Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Both together as his church and each person in body and in heart and mind are God's dwelling place where his Spirit lives. The temple belongs to God by creation and by purchase, and it is holy and must be kept pure and clean for him. Whoever defiles it will be destroyed, for willful violation brings certain judgment. Through sin the heart ceased to be his temple, but Christ cleanses it and enters to abide continually only when welcomed with surrender and the door opened to him. Keeping it undefiled means obeying the laws of life and health as well as moral purity, controlling appetite and passion by temperance, putting away impurity, pride, selfishness and strife, and being built on Christ in unity and holy character.
Temple Identity and Context
Believers together are the temple of God, his building and holy dwelling place where his Spirit dwells in them and among them. The church rises slowly as converts of every kind, large and small, polished and unhewn, common and precious, are brought into connection with Christ Jesus as the living foundation stone. This corporate temple includes a house of worship dedicated to do honor to God and to accommodate those assembling to worship him, where his presence is signaled in their midst as they bear free testimony. Truth is to sanctify the whole person in this temple, overcoming lustful practices and refusing self-deception and worldly wisdom.
Each person individually and the human body is the temple of God where the Spirit of God dwells. The body is designed by God and made by no human hand to be a dwelling for the Most High, created as his masterpiece for a high and holy purpose with his law to be written on every part of the human tabernacle. Every nerve and muscle and every mental and physical endowment is to be kept pure, with soul, body and spirit kept free from all that defiles. The Israelites were taught this lesson in all the affairs of daily life, that the temple is holy.
The soul, heart, mind and inner chambers are the temple where Christ and the Spirit dwell and work. The Spirit works on the mind to lead to inquiry for truth, angels impress the mind, and light shines into the chambers of the mind and into the soul-temple, sweeping deception and error from responding minds. There is an outer court and an inner sanctuary, and truth must be planted deep and not left outside, with the Spirit of Christ taking possession of speech, mental powers, and physical and moral powers. When Christ is enthroned within, pride, stubbornness, irritability and harshness give way to peace, meekness and a quiet spirit. Christ dwells in those open to heaven's influence, and the heart defiled by sin becomes God's temple again through his saving grace and cleansing presence.
The temple belongs to God as his cultivated land, constructed house, workmanship and masterpiece. It is bought with the price of Christ's life, the sacrifice of the only begotten Son, so body and spirit are his and every power is to serve him as sons and daughters. Divine working therefore joins with human effort in co-partnership with God, as students working the soil are to remember that they themselves are God's farm. Hardened hearts must be broken up and subdued like unplowed ground so the gospel seed of the Word can find favorable soil and produce a harvest, and caring for body and life including obeying the laws of health and avoiding neglect, harmful indulgence and overwork belongs to honoring God. The body as God's purchased possession must be cared for through temperance and control of appetite and passion, with separation from unrighteousness, darkness and idols and from touching the unclean thing so God will dwell in his people as their God and Father.
The verse was written to Christians divided over leaders such as Paul and Apollos. Envy, strife, prejudice, jealousy, evil surmising, withdrawing from some and binding up with others, taking sides over the one who brought light, exalting leaders and glorying in men prove a carnal condition, babes in Christ fed with milk and not meat, walking as men and lacking the mind and Spirit of Christ. Ministers only plant and water as fellow workers through whom others believed, while God gives the increase, and all work must be built on the one foundation Jesus Christ. Every man's work will be made manifest and revealed and tried by fire for reward if it abides or loss if it burns, with no building of wood, hay and stubble of personal opinions, plans and desires, and no judging of brethren for not counting one's own words, spirit and actions as perfection. Worldly wisdom, self-deception, business craftiness and human control must be put away, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, and those who seem wise must become fools to become truly wise, humbling the heart and belonging wholly to Christ.
From eternal ages God's purpose was that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. The tabernacle and Jerusalem temple were object lessons of his dwelling in the human soul, symbolizing his purpose for the soul fulfilled through Christ in pardon for sin and power to obey. By the incarnation of the Son of God heaven's purpose is fulfilled, God dwelling in humanity, and through saving grace the heart darkened and defiled by evil becomes again his temple and reveals his glory. Preparation of this spiritual building in the soul calls for cooperation with God and with one another, just as Israel worked together to prepare and furnish the wilderness sanctuary. The courts filled with unholy traffic pictured a heart defiled by sinful desires, selfish lusts and evil habits, and cleansing of the temple announced the mission to cleanse the heart from sin.
The church as God's temple must not be weakened or injured by rigid economy, self-imposed practices, or invented extra burdens that distress the body. Duties that humble the church and call its members to afflict their souls come from God's word, and extra inventions beyond it are not required.
Holiness and Divine Judgment
The temple is holy because God himself and his Spirit dwell there, and it must not be defiled but kept pure, clean and dedicated as holiness to God through Christ. Believers are that holy temple because the Spirit dwells in them and among them, and the call to honor God in the body stands apart from idolatry and unrighteous fellowship. Defiling this holy dwelling brings God's judgment and destruction upon the defiler.
Anyone who defiles the temple of God will be destroyed by God, for the temple is holy because God dwells there and each person is to prepare that dwelling place in himself for the Spirit to live in. This warning applies personally to humble the heart, renounce worldly wisdom and self-glory, and become a fool in the world's eyes in order to be truly wise. Willful transgression of physical law is sin whose punishment is death, and those who ruthlessly degrade the body through careless self-degradation must render a terrible account to God and will not stand in the great day of trial just before us. The evil within the heart cannot be cast out by human effort but only by Christ, who does not force entrance yet when welcomed subdues sins and cleanses and sanctifies the soul as a holy dwelling for God through the Spirit. Those who defile themselves and others pollute God's temple, including by unclean dress that defiles body and soul, by bodily and spiritual harm from indulgence such as meat eating, and by rivalry and Sodom-like sins cherished by church members, upon whom God's long-delayed but certain judgments will soon fall.
Defiling works by cause and effect, fixing diseased conditions in the system as its sure result when the physical laws of life and health, made by God as truly as the moral law, are broken in ignorance or by knowing neglect. Every transgression of the laws of physical life is a transgression of the laws of God, appearing in sickness, ruined constitutions and even death, yet a settlement must also be made with God. Violating the moral obligation owed to self by disregarding those laws robs God, works contrary to highest interests, and utterly fails to represent him, for men and women as temples of the living God and fearfully and wonderfully made require close, watchful guardianship to preserve his workmanship before the heavenly universe and the apostate race. God keeps an account of every work whether good or evil and in the day of judgment will give every man according to his work, so punishment must and will follow every such transgression, and each person is accountable for light, privileges, talents, gifts, means and influence entrusted to them. Defiling spreads to many others like evil leaven, for a man defiles the temple both by polluting his own body through impure sight and touch and when through his influence he leads another soul into sin, and cleansing the soul temple means removing inner defilement such as envy and jealousy.
