The All-Inclusive Temple of God

 

Monday, March 8, 2021

Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?  God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.  Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise.  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.  As the Scriptures say, “He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.”  And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; he knows they are worthless.”  So don’t boast about following a particular human leader.  For everything belongs to you—whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future.  Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.  1 Corinthians 3:16-23

There’s a truckload of talk about “inclusiveness” these days.  I perceive the overall sense of that word means that every person, with all their thoughts, ideas, quirks, nuances, proclivities, and baggage, is to be treated with respect.   

That’s not a bad thing, really.  It’s something like my mother taught me about manners.  Mom was pretty smart.  She was the Sunday School Superintendent at the church of my youth, and she always used a flannel-graph board with Bible pictures for the opening assembly to teach us kids about following Jesus.  One lesson was about the Golden Rule – treat others the way you want to be treated.  On the surface that seems quite doable.  You just live, and let-live, you know, don’t mess with what’s not yours, and don’t pull Peggy Broadway’s pigtails.   

The problem with that kind of thinking is that it’s largely passive, not doing anything to harm someone else…just leave them alone.  However, consider the Golden Rule from Jesus’ perspective:  treat others – that’s anything but passive; “treat” is a verb, displaying action, or, in the case of people, interaction. 

The apostle James taught the sense of being an active vs. passive Christian:

Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing.  What good does that do?     James 2:15-16

The trouble with being an active follower of Jesus is that it requires more.  Just leaving someone else alone requires nothing but a little restraint.  Okay, sometimes a lot of restraint if they have more than their share of “crazy”.  Being an active believer means being vulnerable; you must accept responsibility for meeting needs, defending the weaker ones of the human tribe, and stepping up to the plate in what your brother can’t do for himself.

This is like the difference between Cancel Culture and coming-up with helpful, real-world solutions.  Cancel culture enacted requires nothing…you don’t say this, or do that…it’s all passive.  Coming up with genuine solutions means you must speak, you must act.  To do less is to allow evil the whole stage!

Paul told the Corinthian believers to stop living in delusion.  His real-world solution for evil was to remember that everything created was given to us by God for use, enjoyment, and for helping to take care of every need.  And this means feeding our hungry sister, clothing our naked brother, and visiting our wayward cousin in jail. 

And it’s because all the stuff belongs to us, and each of us belongs to all the others of us, and all of it belongs to God.  No matter what level you prefer in that assessment, wherever you scratch at it, you will find human need, and the hand of God.  If we’re going to be an inclusive bunch on this planet, we’ve got to keep that in mind…and act that way.

For You Today

This whole concept of belonging to, or being part-of the all-inclusive temple of God is a huge concept to digest.  Living-into that is even bigger.  The good news is that you don’t have to eat that whole elephant in one bite.  Just be a little more alert this day to the people and circumstances God puts in front of you on this day.  And leave them both better than you found them.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©