Body & Faith | Being a home for the Holy Spirit

The apost­le Paul descri­bes the body of a fol­lower of Jesus as the temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit. As in the temp­le of anci­ent Isra­el, God dwells in this house with his glo­rious sple­ndour. This has powerful effects for the per­son hims­elf, but also for the who­le envi­ron­ment. As in anci­ent times, the temp­le must be regu­lar­ly repai­red so that the Spi­rit of God feels com­for­ta­ble and can unfold.

Nowa­days, almost ever­y­thing is available in «to-go» form: Cof­fee to go, piz­za to go, bowl to go, sushi to go. Even though the con­tent is cru­cial, the pack­a­ging is still very important. It may sound a litt­le stran­ge, but the­re is also a God to go (God to go). This is a tried and tes­ted method and has work­ed sin­ce the first Pen­te­cost in the 1st cen­tu­ry. And here too, the con­tent is decisi­ve, but the cover also has an important func­tion. Paul atta­ches gre­at value to a person’s body when he descri­bes it as the temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit: «Or do you not know that your body is a temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit within you, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to your­sel­ves, becau­se God has paid a high pri­ce for you. The­r­e­fo­re, honour God with your body!» (1 Corin­thi­ans 6:19f NLB).

Dedication of the temple

In the Bible, the temp­le sym­bo­li­ses the place whe­re God longs to dwell with man­kind. It is the place whe­re hea­ven and earth meet and beco­me one. Hea­ven is not a distant place, but the rea­li­ty of God, which is still invi­si­ble to us. At the begin­ning of human histo­ry, in the para­di­se of the Gar­den of Eden, this was alre­a­dy the case. Later, when the peo­p­le of Isra­el were tra­vel­ling to the Pro­mi­sed Land, they built the Tent of Mee­ting, the so-cal­led Taber­na­cle, under God’s pre­cise gui­dance and with gre­at care. After taking pos­ses­si­on of the land flowing with milk and honey, the Israe­li­tes built the first temp­le in Jeru­sa­lem under King Solo­mon as God’s dwel­ling place among the people.

The plans for the buil­ding, which was per­fect in form and design, came direct­ly from God. The best craft­smen built the house of God using the most valuable mate­ri­als. It is inten­ded to sym­bo­li­se God’s per­fect crea­ti­on, which he will one day crea­te. Only the best was good enough as God’s dwel­ling place. This also appli­es to our bodies. We were all for­med by God hims­elf accor­ding to his per­fect plans in the womb (Psalm 139:13f). Now it is about taking care of this temp­le or body so that the spi­rit of God feels com­for­ta­ble in it.

Both the Tent of Mee­ting and the Temp­le ful­fil­led their pur­po­ses by God Hims­elf ente­ring with His glo­rious sple­ndour. In some cases, this beca­me visi­ble through a pil­lar of cloud (Exodus 33:10) or smo­ke (Isai­ah 6:4). A per­son also finds their way back to their desti­ny – to be the true image of God and to reflect HIM in the world – when Jesus moves into us through His Spi­rit. Per­haps this sounds almost too stran­ge to be true to our ears. Even Solo­mon could hard­ly belie­ve that God could live in the com­ple­ted temp­le. «Behold, the hea­vens and all the hea­vens can­not con­tain you – how then can this house that I have built?» (1 Kings 8:27 LUT). Yet God moved in. In the same way, God will move into our 150–200 cm body in His power and glo­ry and make us into a kind of mobi­le temple. 

The dedi­ca­ti­on of the temp­le was a gigan­tic 14-day fes­ti­val that was atten­ded by Israe­li­tes from all over the coun­try. It mark­ed the moment when the pre­sence of God took over the temp­le in migh­ty and glo­rious sple­ndour. We humans also need such an initi­al spark. At the very moment we ent­rust our lives to Jesus, the hea­ven­ly men­tor moves in with us. «[…] becau­se you have accept­ed this mes­sa­ge in faith, God has given you – as he pro­mi­sed – the Holy Spi­rit through Christ. He has ther­eby impres­sed his seal on you, the con­fir­ma­ti­on that you too are now his pro­per­ty» (Ephe­si­ans 1:13 New Tes­ta­ment). To be a fol­lower of Jesus wit­hout the Holy Spi­rit is a con­tra­dic­tion in terms (Romans 8:14).