Cleansed and Indwelt by Christ
Through sin humanity ceased to be God's temple, with the heart darkened and defiled, and through saving grace the defiled heart becomes His temple again. The heart defiled by sin becomes God's temple again through Christ's saving grace and cleansing presence, for Christ alone can cast out the evil throng, subdue iniquities, cast sins into the depths of the sea, and cleanse and sanctify the soul as an habitation of God. Believers are God's holy temple because the Spirit of God dwells in them, and the soul is God's temple meant for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. When truth is received and the will is brought under Christ's control, the soul-temple is cleansed from moral defilement and made ready for Christ to dwell in it, and the Spirit's deep working fills the soul with earnest love for Christ. When the heart does not resist the Spirit's work, the soul is cleansed daily and sanctified for the Spirit's indwelling, calling for life and conduct shaped by the Spirit in a hallowed frame of mind drawn toward heavenly things.
Christ stands at the door and knocks and does not force entrance as in the temple of old. He enters and dwells continually only when welcomed, the door opened, self crucified and the soul surrendered, cleansed, emptied and consecrated to Him. This work must begin with the heart in this life and requires thoughts of an altogether different character, as preparation for standing around the throne of God with a crown of glory, and it must be done in haste before it is too late. Cleansing requires greater striving to overcome every failure and sin and to stand right before God on the platform of eternal truth, yielding obedience to God because the Spirit wars against the flesh, keeping the commandments and loving God, since no taint of sin can ever enter heaven. Purifying the soul-temple is a work each person must do for themselves that no one else can do for them, by cutting affections and dependence away from every human being and earthly object and fastening them upon God, seeking the Lord with all the heart with certainty that He will be found, consecrating the life to God, emptying the self of envy and jealousy, and becoming a humble child of God who walks humbly with Him and cultivates the spirit of Christ in meekness and lowliness of heart. When Jesus cleanses the soul-temple the heart is filled with the sweet peace of heavenly love, is put in unity with the Spirit of God instead of complaining against others, and is made able to present an offering in righteousness.
When received, Christ occupies the heart every day, is enthroned within, walks in His people and is formed within as the hope of glory. His presence purifies, restores God's image and moral power, fills the soul with earnest love, peace, humility, meekness, patience and compassion, and is shown by tender conscience, sympathy with His purposes and good fruit in words and deeds. The Spirit works in the heart to bring conviction of sin, soften it, and make it fit for Christ to dwell there, and the Spirit is to be received as an abiding guest who guides into truth and gives joy and peace. Yielding human abilities to the Spirit enables God to overcome inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong and to reveal His character through people, cleansing this temple from worldliness and love of pleasure and leading to valuing prayer, fulfilling duties faithfully, and receiving and reflecting light from God.
The indwelling is given through cooperation with God, prayer, receiving the Word, obedience and communion in heart and mind. The Spirit asked for in morning prayer to receive orders from above gives words and courage and efficiency, builds believers up, and does far more than is realized to perfect character so that carelessness, foolishness, and entering into things they have no business with will not cause loss of eternal life, and with living, active, working faith from Him they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Spirit searches thoughts and purposes of the heart, convicts of sin, guides into truth, stamps Scripture truth upon the soul and enables victory over inherited and cultivated wrong, and restores God's moral image in people. Receiving God's Word and partaking of Christ's life give Christians an experience like the divine, and after baptism the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit pledge power to help the believer honor God, the Spirit changing the heart of stone to a heart of flesh. God is valued in a person and uses each person for service just in proportion as He can put His Spirit into the soul-temple, not by worldly learning, eloquence, or wealth, and accepted service reflects God's image and displays the enduring principles of His character; but foolish conversation closes the way to the influence of the Spirit of God and takes power from instruction that would otherwise make students wise unto salvation upon mind and heart.
Christ does not abide in the sinner who resists heaven's influence, in a wicked man, or in a heart filled with worldly policy, money worship, pride and selfish plans. When a Christian gives worldly policy and the worship of money room in the soul, God is excluded, and using entrusted possessions for self-glorification can obscure God and heaven and close the mind to the Redeemer instead of advancing His kingdom and bringing people to know Christ. Without communion with God in heart and mind through sincere obedience and personal knowledge of Him as Redeemer, the heart is not God's temple but is controlled by the enemy whatever is professed, and a profession of knowing Christ without good fruit in words and deeds is false. A heart not fully surrendered to God remains a stronghold for Satan where his suggestions become mixed with truth, error is accepted as truth, and the soul-temple is polluted, so that divided loyalty leaves a person vulnerable to deception and turns religion into an empty form. When parents fill their lives with other concerns and give idols the devotion due to God, they leave no room in the soul for Jesus and close the heart to truth, misrepresent Christ and fail to show their children practical religion.
Christ formed within is the inward, heavenly adornment needed in place of concern focused on outward decoration, and the soul-temple must be cleansed.
Unity Over Division
Envy and strife, evil surmising, withdrawing from some and binding up with others, and taking sides over the one who brought the light prove carnality and walking as men, separating from brethren and thus from God, hindering the Comforter and showing need for reconversion. The soul is the temple where Jesus dwells by His Spirit, and cherished suspicions, envy, jealousies, evil surmisings, jealousy, distrust, petulance, faction, independence, discouragement, stubbornness and selfishness defile it and exclude the blessing, for He cannot dwell in a heart where they are cherished. That temple must be cleansed and emptied of every defilement by getting away from self in order to have unity and harmony and to lay hold on eternal life. God holds each one accountable for the light, privileges and talents entrusted, and refusing to use them faithfully forfeits His favor, while those who labor for the church need to be converted and Christlike in character. Cleansing comes by fearing God and working righteousness, laboring disinterestedly for eternity with His Spirit while looking continually unto Jesus, with close investigation of motives and feelings by comparing them with the Word of God. It requires putting trust in God rather than remaining in bondage to dependence on the approval of others, working away from selfishness with all acts wrought in God with an eye single to His glory, and hanging the helpless soul upon Him. Pursuing a selfish, unconsecrated course makes a person weak, and that weakness is self-caused, whereas a soul connected with God has strength and fortitude which nothing can shake, and shows by humble, meek, lowly works everywhere that the cause of God is at heart. Staying aloof from meetings and taking no part shows being not right with God, and cherishing Cain-like feelings is dangerous and will ruin unless earnest effort is made to work away from that spirit.
