The truth we are considering today refers only to the Christian; that is, to the one who has placed his/her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for their eternal salvation. The moment we believe on Christ the Holy Spirit comes to live in the believer, as we see in Ephesians 1:13, “In Him you trusted, after your heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (NKJV). Jesus had promised that this would happen in John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will BE IN YOU.” The Apostle Paul also taught this wonderful truth in Romans 8:9, “But you are not in flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God DWELLS IN YOU. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” Because the Holy Spirit lives inside of every believer, our body is the temple of God, for the Holy Spirit is God.

This is a tremendous truth which should have practical results. Since God, Who is holy, lives inside of us, we should treat our bodies with respect and desire to use them for His glory. To illustrate this I would like to quote 1st Corinthians 6:13b-20: “Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, ‘THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.’ But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that YOUR BODY IS A TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO IS IN YOU, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (NASB).

This rather long passage of Scripture teaches us that the body of a true believer is the sacred temple of the Holy Spirit. Again, God is holy and because He lives inside of us we should not use our bodies for anything that is UNHOLY. In this case the apostle condemns using our bodies for immoral sex. Every believer is “joined to the Lord” and to turn around and “join our body to a prostitute” is to be guilty of “spiritual adultery.” We must always remember we have been bought with a great price (the “precious blood of Christ”….see 1st Peter 1:18-19), and our bodies now belong to our blessed Lord and Savior. Everything we do with our bodies should be to the honor and glory of Him!

I’m not sure what you mean by “having a body modification.” If you are referring to having corrective surgery to repair a deformity that we were born with or that is the result of an accident, this would not be a case of immorality and would be permissible. But there are “body modifications” that would indeed dishonor the Lord, such as a male or female having a “sex change” or a woman having “breast enhancements”  in order to be more attractive to men. The Lord created us according to His design and unless there is a gross deformity we should leave the body as God made it.

Regarding “acquiring diseases,” we are all subject to DISEASE, and in time, to DEATH, because of sin. This in no way affects our bodies being “the temple of the Holy Spirit.” The fact is there are many believers who have a disease when they trust in Christ yet the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of them based on their FAITH IN THE GOSPEL (as we saw from Ephesians 1:13). We quoted Romans 8:9 above to show that “the Spirit of God dwells in you” and I would like to close by quoting verses 10-11 to show that our bodies are still mortal and subject to death, but that one day these bodies of ours will be raised up and given immortality. “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”  (394.5)  (DO)