Jehovah's Witnesses Straight Talk - Forum/Blog

You Are Temple of God

1Cor.3:16 Do you not see that you are God's holy house, and that the Spirit of God has his place in you?
3:17 If anyone makes the house of God unclean, God will put an end to him; for the house of God is holy, and you are his house. (The Bible in Basic English)

1Cor.3:16 Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you?
3:17 If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for God's temple is holy, which you are. (World English Bible)

Has any person in the history of mankind been called the temple of God? There is a vast difference in going to a temple to worship and being the temple of God is there not? (note not temple(s), but temple.)

King Solomon stated that the heavens of the heavens could not contain Jehovah/YHWH how could he build a house for God/temple so God could dwell upon this earth?

1 Kings 8:27 But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you; how much less this house that I have built!

But the apostle Paul above states by Holy Spirit that we are the temple of the living God?

Confusing The Flesh With Spirit

1 Corinthians 14:33 for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the assemblies of the saints.

Extreme are not uncommon when it comes to religion and/or the bible; fanatic that teach and worship their own flesh/body as one of many temples on earth, devoting it to having perfect food and health, and then the other extreme of denying any human pleasure in harsh treatment of the flesh. But what is the context of Paul's words, were they about worshiping the flesh, promoting ourselves as as a temple of God giving us a divine right to drape ourselves in luxury?

Well, we can say no! Paul later was to say in his writings that we know no one in the flesh any longer, not even Christ whom many talked with and walked with while he was on earth.

2 Corinthians 5:16 Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.

Christ himself stated that the flesh profits us nothing, and Paul wrote extensively about the flesh he saying nothing good dwelt in the flesh or could we know God in our flesh!

John 6:63 It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.

So when we uses Paul’s words about being the temple of God to vacation, workout, eat right, and/or to promote a certain diet thinking we becoming a better Christian’s we are misleading ourselves and will also mislead others into a cult of our fleshly worship.

Romans 8:6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;

What is Flesh and What is Spirit?

Are Christian’s being built up in the flesh or Spirit? Are we to walk by faith or in the Spirit, or by sight in the flesh? The entire understanding of God and being mature as a spiritual person is to put no confidence in their flesh, but why is that necessary for truth?

Romans 8:8 Those who are in the flesh can't please God.

2 Corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Simply put, we are dead in Christ to our old flesh, so the temple Paul speaks to cannot be our flesh dead in Christ, it has to be more, that most Christian’s reject, and think of flesh when it comes to their physical bodies as the temple of God.

2 Corinthians 5:4 For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened; not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

2 Peter 1:13 I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you;

2 Peter 1:14 knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

The Jews took the best materials from earth to build a physical temple for God, but those materials were corruptible they had to be maintained through great expense; what was out side was not what was important as YHWH incorruptible Holy present dwelling inside of the temple that only one person could enter once a year, not the whole nation.

When the Jews put all emphases on the outside of the temple its structure, they lost God, they became apostate to the truth of why God dwelt on the inner chambers of the temple the Holy of the Hollies.

1 Peter 3:4 but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God very precious.

God was never the structure it was a vessel nor was the way the Priest dressed, and looked righteous. It was indeed the present of God and his holiness that was important, the physical temple(s) God allowed over and over again to be corrupted by false worship allowing nations to conquering them physically by mankind.

Ezekiel 5:11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things, and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish [you]; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will have no pity.

The Power of Life

As God’s one temple the power of life is not in us, we have a vessel that corrupts and dies as some point. The power of life that dwells in God’s temple is Christ Jesus life. For this reason, position, power, looks, and what ever else we attach to our flesh is of no value at all in Christ life, the power of life for God’s temple, is Jesus Christ.

Romans 2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;

2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore we don't faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.

1 Peter 3:3 Let your beauty be not just the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on fine clothing;

That power cannot be maintained by us no more so than Israel could maintain God’s divine present in the physical temple. Such thinking is a corruption to the truth, it is a false attempt of thinking one can clean themselves, walk better, talk better making the a better temple of God. The Holiness of God’s temple does not come from man’s power it comes from the power of God in the life of Christ Jesus.

The book of Isaiah

Chapter 40

40:1 "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.
40:2 "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins."
40:3 The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
40:4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.
40:5 The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it."
40:6 The voice of one saying, "Cry!" One said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh's breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.
40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever."
40:9 You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Don't be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God!"
40:10 Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
40:11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.
40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or has taught him as his counselor?
40:14 Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
40:15 Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
40:16 Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
40:17 All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
40:18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?
40:19 A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.
40:20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved.
40:21 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?
40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;
40:23 who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless.
40:24 They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
40:25 "To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.
40:27 Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"
40:28 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
40:29 He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.
40:30 Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
40:31 But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.

One Body, One Faith, One Temple, Not Many!

1 Corinthians 12:20 But now they are many members, but one body.

Yes, that is the truth, one body, not many bodies of flesh making up the body of Christ as there is only one head on the one body! We worship in Christ in God’s temple in Spirit and truth the true God YHWH.

2 Corinthians 1:9 Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.
Romans 8:10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

It is Christ who is the high priest of his own body God Temple who feeds it cherish it and sanctifies it. When we put all emphasis on saving our flesh making it our life’s goal in building it up, making a name for ourselves in any manner from religion to politics we are not adding to the body of Christ, we are stealing and/or competing with the living temple of God Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:2 that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

Christ is complete, as God is complete, Christ being the image of God, what can corruption of the flesh add to Christ? And that is why the working within Christ body our his not ours, we cannot do the workings of God in our flesh or from the will of the flesh. (the power of the temple is Jesus Christ his life.)

1 Corinthians 2:4 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

1 Corinthians 2:5 that your faith wouldn't stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

There is nothing lacking in Christ so that he should be indebted to any human. If we belong to him, we share the glory of God that is in him not us. A hand on our body does not have a separate will, or glory nor does the brain it is one with the body for the glory of the body, which temple belongs to God and his glory.

1Cor.15:19 If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.
15:21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ's, at his coming.
15:24 Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.
15:25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
15:26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
15:27 For, "He put all things in subjection under his feet."{Psalm 8:6} But when he says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him.
15:28 When all things have been subjected to him, then the Son will also himself be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.

Completed: February 20, 2021

by: Daniel a Slave of Christ Jesus