’s, a visionary architect named Étienne-Louis Boullée created stunning designs based on his belief that a building’s construction should be a poetic reflection of its purpose. Nearly one hundred years later, Lois Sullivan—the architect who mentored Frank Lloyd Wright—confirmed a similar belief when he penned his famous axiom, “form follows function.”
If we want to know what it means for us to be temples of the Holy Spirit, it helps to understand the form and function of a temple.
Generally speaking, temples exist in honor of a deity, and people visit temples to encounter that deity. The Bible calls us temples of the Holy Spirit, who is God. That means our function is to glorify God while we welcome visitors into His presence.
Does that sound familiar? It should, because it’s a reflection of the two greatest commandments.
Matthew 22:37-40 ESV - And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
If form follows function, and if our function is to love God while inviting others into His presence, then what form should our conversations take? What form should our tone of voice take? What about our body language? Our clothing choices? The way we manage our resources? The things we give approval to?
If our function is to glorify God while inviting others to do the same, then every choice in our lives should conform to this purpose.
It’s a hard pill to swallow, because it means self-fulfillment is entirely out of the question. Temples don’t exist for their own sakes, and neither do we. We exist to glorify God and to connect others with Him.
Temples are bridges between heaven and earth. The beauty of a bridge brings glory to its creator, but beauty is not the only function of a bridge. Bridges exist to be walked upon. They help people get past obstacles so that they can move from one place to another.
That is what this verse means:
Galatians 2:20 ESV - I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
It means we don’t exist for ourselves. Any self-fulfilling purpose we had was crucified with Christ when we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior.
Christ is the ultimate bridge. The salvation He freely offers bridges a chasm that cannot be crossed except through Him. When surrender our lives to Christ, we don’t just become representatives of His name. We become imitators of His purpose.
That changes everything.
In this series we’re going to explore what it means to be temples of the Holy Spirit. We’re going to look at the nine types of people who would visit a temple so that we can understand their motivation. If we understand what drives them, we will have a better idea of how we can help them on their journey towards the Lord.
By the end of this series, we should better understand God’s purpose for us. We should have a solid idea of how to form our lives around that purpose, and the way we think about how we interact with others will have radically shifted.
Love the part about temples and bridges, I needed to hear that today. Can't wait to keep reading through this series!