Don't you realize!
(J. C. Philpot, "Meditations
on Ephesians")
"Don't you realize that you are God's temple
and
that God's Spirit lives in you?" 1 Cor. 3:16
Alas! how little is this truth contemplated and acted upon!
Were we more deeply and powerfully impressed with the
solemn truth that God Himself dwells in us through the
Spirit, how much more careful we would be to maintain . . .
truth and reality,
life and power in experience,
godliness and holiness in life!
What a reverential fear would possess our minds, that
we might not defile the Lord's temple, or sin against
and before, so holy and all-seeing a Guest!
If we realized this, and lived under its solemn weight and
influence, how careful we would be not to defile that body
which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. How desirous and
anxious we would be not to pollute . . .
our eyes by wandering lusts;
our ears by listening to worldly and carnal conversation;
our lips by speaking deceit, or light and frothy talk;
our hands by putting them to anything that is evil;
our feet by running on errands of vanity and folly.
We are to view our body as God's temple, and therefore
sanctified to His service and to His glory!
"God bought you with a high price! So you must honor
God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:20