All who are truly converted are aided by one Agency from one Source to be channels of grace in love, unity and harmonious action, and they must not stand as independent atoms or in parties but make straight paths, strengthen one another, labor with differing gifts to one object and receive reward according to labor. His love welcomed as an abiding Guest drives out hatred, selfishness, envy, dissension and strife, and His law is engraved in the minds and hearts of His commandment-keeping people, so that obedience brings life, happiness, health and special blessing. The mercy and love of Christ must possess and control the soul, casting out the fierce, wicked, Satanic spirit of selfishness, pride, and harsh judgment and condemnation of others. When the cold, stony heart hardened by selfishness is broken, sanctified, and exchanged for a heart of flesh under control of the divine will with enlightened understanding, the Spirit dwells in the heart and yields mercy and compassion that relieves the hungry, naked, imperiled and suffering in temporal and spiritual things. Pure and undefiled religion, which is doing works of love and mercy rather than sentiment, enters that polluted soul-temple with a scourge to drive out the sinful intruder, take the throne, and consecrate all by its presence. That indwelling presence illuminates the heart with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, opens the windows of the soul heavenward to let in the sunshine of God's love, and fills the soul with the atmosphere of heaven as a living, active agency, bringing serenity and composure and increasing physical, mental, and moral strength and health and happiness, so that Christ is formed within as the hope of glory.
Where Christ truly abides by His Spirit contention ceases because it is offensive and grieves Him, and no one in whom He dwells is fractious, suspicious, criticizing or accusing. Instead such a one shows greater benevolence, greater humility and the simplicity of Christ, with heart blending with heart in brotherly love and oneness with Christ. Under His influence the Spirit animates the whole community so that every pulse beats in concert, all are of one heart and of one mind, and one emulation for Christ swallows up every other. Cleansing of the soul temple which Jesus Himself must do means consecrating the life to God, emptying the self of envy and jealousy and mistrust and selfishness, and becoming a humble child of God who walks humbly with Him and cultivates the spirit of Christ in meekness and lowliness of heart. When He so cleanses, the heart is filled with the sweet peace of heavenly love.
Stewardship of Body and Health
Keeping the temple undefiled means obeying the laws of life and health, for God made physical law as truly as He made the moral law, and the body is to be kept physically healthy and morally free from defilement as a fit dwelling for His indwelling presence. Breaking those healthful principles in ignorance or by knowing neglect is sin against God and works against His work in the body, and ignorance does not excuse disobedience. Such violation fixes diseased conditions in the system as its sure result, bringing suffering and disease and responsibility for bodily abuse, while God provides food for enjoyment and health and calls for restraint of unnatural appetite. The temple is holy and must not be defiled, calling for purity of life, self-control, self-denial, temperance, obedience to natural law, preservation of physical health, and readiness as for an honored guest and for Christ's coming.
Defiling the temple is forming any habit that lessens the healthful action of any organ of mind or body and perverts God-given powers of reason, affections, conscience and senses to minister to the carnal mind. Liquor, tobacco, tea, wine, drugs, opium, poison and other destroying agencies placed on the table or taken into the mouth degrade reason, senses and faculties, cause them to wither and decay, destroy appreciation for intellect and sacred things, and defile soul, mind and body, and no one has any right to do this. Living for continual excitement, including cricket and football matches and horse-racing, with the liquor curse, likewise degrades life, and the drunkard who sells himself for poison gives Satan control and destroys the temple. God will not work a miracle to restore to soundness those who continue in such degrading use, and those who give themselves to tobacco and liquor fail to appreciate intellect and to realize the value of faculties given to be cultivated, enlarged and improved. The better one becomes acquainted with the Maker the more sacred life becomes, so that one knowingly refuses what defiles and degrades the whole being, feeling the necessity of improvement and laying aside no entrusted gift.
Appetite and passion must be controlled by temperance, self-denial and simple diet of grains and fruits in natural condition, for creating a perverted appetite violates the laws of human nature. Gluttony and excess eating and drinking, meat eating, feverish indulgence, stimulants, narcotics, many kinds of food at one meal, and harmful speech from the lips pollute and defile the temple. Such indulgence excites the lower passions, deadens moral powers and clouds spiritual discernment, perverting body powers from holy use.
Care of God's workmanship and property includes using brain, bones and muscles wisely, eating and working sensibly, and allowing adequate sleep so the body has time to repair its organs. The body must not be defiled by indulgence in human passions nor endangered through neglect, excessive strain, overwork, reckless exhaustion of strength, or overtaxing the machinery, for such exhaustion is sin whatever the action causing it. Overstimulating the brain through excessive study can produce impure thoughts and actions, harm the nervous system and defile the temple, while using powers of mind and body in proper proportion helps prevent this. Tobacco smoke, filthy breath and poisoning the breath with tobacco, coarse disorder in worship, and waste of means on tobacco also dishonor God and defile the holy temple.
Uncleanliness in dress defiles body and soul because it is unhealthful, and defiling the temple in this way brings warning of judgment and destruction. Bodily cleanliness and neat clothing, with neat and modest apparel and pure, clean habits without and within, belong to outward purity, holiness and fitness for God to dwell with His people. Keeping the body from defilement, filthiness and uncleanness is therefore the duty of those who love and serve Him.
Moral Purity and Faithfulness
The body is God's holy temple because His Spirit dwells in it, and to corrupt the body by impure, self-destructive habits is to profane that temple and bring destruction upon oneself, so that only sincere repentance, complete reform and pursuit of holiness can restore fitness for God's favor and heaven. Fornication, adultery, licentiousness, indulgence of baser passions, impure sight and touch, and lustful practices even continued in married life debase the mind, weaken the brain, dwarf and pollute the soul, and corrupt physical, mental and moral power, defiling what must be presented as a living sacrifice in body, soul and spirit. The marriage relation is to be kept sacred as part of keeping that temple holy, and the barrier God erected is not to be broken down by unequal marriage with an unbeliever. Mind and heart must be kept free from impurity by a fidelity as true as steel to marriage vows in thought, word and deed, giving the wife first place in the affections and refusing sentimental, spiritualistic affection for another woman. When love and honor are given to God He takes charge of the affections and centers them on proper objects, while giving place to lust, jealousy and seducing spiritualistic ideas defiles His temple and must be repented of and put away, with genuine forgiveness joined to true penitence, inward change of mind and spirit, and outward conduct matching faith.
