Not Your Own House

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 331, Not Your Own House.

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

Paul is writing to a church confused about the body — in a city, Corinth, where anything was permitted and nobody stopped to ask whether it actually did them good. And he opens the correction with a question that stings for how simple it is: "do you not know?" As if to say: this you should already understand.

And what he wants us to understand is this: your body isn't just muscle, skin, and bone. It's a temple. It's the place where the Holy Spirit of God chose to dwell. Sit with that for a moment — the same Spirit who moved over the waters at creation, who filled the temple in Jerusalem with glory, today lives in you. In your ordinary, everyday body — tired sometimes, always imperfect.

And then comes the line that cuts deep: "you are not your own." That's a little uncomfortable, isn't it? We like to think our body is ours, to do with as we please. But Paul says no. Why? "You were bought with a price." That price was the blood of Jesus on the cross. You don't belong to yourself because Someone paid a debt you could never pay, to truly rescue you.

But notice — this isn't a prison. It's a belonging that sets you free. Belonging to God isn't losing freedom; it's finally resting in someone who takes good care of you. That's different from living as if your body were only yours, to use, spend, and discard however you like.

And then comes the final call, very practical: "glorify God in your body." It's not some abstract idea over in theology — it's what you eat, how you sleep, what you do with your hands, where your feet carry you, the words that come out of your mouth. All of it is either worship or it isn't.

I want to ask you, gently: is there some area of your body, your habits, your self-care, that you treat as if it were only yours — without remembering that the Spirit of God dwells there? Maybe it's the sleep you keep denying yourself. Maybe it's how you talk about yourself. Maybe it's some small habit you think affects no one else.

The temple has already been bought. It's already inhabited. All that's left is for you to treat it that way.

So today, choose one concrete thing — it can be small — and make it an act of glorifying God with your body.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.