Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“So Hiram gave Solomon cedar timber and cypress timber according to all his desire. Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand cors of wheat for food to his household, and twenty cors of pure oil. Solomon gave this to Hiram year by year. Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made a treaty together. King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men. He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: for a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home; and Adoniram was over the men subject to forced labor. Solomon had seventy thousand who bore burdens, and eighty thousand who were stone cutters in the mountains, besides Solomon’s chief officers who were over the work: three thousand three hundred who ruled over the people who labored in the work. The king commanded, and they cut out large stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with worked stone. Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the Gebalites cut them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house.”
(1 Kings 5:10-18)

““All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are expedient. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be brought under the power of anything. “Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Now God raised up the Lord, and will also raise us up by his power. Don’t you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or don’t you know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body? For, “The two”, he says, “will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
(1 Corinthians 6:12-20)

This was not a small endeavour. It took allies. It took supplies. It took a lot of manual labour. It was undertaken seriously. No stone was left unturned. The quality of each and every element that went into the Temple was investigated. Only the best of the best would do. No expense was spared. No amount of work was too much. They could not hope to create something truly worthy of the Creator of the Universe, but they could do their best to provide the ultimate effort humanity could manage. They didn’t slack off. They didn’t think it was a hobby or something casual. They were serious about it and they were methodical. Nothing but their personal best from the king to the lowest labourer would do.

Paul calls the church to holiness. WE are the Temple of Holy Spirit. Shouldn’t we be presenting our best to Him? Shouldn’t we be trying to maintain a level of holiness worthy of being the dwelling of the Lord? The church in Corinth was not maintaining any level of holiness. They believed. They worshipped. But their day to day was letting in all sorts of ungodly behaviour. They needed to be on guard against it instead of explaining it away. That was the kind of compromised thinking that caused Lot such personal struggle (2 Peter 2:7). Paul called them to take personal godliness as seriously as those who had built the Temple. Just because something was possible to do (everything being forgivable under Grace), did not mean it was healthy, profitable, good, or SHOULD be done. They needed to pay attention to their heart intent instead of expecting Grace to accept immorality).

Summary

We’re one-third wall to wall God on the inside (our spirits are in heaven and sealed, so we have His spirit inside us and that leaves our body and our soul – mind, personality, and emotions). That means we should be consistently aware of that. That means we should be consistently (working toward constantly) choosing godly behaviour that is in accordance with God’s moral character. It isn’t about what humans think is acceptable. It isn’t about what we FEEL or whether something has been crafted well. It is about whether God says it is good and profitable for us. From HIS point of view. He is the ONLY purely righteous thing that exists. He has a UNIQUE perspective because He is the ONLY thing OUTSIDE of creation. We need to align with HIM instead of justifying our actions, words, and thoughts because of human thinking.