The soul is God's temple where Christ should be enshrined and occupy every day, and it is desecrated when frivolous reading, trifling conversation and worldly pleasure fill the mind and leave no room for God's Word. Selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, self-exaltation, pride, love of display and pleasure, love of the world, malice, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, unholy passions, covetousness, deceit, falsehood, impurity, anger, animosity, worldly ambition and cherished sin take hold of the heart, displace Christ, exclude blessing and close it to truth. Such selfish thoughts and interests must be banished and such sin put away so that Jesus can occupy and cleanse the temple, sanctify the heart by truth, and spiritually strengthen it to seek God. A life ruled by pride, love of display and pleasure rather than by Christ is not in keeping with the heart as God's temple where His Spirit is to dwell, and the heart must be converted, refined and cleansed so that Christ and not Satan abides in it, with love for every soul for whom Christ died, a careful burden for souls, no occasion for youth or those of mature age to stumble, and no channel made for impurity.
The living temple is polluted today by the same defilement that polluted the Jerusalem temple when gain is substituted for godliness and outward pomp for inward purity, when sacred things are brought down to the level of the world, vice is mistaken for virtue and righteousness for crime, temporal business is mingled with worship, and extortion and wicked speculation are practiced by professed servants of God. Greed, worldly interests, vice and outward show in place of inward purity defile the holy temple where the Spirit dwells and bring God's judgment, so Jesus must occupy and cleanse the human heart each day from sin. When worldly policy and worship of money are given room in the soul, God is excluded from His temple, and entrusted possessions used for self-glorification obscure God and heaven and close the mind to the Redeemer instead of advancing His kingdom and bringing people to know Christ. Commercial pursuits, confusing holy business methods, unjust gain and self-exaltation that displace God call for humility, obedience to His law and faithful conduct rather than presumption that temple identity permits what His word forbids, for He will cleanse and purify His temple. When other concerns and idols receive the devotion due to God, no room is left in the soul for Jesus, the heart is closed to truth, and practical religion is misrepresented before children.
Building Character for Eternity
God's temple is built with exact care on Christ with lasting material, piece fitting piece perfectly under divine direction day by day to fill its place, with no cheap timbers, haphazard work, sand foundation that brings terrible downfall, jumble of opposites, or corrupt trait allowed to remain. Solid timbers are faith, virtue, knowledge, diligence and prayer, and a harmonious character is formed by daily choices and small acts, by learning and practising the lessons of Scripture that mould thoughtful, careful service, and by earnest daily work to overcome defects while Christ is cherished within. The soul-temple must be cleansed of miserable self that takes Christ's room, of moral defilement and inward imperfection, changeableness and excusing of sin, so that truth sanctifies the whole person, changes words and conduct, humbles pride, purifies the inner life, restores God's image, and lets Christ's light fill, elevate and bring heaven's peace to the soul.
True greatness is making the soul-temple a place where God delights to dwell by walking humbly before Him, not with forced humility but with a genuine sense of personal inefficiency and of His greatness, striving earnestly to prepare the soul for His dwelling. When the heart is opened to grace and purged of selfishness, God beautifies His temple and the Spirit moulds the humbled, contrite, self-emptied agent, for the Spirit cannot fashion the person while selfishness remains. The pure heart where God dwells and Christ abides is more precious than the gold of Ophir, set above everything cheap and low, a shining light and treasury of all virtue where God's image is recognized, finding its whole pleasure in God with thoughts, intents and purposes alive with godliness, occupied with glorifying Him, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ, admitting no unworthy imagery and no company that does not harmonize with God, and shining with the Sun of Righteousness to others as an example to old and young. The inward parts are a holy temple to be kept pure, noble and heavenly with conscience void of offense toward God and men, firm principle, reverence for God's Word, purity of life, and shutting out of low, cheap, common talk, for rich treasures of wisdom flow from a pure heart while corrupt principles entering the temple reveal themselves in words and actions that separate from God and extinguish moral and spiritual power, a charge resting especially on parents and teachers in home discipline.
A beautiful temple for the Lord develops from foundations of righteous character laid in babyhood and childhood and trained for God from earliest years unto full maturity in manhood and womanhood. Home religion, Christian politeness and courtesy, control of self by parents, trimming the inner lamp, and revealing piety, virtue and godliness in home life prepare the soul-temple, for self comes first and God will not accept even the most splendid service unless the offerer is first consecrated by entire surrender, since unless the root is holy there can be no acceptable fruit. Untidy homes and neglected habits fail to represent faith, and correcting these evils with lives and conduct that honor faith is part of becoming a lovely and fitting temple for God.
The verse is a test of readiness for the Lord's coming to be thought over at home and personally applied, since many who think they are prepared are not, and applied with God's help it gives understanding, separation from hindrances, knowledge of God's will, walking in that pathway, freedom, and being all light in the Lord through confessing Christ, acknowledging experience, and coming out of darkness into His marvelous light. Character defects must be remedied and the soul-temple cleansed of every defilement, natural depravity and fleshly lusts before receiving God's seal, and when cleansing is complete the latter rain will fall as the early rain fell at Pentecost. This cleansing with Christ enthroned in the heart is the first work of young men entering the ministry before taking places left vacant by fallen standard-bearers, extending the aggressive warfare, going into dark places and calling perishing souls to repentance that the message may still be proclaimed, and it is required of all in places of trust in Christian work and institutions by dying to self, opening the heart's door to Jesus, letting Him rule and guide, and living as well as preaching the Word in every phase of work in obedience. Abusing the temple brings suffering and misery, so reforms of life are called for to present the person holy and without blame, pure, virtuous, holy and healthy physically and spiritually, putting away greed for gain and pollution of every trace, which is necessary as judgment nears and God's plagues begin to fall in order to escape those plagues and stand in the day of trial.
Young men and women at school are God's temple where His Spirit lives, and that temple is holy, calling for sincere conversion and honoring the Creator by a truthful, refined, uplifted life that restores His image. Defiling through lower appetites and passions stirred when the Word is opened is forbidden, for defiling brings destruction as God allows cause to produce effect, and so are self-deception, becoming wise by worldly wisdom which is foolishness with God, glorying in men, seeking the highest place, and turning the mind into wrong channels instead of learning all possible from Scripture. Becoming that temple requires cooperation with God so the Spirit can work upon heart, conscience and character, with teachers giving an all-round education to that end and welcoming His indwelling in schools, since foolish conversation closes the way to His influence and takes power from instruction that would otherwise make students wise unto salvation upon mind and heart. Keeping the temple free from defilement means humbling self to receive God's wisdom, thinking far less of worldly wisdom, valuing obedience above the estimation of the world, for God calls the humble and obedient wise though the world calls them fools, and it includes caring for the body as God's workmanship and property by using brain, bones and muscles wisely, eating and working sensibly, and allowing sleep for repair as part of serving and obeying God.
