Let’s begin by looking at 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “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). In verses 15-18 the Apostle Paul had exhorted them against the sin of fornication and in verses 19-20 he gives them two important reasons for not using their body for this terrible sin: God has purchased our body AND our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. At the cross the Lord Jesus paid the ultimate price to redeem us, for we read in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold…But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” We must never forget what it cost our blessed Savior to make us His own and that because He has redeemed us WE ARE NOT OUR OWN! Our bodies belong to Him and we should let Him use them as He sees fit. We also need to keep in mind that the very moment we trusted Christ as our Savior the Holy Spirit came to live inside of us. Jesus had promised believers this would happen in John 15:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” Our bodies are now “a temple of the Holy Spirit” and we should never use them for UNHOLY PURPOSES, but “for God’s glory.” If we do use our bodies for SINFUL PURPOSES, we will not bring glory to God and we will hurt the Holy Spirit’s feelings, as we see in Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (NASB).

Romans 6:12-13 is another passage that teaches us to use our bodies for God’s glory. It says, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (NASB). Before we were saved we used the members of our bodies “to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.” Perhaps we used our MOUTHS TO LIE OR GOSSIP, or our HANDS TO STEAL AND HURT PEOPLE. Now that we have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus and are “alive from the dead,” we can use those same members of our bodies “as instruments of righteousness to God.” We can use our MOUTHS to spread the gospel and to build up the people of God. In Ephesians 6:19 the Apostle Paul asked believers to pray “For me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Earlier in Ephesians 4:29 he said, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” We can now use our HANDS TO HELP PEOPLE, as seen in Ephesians 4:28, “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” We could multiply examples from Scripture that teach us the same thing; the believer can now use every member of his body for good and holy purposes, and when we do, we bring BLESSING TO OTHERS and we bring GLORY TO GOD.

I will close with some lines from a well-known hymn that illustrates the truth we’ve been considering:

“Take my life, and let it be, Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;

Take my hands, and let them move, At the impulse of Thy love.

Take my feet, and let them be, Swift and beautiful for Thee;

Take my voice, and let me sing, Always, only, for my King.

Take my lips, and let them be, Filled with messages for Thee.”  (189.4)  (DO)