In our passage from John's Gospel today there are two ideas which come to the foreground. First, what is the temple of God? Second, what is the appropriate use of God's temple? John is clear that, at least by the time he wrote his Gospel, he understood Jesus to be referring to God's temple which was his own body. When we consider the Athanasian Creed we recall this concept that Jesus is fully God and fully man, "without confusion." The nature of Jesus is that the fullness of God is dwelling in the fullness of man. In his humanity, Jesus himself serves as a temple of the fullness of God. What should we take from this? Surely those whom Christ has purchased are also the dwelling place of God on earth. Surely we confess that all who believe on Jesus have him living in them. We ourselves are temples of God. He is really dwelling in us. So what is the appropriate use of the temple which we call our body? It is not a place for buying and selling God's blessing, but rather a place through which God's blessing flows. God's temple is the place where the Lord delights in the obedient and faithful service people bring to him as well as the place where the Lord has appointed forgiveness and blessing.
Lord, may we see the chief end of our existence as being a temple where you show your forgiveness and mercy. May you work through us in this world as you worked through the temple in Jerusalem, the place from which you reached out in mercy to your chosen people. May the works of our hands be rightly seen as the works which you have appointed to bring the knowledge of your goodness to this lost and dying world.
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