Both together as his church and each person in body and in heart and mind are God's dwelling place where his Spirit lives. The temple belongs to God by creation and by purchase, and it is holy and must be kept pure and clean for him. Whoever defiles it will be destroyed, for willful violation brings certain judgment. Through sin the heart ceased to be his temple, but Christ cleanses it and enters to abide continually only when welcomed with surrender and the door opened to him. Keeping it undefiled means obeying the laws of life and health as well as moral purity, controlling appetite and passion by temperance, putting away impurity, pride, selfishness and strife, and being built on Christ in unity and holy character.
Temple Identity and Context
Believers together are the temple of God, his building and holy dwelling place where his Spirit dwells in them and among them. The church rises slowly as converts of every kind, large and small, polished and unhewn, common and precious, are brought into connection with Christ Jesus as the living foundation stone. This corporate temple includes a house of worship dedicated to do honor to God and to accommodate those assembling to worship him, where his presence is signaled in their midst as they bear free testimony. Truth is to sanctify the whole person in this temple, overcoming lustful practices and refusing self-deception and worldly wisdom.
Each person individually and the human body is the temple of God where the Spirit of God dwells. The body is designed by God and made by no human hand to be a dwelling for the Most High, created as his masterpiece for a high and holy purpose with his law to be written on every part of the human tabernacle. Every nerve and muscle and every mental and physical endowment is to be kept pure, with soul, body and spirit kept free from all that defiles. The Israelites were taught this lesson in all the affairs of daily life, that the temple is holy.
The soul, heart, mind and inner chambers are the temple where Christ and the Spirit dwell and work. The Spirit works on the mind to lead to inquiry for truth, angels impress the mind, and light shines into the chambers of the mind and into the soul-temple, sweeping deception and error from responding minds. There is an outer court and an inner sanctuary, and truth must be planted deep and not left outside, with the Spirit of Christ taking possession of speech, mental powers, and physical and moral powers. When Christ is enthroned within, pride, stubbornness, irritability and harshness give way to peace, meekness and a quiet spirit. Christ dwells in those open to heaven's influence, and the heart defiled by sin becomes God's temple again through his saving grace and cleansing presence.
The temple belongs to God as his cultivated land, constructed house, workmanship and masterpiece. It is bought with the price of Christ's life, the sacrifice of the only begotten Son, so body and spirit are his and every power is to serve him as sons and daughters. Divine working therefore joins with human effort in co-partnership with God, as students working the soil are to remember that they themselves are God's farm. Hardened hearts must be broken up and subdued like unplowed ground so the gospel seed of the Word can find favorable soil and produce a harvest, and caring for body and life including obeying the laws of health and avoiding neglect, harmful indulgence and overwork belongs to honoring God. The body as God's purchased possession must be cared for through temperance and control of appetite and passion, with separation from unrighteousness, darkness and idols and from touching the unclean thing so God will dwell in his people as their God and Father.
The verse was written to Christians divided over leaders such as Paul and Apollos. Envy, strife, prejudice, jealousy, evil surmising, withdrawing from some and binding up with others, taking sides over the one who brought light, exalting leaders and glorying in men prove a carnal condition, babes in Christ fed with milk and not meat, walking as men and lacking the mind and Spirit of Christ. Ministers only plant and water as fellow workers through whom others believed, while God gives the increase, and all work must be built on the one foundation Jesus Christ. Every man's work will be made manifest and revealed and tried by fire for reward if it abides or loss if it burns, with no building of wood, hay and stubble of personal opinions, plans and desires, and no judging of brethren for not counting one's own words, spirit and actions as perfection. Worldly wisdom, self-deception, business craftiness and human control must be put away, for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, and those who seem wise must become fools to become truly wise, humbling the heart and belonging wholly to Christ.
From eternal ages God's purpose was that every created being, from the bright and holy seraph to man, should be a temple for the indwelling of the Creator. The tabernacle and Jerusalem temple were object lessons of his dwelling in the human soul, symbolizing his purpose for the soul fulfilled through Christ in pardon for sin and power to obey. By the incarnation of the Son of God heaven's purpose is fulfilled, God dwelling in humanity, and through saving grace the heart darkened and defiled by evil becomes again his temple and reveals his glory. Preparation of this spiritual building in the soul calls for cooperation with God and with one another, just as Israel worked together to prepare and furnish the wilderness sanctuary. The courts filled with unholy traffic pictured a heart defiled by sinful desires, selfish lusts and evil habits, and cleansing of the temple announced the mission to cleanse the heart from sin.
The church as God's temple must not be weakened or injured by rigid economy, self-imposed practices, or invented extra burdens that distress the body. Duties that humble the church and call its members to afflict their souls come from God's word, and extra inventions beyond it are not required.
Holiness and Divine Judgment
The temple is holy because God himself and his Spirit dwell there, and it must not be defiled but kept pure, clean and dedicated as holiness to God through Christ. Believers are that holy temple because the Spirit dwells in them and among them, and the call to honor God in the body stands apart from idolatry and unrighteous fellowship. Defiling this holy dwelling brings God's judgment and destruction upon the defiler.
Anyone who defiles the temple of God will be destroyed by God, for the temple is holy because God dwells there and each person is to prepare that dwelling place in himself for the Spirit to live in. This warning applies personally to humble the heart, renounce worldly wisdom and self-glory, and become a fool in the world's eyes in order to be truly wise. Willful transgression of physical law is sin whose punishment is death, and those who ruthlessly degrade the body through careless self-degradation must render a terrible account to God and will not stand in the great day of trial just before us. The evil within the heart cannot be cast out by human effort but only by Christ, who does not force entrance yet when welcomed subdues sins and cleanses and sanctifies the soul as a holy dwelling for God through the Spirit. Those who defile themselves and others pollute God's temple, including by unclean dress that defiles body and soul, by bodily and spiritual harm from indulgence such as meat eating, and by rivalry and Sodom-like sins cherished by church members, upon whom God's long-delayed but certain judgments will soon fall.
Defiling works by cause and effect, fixing diseased conditions in the system as its sure result when the physical laws of life and health, made by God as truly as the moral law, are broken in ignorance or by knowing neglect. Every transgression of the laws of physical life is a transgression of the laws of God, appearing in sickness, ruined constitutions and even death, yet a settlement must also be made with God. Violating the moral obligation owed to self by disregarding those laws robs God, works contrary to highest interests, and utterly fails to represent him, for men and women as temples of the living God and fearfully and wonderfully made require close, watchful guardianship to preserve his workmanship before the heavenly universe and the apostate race. God keeps an account of every work whether good or evil and in the day of judgment will give every man according to his work, so punishment must and will follow every such transgression, and each person is accountable for light, privileges, talents, gifts, means and influence entrusted to them. Defiling spreads to many others like evil leaven, for a man defiles the temple both by polluting his own body through impure sight and touch and when through his influence he leads another soul into sin, and cleansing the soul temple means removing inner defilement such as envy and jealousy.
