“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”
~ 1 Corinthians 3:16
Hi James and Ellen,
Who and what are you? Are you just two kids or are you something more than just two kids? Who and what are you to God? Are you just two kids or are you more than just two kids to God? In the first letter that Paul sent to the Christ-follower guys and gals who were attendees of the Christ-follower fellowship that was meeting together in the city of Corinth, Paul told the guys and gals in 1 Corinthians 3 that because they are jealous of and quarreling with each other that they are acting like non-Christ-follower guys and gals. Paul was not pleased with how the guys and gals who were living in the city of Corinth – who were professing to be Christ-followers, were living their lives. In this first letter that Paul sent to the Christ-follower guys and gals who were adherents in the Christ-follower fellowship that was in the city of Corinth, Paul is candid about his observations and feelings regarding their infantile behavior. Do you at times act childish or juvenile? A kid who acts immature or puerile is acting like a little baby. When a newborn baby begins to cry because he or she is hungry, what does the baby’s ma give her little baby to stop him or her from crying? A new ma knows that her baby cannot have anything solid to eat until her baby gets older. A new ma knows that her baby can only drink milk or liquids until her baby is older. Paul tells the guys and gals who were devotees in the Christ-follower fellowship that was in the city of Corinth that they are like a baby to a ma. Paul tells the guys and gals who were active in the Christ-follower fellowship that was in the city of Corinth that if they had been dedicating themselves to growing spiritual as Christ-followers – such as feeding themselves daily from God’s Word just like they were feeding themselves every day with solid food instead of accepting what some insipid no-Christ-follower dudes were telling them – which was that they were still babies who needed their mas to give them milk to drink out of baby bottle in what and how to believe, that they would realize that what they were doing and how they were acting was totally inappropriate for how a Christ-follower guy or gal should act. How are you comporting yourselves? Are you building your lives’ foundations on Jesus Christ?
Paul said that he was an expert builder. Your grandpaa is not an expert builder. After your grandmaa and grandpaa was selected by the Canadian South America Mission Board of Directors to replace the Executive Director who began the Canadian South America Mission office in Guelph, Ontario, your grandpaa and grandmaa were asked to lead a short term construction team from Rockford, Michigan to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Other than spending time interacting with host country guys who are at a work site, your grandpaa does very little when he is with a short term construction team. One day during his time in Santa Cruz with the Rockford adult short term construction team that had flown to Santa Cruz to help build a church building, your grandpaa decided that he would lay some bricks to help this team. After your grandpaa spent a couple of hours carefully and conscientiously laying a number of rows of red bricks, one of the host country guys who was helping with the church construction told your grandpaa that there was to be a window where your grandpaa was trying to build a church wall. Your grandpaa had to take out a lot of the bricks that he had just spent a couple of hours fastidiously laying. What do you think that Paul meant when he said that he was an expert builder? Do you think that Paul was talking about being an expert house builder or do you think that he was talking about something else? How do you think an expert builder became an expert builder?
Paul used constructing a building as a metaphor to explain how a Christ-follower guy or gal has his or her life enabled. Vibrant, spiritual Christ-follower guys and gals know that their life foundation is Jesus Christ. Committed, radical Christ-follower guys and gals know that they need enabled guys and gals – like Paul, Apollos and Cephas and your grandmaa and grandpaa and . . ., to help build their lives to be open houses where God – as God the Son, can live, to help prepare their lives to be fertile fields where God – as God the Spirit, can do His work to produce the fruit of the spirit so that their lives in turn will help to reproduce the fruit of the spirit in the lives of other guys and gals and to help enable their lives to be sanctified temples where God – as God the Father can be worshipped. If you are now Christ-follower kids, you are now God’s fellow workers, fields and buildings. If you try to build you own personal identities on planet Earth by using the wealth that you accumulate, the name that you achieve and what you do for notoriety to prove yourselves worthy to God – as God the Father, you will find that what power, position and prestige that you end up having will not be able to withstand the fire tests that you are going to be put through by God – as God the Father. Money, titles and prominence have absolutely no value at all to God – as God the Father. God – as God the Father, will burn everything that is worthless to Him. Verse 16 clearly elucidates what it is that God – as God the Father, wants the disciples of His Son – Who is Christ Jesus, to grasp, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” God calls a guy or gal a fool if he or she thinks that he or she is wise. To become wise per God is to become a fool who understands that it is all about knowing that his or her life is in Christ. So – what do you know now about who and what you are to God – as God the Father? If your lives are God’s holy temples where He lives – as God the Son, God will not be happy with any guy or gal messing with your lives. Are you expert builders? You must first start out building your lives on the Jesus Christ foundation.
1 Corinthians 3 (876)