Powerful life in and around the temple

The cen­tre­pie­ce of the taber­na­cle and sym­bol of God’s pre­sence was the Ark of the Coven­ant, a chest made of aca­cia wood and gold. It con­tai­ned the stone tablets with the Ten Words and sym­bo­li­sed God’s coven­ant with the peo­p­le of Isra­el. The Phi­lis­ti­nes cap­tu­red the Ark of the Coven­ant in a batt­le (1 Samu­el 4:11). They then set it up in the temp­le of their god Dagon. Soon after­wards, stran­ge things hap­pen­ed: the sta­tue of Dagon fell and bro­ke, and the city was aff­lic­ted by pla­gues descri­bed as «boils». The pre­sence of God never remains wit­hout strong effects – on one side or the other.

What does the Spi­rit of God do to and in the mobi­le small temp­les, His followers?

• The Spi­rit of God makes Jesus pre­sent and real for indi­vi­du­als and com­mu­ni­ties. When Jesus speaks about His depar­tu­re from the world, He pro­mi­ses His fol­lo­wers in the same breath that He will Para­kle­tos to be with them (John 14:16). Lite­ral­ly trans­la­ted, this name means «cal­led to the side’the legal coun­sell­or who puts an arm around your should­er, or the advi­sor who gives wise advice. It is a hea­ven­ly men­tor, also cal­led a com­fort­er, encou­ra­ger or advo­ca­te. So Jesus beco­mes at home with His fol­lo­wers and will lead them into the mys­te­rious depths of truth – the truth about God and His purposes.
• The Spi­rit of God recrea­tes bro­ken and sin­ful peo­p­le and turns them into har­bin­gers of the new crea­ti­on. Paul talks a lot about the trans­forming work of the Holy Spi­rit. At one point he con­trasts the incli­na­ti­ons of the sin­ful natu­re – the many ways in which peo­p­le mess up their own lives and tho­se of others – with the fruit of the Spi­rit. «If, on the other hand, the Holy Spi­rit rules our lives, he will cau­se com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent fruit to grow in us: Love, joy, peace, pati­ence, kind­ness, good­ness, faithful­ness, gent­le­ness and self-con­trol» (Gala­ti­ans 5:22f NLB). Through the Spi­rit of God, a per­son is trans­for­med into a new crea­ti­on (2 Corin­thi­ans 5:17), into a living temp­le that is some­thing like a small model of the coming creation.
• The Spi­rit of God gives the fol­lo­wers of Jesus a mis­si­on and equips them for it. The Spi­rit of God is descri­bed in the Bible as ruach and pneu­ma Both terms mean Wind, breath and Spi­rit. The spi­rit of God is as clo­se to us as our breath, it is acti­ve in our thoughts and fee­lings. He some­ti­mes gives us gent­le, some­ti­mes less gent­le impul­ses, warns us of inap­pro­pria­te actions or thoughts, leads us to unex­pec­ted places with unex­pec­ted pos­si­bi­li­ties. It is always about making God’s pre­sence a rea­li­ty and thus being living wit­nesses of the new crea­ti­on. The Spi­rit of God equips us extre­me­ly effec­tively for this divi­ne mis­si­on. «The Spi­rit of God, who rai­sed Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he rai­sed Christ from the dead, he will also give life to your mor­tal body through the same Spi­rit who lives in you» (Romans 8:11 NLB). The Spi­rit of God is stron­ger than all the powers of death and dark­ness. He equips the fol­lo­wers of Jesus with cha­risms (gifts of grace) so that they can ser­ve powerful­ly: encou­ra­ge, com­fort, heal, pray, minis­ter, exhort, dis­cern spi­rits, etc. – wha­te­ver a situa­ti­on requires.

Reformation of the temple

It hap­pen­ed time and again that kings wor­ship­ped other gods and let the temp­le rot. This had a nega­ti­ve impact on the expe­ri­ence of God’s pre­sence and – direct­ly depen­dent on this – on the fate of the peo­p­le. Con­di­ti­ons were par­ti­cu­lar­ly bad when Josiah beca­me king. He did not want to accept this. He the­r­e­fo­re inves­ted a lot of money so that car­pen­ters, buil­ders and stone­ma­sons could repair the house of God (2 Kings 22). In the cour­se of this, he had all the objects used in the wor­ship of Baal, Ashe­rah and other dei­ties remo­ved from the temp­le and burnt them (2 Kings 23:4).