Cleansed and Indwelt by Christ
Through sin humanity ceased to be God's temple, with the heart darkened and defiled, and through saving grace the defiled heart becomes His temple again. The heart defiled by sin becomes God's temple again through Christ's saving grace and cleansing presence, for Christ alone can cast out the evil throng, subdue iniquities, cast sins into the depths of the sea, and cleanse and sanctify the soul as an habitation of God. Believers are God's holy temple because the Spirit of God dwells in them, and the soul is God's temple meant for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. When truth is received and the will is brought under Christ's control, the soul-temple is cleansed from moral defilement and made ready for Christ to dwell in it, and the Spirit's deep working fills the soul with earnest love for Christ. When the heart does not resist the Spirit's work, the soul is cleansed daily and sanctified for the Spirit's indwelling, calling for life and conduct shaped by the Spirit in a hallowed frame of mind drawn toward heavenly things.
Christ stands at the door and knocks and does not force entrance as in the temple of old. He enters and dwells continually only when welcomed, the door opened, self crucified and the soul surrendered, cleansed, emptied and consecrated to Him. This work must begin with the heart in this life and requires thoughts of an altogether different character, as preparation for standing around the throne of God with a crown of glory, and it must be done in haste before it is too late. Cleansing requires greater striving to overcome every failure and sin and to stand right before God on the platform of eternal truth, yielding obedience to God because the Spirit wars against the flesh, keeping the commandments and loving God, since no taint of sin can ever enter heaven. Purifying the soul-temple is a work each person must do for themselves that no one else can do for them, by cutting affections and dependence away from every human being and earthly object and fastening them upon God, seeking the Lord with all the heart with certainty that He will be found, consecrating the life to God, emptying the self of envy and jealousy, and becoming a humble child of God who walks humbly with Him and cultivates the spirit of Christ in meekness and lowliness of heart. When Jesus cleanses the soul-temple the heart is filled with the sweet peace of heavenly love, is put in unity with the Spirit of God instead of complaining against others, and is made able to present an offering in righteousness.
When received, Christ occupies the heart every day, is enthroned within, walks in His people and is formed within as the hope of glory. His presence purifies, restores God's image and moral power, fills the soul with earnest love, peace, humility, meekness, patience and compassion, and is shown by tender conscience, sympathy with His purposes and good fruit in words and deeds. The Spirit works in the heart to bring conviction of sin, soften it, and make it fit for Christ to dwell there, and the Spirit is to be received as an abiding guest who guides into truth and gives joy and peace. Yielding human abilities to the Spirit enables God to overcome inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong and to reveal His character through people, cleansing this temple from worldliness and love of pleasure and leading to valuing prayer, fulfilling duties faithfully, and receiving and reflecting light from God.
The indwelling is given through cooperation with God, prayer, receiving the Word, obedience and communion in heart and mind. The Spirit asked for in morning prayer to receive orders from above gives words and courage and efficiency, builds believers up, and does far more than is realized to perfect character so that carelessness, foolishness, and entering into things they have no business with will not cause loss of eternal life, and with living, active, working faith from Him they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Spirit searches thoughts and purposes of the heart, convicts of sin, guides into truth, stamps Scripture truth upon the soul and enables victory over inherited and cultivated wrong, and restores God's moral image in people. Receiving God's Word and partaking of Christ's life give Christians an experience like the divine, and after baptism the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit pledge power to help the believer honor God, the Spirit changing the heart of stone to a heart of flesh. God is valued in a person and uses each person for service just in proportion as He can put His Spirit into the soul-temple, not by worldly learning, eloquence, or wealth, and accepted service reflects God's image and displays the enduring principles of His character; but foolish conversation closes the way to the influence of the Spirit of God and takes power from instruction that would otherwise make students wise unto salvation upon mind and heart.
Christ does not abide in the sinner who resists heaven's influence, in a wicked man, or in a heart filled with worldly policy, money worship, pride and selfish plans. When a Christian gives worldly policy and the worship of money room in the soul, God is excluded, and using entrusted possessions for self-glorification can obscure God and heaven and close the mind to the Redeemer instead of advancing His kingdom and bringing people to know Christ. Without communion with God in heart and mind through sincere obedience and personal knowledge of Him as Redeemer, the heart is not God's temple but is controlled by the enemy whatever is professed, and a profession of knowing Christ without good fruit in words and deeds is false. A heart not fully surrendered to God remains a stronghold for Satan where his suggestions become mixed with truth, error is accepted as truth, and the soul-temple is polluted, so that divided loyalty leaves a person vulnerable to deception and turns religion into an empty form. When parents fill their lives with other concerns and give idols the devotion due to God, they leave no room in the soul for Jesus and close the heart to truth, misrepresent Christ and fail to show their children practical religion.
Christ formed within is the inward, heavenly adornment needed in place of concern focused on outward decoration, and the soul-temple must be cleansed.
Unity Over Division
Envy and strife, evil surmising, withdrawing from some and binding up with others, and taking sides over the one who brought the light prove carnality and walking as men, separating from brethren and thus from God, hindering the Comforter and showing need for reconversion. The soul is the temple where Jesus dwells by His Spirit, and cherished suspicions, envy, jealousies, evil surmisings, jealousy, distrust, petulance, faction, independence, discouragement, stubbornness and selfishness defile it and exclude the blessing, for He cannot dwell in a heart where they are cherished. That temple must be cleansed and emptied of every defilement by getting away from self in order to have unity and harmony and to lay hold on eternal life. God holds each one accountable for the light, privileges and talents entrusted, and refusing to use them faithfully forfeits His favor, while those who labor for the church need to be converted and Christlike in character. Cleansing comes by fearing God and working righteousness, laboring disinterestedly for eternity with His Spirit while looking continually unto Jesus, with close investigation of motives and feelings by comparing them with the Word of God. It requires putting trust in God rather than remaining in bondage to dependence on the approval of others, working away from selfishness with all acts wrought in God with an eye single to His glory, and hanging the helpless soul upon Him. Pursuing a selfish, unconsecrated course makes a person weak, and that weakness is self-caused, whereas a soul connected with God has strength and fortitude which nothing can shake, and shows by humble, meek, lowly works everywhere that the cause of God is at heart. Staying aloof from meetings and taking no part shows being not right with God, and cherishing Cain-like feelings is dangerous and will ruin unless earnest effort is made to work away from that spirit.
