I am part of God’s temple.
Once again we are looking at the bigger picture ‘all of you together are the temple of God’. The emphasis this time however is on the holiness of the Temple. This holiness is the distinctive mark of the people of God, it is what makes them significant.
The world around us can be a pretty horrible place. Paul is not wrong when he describes it in Galatians 5 ‘When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. ‘ We may feel we live in a somewhat better environment that that – but our daily newspapers paint a similar picture of the society around us. There is something basically wrong, fallen, about human nature.
So God is in the business of making things new, redeeming the world. And you are privileged to be part of that new creation already. Quite possibly there are times when you feel very imperfect, but as an element of a new creation you are a work in progress. Bring these ‘Work-in-progress’ people together and you have the Temple of God – something of which God has made you a part.
Every brick in this new Temple – including you – is significant.