The effect of the Holy Spi­rit can also be mas­si­ve­ly dimi­nis­hed in our lives. Two pas­sa­ges express this: «Be careful not to grie­ve the Holy Spi­rit by your beha­viour […]» (Ephe­si­ans 4:30 NLB). «Do not sup­press the Holy Spi­rit» (1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 5:19 NLB). As in anci­ent Isra­el, ido­la­try is the reason for the sup­pres­si­on of God’s glo­rious pre­sence. The refor­mer Mar­tin Luther wri­tes in his Lar­ge Cate­chism: What you set your heart on is your God! Or: For that for which you live is your God. The gods we wor­ship sur­round us with con­su­mer offers, par­ty and inte­rest batt­les, mani­pu­la­ti­ve adverts, aggres­si­ve floods of images. Unli­ke Jesus Christ, they do not set us free, but ens­lave us. They do not «reve­al» them­sel­ves, but con­ce­al themselves.

The ful­film­ent of the Holy Spi­rit does not hap­pen once and for all when we start fol­lo­wing Jesus. It requi­res regu­lar reforms (= res­to­ra­ti­on, remo­del­ling). This is why Paul says to Chris­ti­ans: «Do not get drunk on wine; other­wi­se you will ruin your life. Ins­tead, let the Holy Spi­rit fill you» (Ephe­si­ans 5:18 NLB). How does that work?

• The basic con­di­ti­on is a lon­ging for God’s pre­sence. Jesus says: «Bles­sed are the poor in the sight of God, for theirs is the king­dom of hea­ven» (Matthew 5:3 New Tes­ta­ment). The king­dom of hea­ven, of which the Spi­rit of God is the har­bin­ger, belongs to tho­se in need of God.
• Rep­ent again and again and ask Jesus for for­gi­ve­ness of sins. The temp­le was the place whe­re the Israe­li­tes regu­lar­ly retur­ned to con­fess their sins and recei­ve forgiveness.
• Ask the Father in hea­ven for the Holy Spi­rit. «But if even you sin­ful peo­p­le know how to do good to your child­ren, how much soo­ner will your Father in hea­ven give the Holy Spi­rit to tho­se who ask him» (Luke 11:13 NLB).
• Living in harm­o­ny with the Holy Spi­rit. When we respond to His impul­ses and live by His power, this streng­thens the pre­sence of God in our lives. And then we also find our­sel­ves in prai­se, sin­ging psalms and spi­ri­tu­al songs (Ephe­si­ans 5:19), which is extre­me­ly bene­fi­ci­al for being fil­led with the Spi­rit of God.
• Living in com­mu­ni­ty with God and others from the «mobi­le temp­le move­ment». Each of us is a temp­le of the Holy Spi­rit and tog­e­ther we form a house in which God dwells. Tog­e­ther we expe­ri­ence more of the full­ness of the Holy Spirit.

About five months befo­re I left for my time­out in Cana­da in the sum­mer of 2023, the team of employees pre­sen­ted me with a «Cana­da box» on my bir­th­day. It con­tai­ned various Cana­di­an pro­ducts, inclu­ding a mug with a map­le leaf on it. Thanks to the­se gifts, I was able to get a tas­te of Cana­da in advan­ce and revel in the anti­ci­pa­ti­on. Cana­da can come!

The Holy Spi­rit has a simi­lar task in the life of a fol­lower: «And even we, though we have recei­ved a fore­tas­te of the coming glo­ry in the Holy Spi­rit, gro­an and eager­ly await the day when God will estab­lish us in our full rights as his child­ren and give us the new body he has pro­mi­sed us» (Romans 8:23 NLB). Our body is so pre­cious that God choo­ses it as His dwel­ling place. This makes the divi­ne dimen­si­on a rea­li­ty in our lives.

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: John 14

1. Based on the Bible text from John 14, who is the Holy Spi­rit and what does He do?
2. How did you expe­ri­ence the moment when the pre­sence of God in the per­son of the Holy Spi­rit tur­ned your body into His temple?
3. How do you expe­ri­ence the Holy Spi­rit as you ful­fil your mis­si­on in this world?
4. What kind of ido­la­try are you most at risk for? Whe­re do you need a reformation?
5. Turn tog­e­ther to the cross of Jesus, ask for for­gi­ve­ness and new ful­film­ent through the Holy Spirit.