All who are truly converted are aided by one Agency from one Source to be channels of grace in love, unity and harmonious action, and they must not stand as independent atoms or in parties but make straight paths, strengthen one another, labor with differing gifts to one object and receive reward according to labor. His love welcomed as an abiding Guest drives out hatred, selfishness, envy, dissension and strife, and His law is engraved in the minds and hearts of His commandment-keeping people, so that obedience brings life, happiness, health and special blessing. The mercy and love of Christ must possess and control the soul, casting out the fierce, wicked, Satanic spirit of selfishness, pride, and harsh judgment and condemnation of others. When the cold, stony heart hardened by selfishness is broken, sanctified, and exchanged for a heart of flesh under control of the divine will with enlightened understanding, the Spirit dwells in the heart and yields mercy and compassion that relieves the hungry, naked, imperiled and suffering in temporal and spiritual things. Pure and undefiled religion, which is doing works of love and mercy rather than sentiment, enters that polluted soul-temple with a scourge to drive out the sinful intruder, take the throne, and consecrate all by its presence. That indwelling presence illuminates the heart with the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, opens the windows of the soul heavenward to let in the sunshine of God's love, and fills the soul with the atmosphere of heaven as a living, active agency, bringing serenity and composure and increasing physical, mental, and moral strength and health and happiness, so that Christ is formed within as the hope of glory.
Where Christ truly abides by His Spirit contention ceases because it is offensive and grieves Him, and no one in whom He dwells is fractious, suspicious, criticizing or accusing. Instead such a one shows greater benevolence, greater humility and the simplicity of Christ, with heart blending with heart in brotherly love and oneness with Christ. Under His influence the Spirit animates the whole community so that every pulse beats in concert, all are of one heart and of one mind, and one emulation for Christ swallows up every other. Cleansing of the soul temple which Jesus Himself must do means consecrating the life to God, emptying the self of envy and jealousy and mistrust and selfishness, and becoming a humble child of God who walks humbly with Him and cultivates the spirit of Christ in meekness and lowliness of heart. When He so cleanses, the heart is filled with the sweet peace of heavenly love.
Stewardship of Body and Health
Keeping the temple undefiled means obeying the laws of life and health, for God made physical law as truly as He made the moral law, and the body is to be kept physically healthy and morally free from defilement as a fit dwelling for His indwelling presence. Breaking those healthful principles in ignorance or by knowing neglect is sin against God and works against His work in the body, and ignorance does not excuse disobedience. Such violation fixes diseased conditions in the system as its sure result, bringing suffering and disease and responsibility for bodily abuse, while God provides food for enjoyment and health and calls for restraint of unnatural appetite. The temple is holy and must not be defiled, calling for purity of life, self-control, self-denial, temperance, obedience to natural law, preservation of physical health, and readiness as for an honored guest and for Christ's coming.
Defiling the temple is forming any habit that lessens the healthful action of any organ of mind or body and perverts God-given powers of reason, affections, conscience and senses to minister to the carnal mind. Liquor, tobacco, tea, wine, drugs, opium, poison and other destroying agencies placed on the table or taken into the mouth degrade reason, senses and faculties, cause them to wither and decay, destroy appreciation for intellect and sacred things, and defile soul, mind and body, and no one has any right to do this. Living for continual excitement, including cricket and football matches and horse-racing, with the liquor curse, likewise degrades life, and the drunkard who sells himself for poison gives Satan control and destroys the temple. God will not work a miracle to restore to soundness those who continue in such degrading use, and those who give themselves to tobacco and liquor fail to appreciate intellect and to realize the value of faculties given to be cultivated, enlarged and improved. The better one becomes acquainted with the Maker the more sacred life becomes, so that one knowingly refuses what defiles and degrades the whole being, feeling the necessity of improvement and laying aside no entrusted gift.
Appetite and passion must be controlled by temperance, self-denial and simple diet of grains and fruits in natural condition, for creating a perverted appetite violates the laws of human nature. Gluttony and excess eating and drinking, meat eating, feverish indulgence, stimulants, narcotics, many kinds of food at one meal, and harmful speech from the lips pollute and defile the temple. Such indulgence excites the lower passions, deadens moral powers and clouds spiritual discernment, perverting body powers from holy use.
Care of God's workmanship and property includes using brain, bones and muscles wisely, eating and working sensibly, and allowing adequate sleep so the body has time to repair its organs. The body must not be defiled by indulgence in human passions nor endangered through neglect, excessive strain, overwork, reckless exhaustion of strength, or overtaxing the machinery, for such exhaustion is sin whatever the action causing it. Overstimulating the brain through excessive study can produce impure thoughts and actions, harm the nervous system and defile the temple, while using powers of mind and body in proper proportion helps prevent this. Tobacco smoke, filthy breath and poisoning the breath with tobacco, coarse disorder in worship, and waste of means on tobacco also dishonor God and defile the holy temple.
Uncleanliness in dress defiles body and soul because it is unhealthful, and defiling the temple in this way brings warning of judgment and destruction. Bodily cleanliness and neat clothing, with neat and modest apparel and pure, clean habits without and within, belong to outward purity, holiness and fitness for God to dwell with His people. Keeping the body from defilement, filthiness and uncleanness is therefore the duty of those who love and serve Him.
Moral Purity and Faithfulness
The body is God's holy temple because His Spirit dwells in it, and to corrupt the body by impure, self-destructive habits is to profane that temple and bring destruction upon oneself, so that only sincere repentance, complete reform and pursuit of holiness can restore fitness for God's favor and heaven. Fornication, adultery, licentiousness, indulgence of baser passions, impure sight and touch, and lustful practices even continued in married life debase the mind, weaken the brain, dwarf and pollute the soul, and corrupt physical, mental and moral power, defiling what must be presented as a living sacrifice in body, soul and spirit. The marriage relation is to be kept sacred as part of keeping that temple holy, and the barrier God erected is not to be broken down by unequal marriage with an unbeliever. Mind and heart must be kept free from impurity by a fidelity as true as steel to marriage vows in thought, word and deed, giving the wife first place in the affections and refusing sentimental, spiritualistic affection for another woman. When love and honor are given to God He takes charge of the affections and centers them on proper objects, while giving place to lust, jealousy and seducing spiritualistic ideas defiles His temple and must be repented of and put away, with genuine forgiveness joined to true penitence, inward change of mind and spirit, and outward conduct matching faith.
