1Corinthians 6:12-20 comments: the temple of the Holy Ghost

6:12 ¶  All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. 14  And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. 15  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17  But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

While it is obvious here the connection between Paul’s admonition and the man he condemned who was sleeping with his father’s wife there is also a religious significance to this passage. Rising above Corinth is Acrocorinth, or Upper Corinth. It is the acropolis of ancient Corinth, a monolithic rock rising above.

Now the city of Corinth was known not only for the most expensive and skilled prostitutes in the Greek world but also the temple prostitution, common throughout the ancient world, of the cult of Aphrodite in her temple on Acrocorinth. Aphrodite, who was also Venus, Astarte, and Ishtar or the many other names listed in the Bible for her had, it is said, a thousand temple prostitutes with short hair or shaved heads servicing the devoutly religious pagan men of the city and pious visitors. We’ve already discussed how prevalent ritual prostitution, both hetero and homosexual, was in the ancient world. This is often disputed in scholarly circles with some saying that temple prostitution has been overemphasized. However, we have the context from the Old Testament of how prevalent the practice of ritual prostitution was.

Fornication, having sexual intercourse with someone who is not your lawful spouse in the eyes of the God of the Bible, is condemned by Him.

Here we have the Holy Spirit, through Paul, defining one of the earliest statements in the Bible.

Genesis 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

To commit the act without the intent or the right to be united for life before God is the sin. Whether it be consorting with temple prostitutes or taking a family member, a friend, or stranger where there is no ability to commit or intent, to commit the act of “becoming one flesh” becomes a hollow abomination, a caricature, a parody of what God intended. American dating habits and practices make many Christians sitting in church pews serial fornicators.

Aphrodite had her temple. I’ve read that the second most exalted temple in ancient Babylon to Ishtar, goddess of immigrants and prostitutes and freedom, who sits in New York Harbor under the guise of Lady Liberty, a statue patterned after one to the Egyptian version of Ishtar, Isis, was called the “White House” or “Shining House”.

But the God of the Bible has His temple, the body of a Christian, which is not to be defiled.

Pagan gods were often said to dwell in a temple where devotees would go to worship and offer sacrifices. The God of the Bible dwells in the body of every believer. The Christian’s body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. We come together as the body of Christ to worship and to serve Him as that body. But we do not come to meet with the church to, “meet with God,” because if He is not already living inside each of us we are not His.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Those who trust Christ as their Saviour in genuineness and truth have the Spirit of God and Christ dwelling in them.

Luke 17:20 ¶  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Christ paid for us with His own blood. The Son of God purchased His church from God the Father, redeeming us by His death on the Cross for our sins.

Acts 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Revelation 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;