1 Corinthians 6:19 – Verse of the Day 6/26/14

In our books, movies, and stories, our heroes and superheroes are often celebrated for singlehandedly saving the world without any help from anyone else. Heroes in the real world, however, usually have a lot of help. In fact, usually the most successful people are really gifted in working with others to accomplish a shared goal.

In this verse, when Paul refers to the body as a temple, he doesn’t just mean that the bodies of individual Christians are temples, but that the community of Christians together as the body of Christ is a temple. All of the “you” references in this verse are plural, but English has a tough time capturing this unless you are a southerner and like to say “ya’ll.” A good southern translation of this verse would be: “ya’ll’s body is a temple.” The point is that the Christian life isn’t a life that we can live on our own. We need our brothers and sisters in Christ. That is why Paul says we are not our own. We belong to God and one another.

What does it mean to belong to someone other than yourself – to belong to God and to other Christians? Thank God for the beautiful picture of fellowship given to us in the Gospel, and thank Him for the personal gift of His Holy Spirit living in you as a part of His body of believers.