The soul is God's temple where Christ should be enshrined and occupy every day, and it is desecrated when frivolous reading, trifling conversation and worldly pleasure fill the mind and leave no room for God's Word. Selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, self-exaltation, pride, love of display and pleasure, love of the world, malice, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, unholy passions, covetousness, deceit, falsehood, impurity, anger, animosity, worldly ambition and cherished sin take hold of the heart, displace Christ, exclude blessing and close it to truth. Such selfish thoughts and interests must be banished and such sin put away so that Jesus can occupy and cleanse the temple, sanctify the heart by truth, and spiritually strengthen it to seek God. A life ruled by pride, love of display and pleasure rather than by Christ is not in keeping with the heart as God's temple where His Spirit is to dwell, and the heart must be converted, refined and cleansed so that Christ and not Satan abides in it, with love for every soul for whom Christ died, a careful burden for souls, no occasion for youth or those of mature age to stumble, and no channel made for impurity.
The living temple is polluted today by the same defilement that polluted the Jerusalem temple when gain is substituted for godliness and outward pomp for inward purity, when sacred things are brought down to the level of the world, vice is mistaken for virtue and righteousness for crime, temporal business is mingled with worship, and extortion and wicked speculation are practiced by professed servants of God. Greed, worldly interests, vice and outward show in place of inward purity defile the holy temple where the Spirit dwells and bring God's judgment, so Jesus must occupy and cleanse the human heart each day from sin. When worldly policy and worship of money are given room in the soul, God is excluded from His temple, and entrusted possessions used for self-glorification obscure God and heaven and close the mind to the Redeemer instead of advancing His kingdom and bringing people to know Christ. Commercial pursuits, confusing holy business methods, unjust gain and self-exaltation that displace God call for humility, obedience to His law and faithful conduct rather than presumption that temple identity permits what His word forbids, for He will cleanse and purify His temple. When other concerns and idols receive the devotion due to God, no room is left in the soul for Jesus, the heart is closed to truth, and practical religion is misrepresented before children.
Building Character for Eternity
God's temple is built with exact care on Christ with lasting material, piece fitting piece perfectly under divine direction day by day to fill its place, with no cheap timbers, haphazard work, sand foundation that brings terrible downfall, jumble of opposites, or corrupt trait allowed to remain. Solid timbers are faith, virtue, knowledge, diligence and prayer, and a harmonious character is formed by daily choices and small acts, by learning and practising the lessons of Scripture that mould thoughtful, careful service, and by earnest daily work to overcome defects while Christ is cherished within. The soul-temple must be cleansed of miserable self that takes Christ's room, of moral defilement and inward imperfection, changeableness and excusing of sin, so that truth sanctifies the whole person, changes words and conduct, humbles pride, purifies the inner life, restores God's image, and lets Christ's light fill, elevate and bring heaven's peace to the soul.
True greatness is making the soul-temple a place where God delights to dwell by walking humbly before Him, not with forced humility but with a genuine sense of personal inefficiency and of His greatness, striving earnestly to prepare the soul for His dwelling. When the heart is opened to grace and purged of selfishness, God beautifies His temple and the Spirit moulds the humbled, contrite, self-emptied agent, for the Spirit cannot fashion the person while selfishness remains. The pure heart where God dwells and Christ abides is more precious than the gold of Ophir, set above everything cheap and low, a shining light and treasury of all virtue where God's image is recognized, finding its whole pleasure in God with thoughts, intents and purposes alive with godliness, occupied with glorifying Him, bringing every thought into captivity to Christ, admitting no unworthy imagery and no company that does not harmonize with God, and shining with the Sun of Righteousness to others as an example to old and young. The inward parts are a holy temple to be kept pure, noble and heavenly with conscience void of offense toward God and men, firm principle, reverence for God's Word, purity of life, and shutting out of low, cheap, common talk, for rich treasures of wisdom flow from a pure heart while corrupt principles entering the temple reveal themselves in words and actions that separate from God and extinguish moral and spiritual power, a charge resting especially on parents and teachers in home discipline.
A beautiful temple for the Lord develops from foundations of righteous character laid in babyhood and childhood and trained for God from earliest years unto full maturity in manhood and womanhood. Home religion, Christian politeness and courtesy, control of self by parents, trimming the inner lamp, and revealing piety, virtue and godliness in home life prepare the soul-temple, for self comes first and God will not accept even the most splendid service unless the offerer is first consecrated by entire surrender, since unless the root is holy there can be no acceptable fruit. Untidy homes and neglected habits fail to represent faith, and correcting these evils with lives and conduct that honor faith is part of becoming a lovely and fitting temple for God.
The verse is a test of readiness for the Lord's coming to be thought over at home and personally applied, since many who think they are prepared are not, and applied with God's help it gives understanding, separation from hindrances, knowledge of God's will, walking in that pathway, freedom, and being all light in the Lord through confessing Christ, acknowledging experience, and coming out of darkness into His marvelous light. Character defects must be remedied and the soul-temple cleansed of every defilement, natural depravity and fleshly lusts before receiving God's seal, and when cleansing is complete the latter rain will fall as the early rain fell at Pentecost. This cleansing with Christ enthroned in the heart is the first work of young men entering the ministry before taking places left vacant by fallen standard-bearers, extending the aggressive warfare, going into dark places and calling perishing souls to repentance that the message may still be proclaimed, and it is required of all in places of trust in Christian work and institutions by dying to self, opening the heart's door to Jesus, letting Him rule and guide, and living as well as preaching the Word in every phase of work in obedience. Abusing the temple brings suffering and misery, so reforms of life are called for to present the person holy and without blame, pure, virtuous, holy and healthy physically and spiritually, putting away greed for gain and pollution of every trace, which is necessary as judgment nears and God's plagues begin to fall in order to escape those plagues and stand in the day of trial.
Young men and women at school are God's temple where His Spirit lives, and that temple is holy, calling for sincere conversion and honoring the Creator by a truthful, refined, uplifted life that restores His image. Defiling through lower appetites and passions stirred when the Word is opened is forbidden, for defiling brings destruction as God allows cause to produce effect, and so are self-deception, becoming wise by worldly wisdom which is foolishness with God, glorying in men, seeking the highest place, and turning the mind into wrong channels instead of learning all possible from Scripture. Becoming that temple requires cooperation with God so the Spirit can work upon heart, conscience and character, with teachers giving an all-round education to that end and welcoming His indwelling in schools, since foolish conversation closes the way to His influence and takes power from instruction that would otherwise make students wise unto salvation upon mind and heart. Keeping the temple free from defilement means humbling self to receive God's wisdom, thinking far less of worldly wisdom, valuing obedience above the estimation of the world, for God calls the humble and obedient wise though the world calls them fools, and it includes caring for the body as God's workmanship and property by using brain, bones and muscles wisely, eating and working sensibly, and allowing sleep for repair as part of serving and obeying God.