Just some of my favorite bits of love are shown below. Enjoy. The "Sexual Immorality" follow-up blog post (titled "What Now? Part One: The First Step is Always the Hardest") coming soon! Mumford and Sons: "Not with Haste"
Your eyes they tie me down so hard I'll never learn to put up a guard So keep my love, my candle bright Learn me hard, oh learn me right This ain't no sham I am what I am Though I may speak some tongue of old Or even spit out some holy word I have no strength from which to speak When you sit me down, and see I'm weak We will run and scream You will dance with me They'll fulfill our dreams and we'll be free
And we will be who we are And they'll heal our scars Sadness will be far away So as we walked through fields of green Was the fairest sun I'd ever seen And I was broke, I was on my knees And you said yes as I said please This ain't no sham I am what I am I leave no time For a cynic's mind We will run and scream You will dance with me Fulfill our dreams and we'll be free We will be who we are And they'll heal our scars Sadness will be far away Do not let my fickle flesh go to waste As it keeps my heart and soul in its place And I will love with urgency but not with haste
"We may, indeed, be sure that perfect chastity—like perfect charity—will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity (or courage, of truthfulness, or any other virtue) may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection." From Works of Love by Soren Kierkegaard:
"The God-relationship is the mark by which the love for people is recognized as genuine. As soon as a love-relationship does not lead me to God, and as soon as I in the love-relationship do not lead the other to God, then the love, even if it were the highest bliss and delight of affection, even if it were the supreme good of the lovers’ earthly life, is still not true love."
LOVE Kierkegaard.
A Couple Bible Verses:
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out all fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:18
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogantor rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.For we know in part and we prophesy in part,but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.For now we see as though in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, just as I will be fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Perhaps my favorite from an unexpected place:
"If she's amazing, she won't be easy. If she's easy, she won't be amazing. If she's worth it, you wont give up. If you give up, you're not worthy. ... Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for."
-Bob Marley
Picture found on Pinterest, source for original drawing here.
Before I carry on with my follow-up post to "Sexual Immorality", I feel the need to clarify my intentions, once again. I have received a few comments from a couple of people which have made me feel that I have not been clear enough about where I am coming from. While a couple of my posts have been for "everybody" regardless of religion or creed (such as the "Just Physical" post), most of my posts are specifically for Bible-believing Christians who call on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I try to be very clear about that. The distinction is important because it would be very "intolerant" of me to direct a "rebuke" (if you will) to non-Christians, telling them how to live their life. I want to avoid this misconception for several reasons. First, I don't want people to hate me. I am a very sensitive person who is hurt quite easily. I'm just being honest. Trust me, I'm always working on having a thicker skin. I really love people and I find all kinds of people fascinating and lovely. Only very, very rarely have I met someone I don't like immediately. I have people I consider good friends from all sorts of religions and lifestyles. Their opinions of me matter to me, of course. I have no desire to tell them how to live their lives. I may worry about them or feel bad about situations/relationships in their lives that have caused them pain, but plenty of people worry about me and feel bad for me because I am 25 and still a virgin! If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me "you have to take a car for a test drive before you buy it!", I would have my student loans paid off. So, it is my earnest hope that people would not feel "judged" by my words in this blog and think less of me for it. Secondly, while it is true that you can't please everyone all the time, Christians are supposed to try to be pleasing to everyone:
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Gentiles (non-Christians) or the church of God (Christians)—even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
1 Corinthians 10:31-33
So, I find it to be partially a failure in myself if I am seen by others as intolerant or judgmental. That being said, Christianity is simply offensive to many people regardless of how it is presented. If at all possible though, I would like to present my views in a way that is pleasing to everyone even if my readers don't agree with me.
Finally and most importantly, I am commanded by God's word, not to judge non-Christians. As I quoted before:
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?God will judge those outside.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13
So, I want it to be VERY clear that any words of "rebuke" or "instruction" that I write are directed towards Bible-believing Christians who already call on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. These are the people with whom I have a bone to pick. I have a huge problem with Christians who do not proclaim the truth and endeavor to keep God's commandments. They are the reason why SO many liberal atheists hate us. All those Christians who judge the sexual lifestyles of people OUTSIDE the church (against God's commandments!) but turn a blind eye to ALL their own sexual sin INSIDE the church. Heterosexual Christians are destroying God's design for marriage with fornication and adultery, they can not blame any non-Christian outside of the church whether they are gay, straight, or bi. I have no hard words for any heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual person who is not a Christian. So, if you are atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, Druid, or one of those people who check off the "Christian" box on their Facebook demographics just because they come from an Irish Catholic heritage or whatever; I have no personal interest in your sex life. None. So please, please don't feel "judged" by me. My hard words are for my brothers and sisters in Christ only. I adore you as you are, I promise. You just keep being you, but if you'd like to know more about the Christ I worship I'd love to tell you about Him. Other than that, I've got nothing to bother you with, and I would like to heartily apologize for any Christian who hurt you with their hypocritical judgement.
In closing, if I may, I'd like to share a story with you that might give you a better understanding of why I am writing this blog.
One afternoon I was sitting with a group of young teenage girls that I knew very well. I was reading a book and not paying much attention to their conversation until I heard raised, angry voices. The girls were arguing about abortion. A couple girls who came from conservative Catholic families were taking a very firm pro-life stand and a couple other girls were arguing for women's rights. I almost never involve myself in these kinds of conversations, but, as the only adult amongst the children, I was about to comment on the sanctity of life when another girl piped up. She was just a small slip of a thing, fifteen years old with long, natural red hair of that perfect ginger hue which Hollywood actresses try to copy. She made a case for abortion that I couldn't argue against.
"No child should know what it's like to not be wanted by their father."
This little girl's father abandoned her mother shortly after she became pregnant, and this sweet little girl said that it would have been better to be aborted than to grow up knowing that pain. This smart, exuberant little girl with a thousand-watt smile was convinced that it would have been better to die in utero than to know that her father didn't love her mother and didn't want her for a daughter. She was emphatic. She sat cross legged on the ground and pounded the carpet with her fist when she said it, "NO ONE should know what it feels like to not be wanted by one of their parents." And she's right. She wasn't a pro-choice liberal arguing for women's rights, she was a little girl baring the scars left by a father who didn't love or value her. However, the problem is NOT that this gorgeous, perfect, sweet teenage-girl should have been aborted as a baby. The problem is that her father was "making love" to a woman he didn't love. He wanted to have the pleasure from sex but didn't want to be ONE with the woman he was f*cking, to use today's vernacular. He didn't CHERISH the miracle of LIFE which comes from two people becoming one, which is the biological PURPOSE of sex. He wanted some endorphins; thats all. Don't paint him as a villain though. He was only doing what everyone else does, well 97.8% of everybody, including 80% of all Christians who proclaim the name of Christ. It is unbearable to me that 80% of Christians are despising the blessings of sex as God intended it, that Christian men and women are causing this kind of pain. Every child should feel like they are nothing less than the perfect miracle of pure love. That is why I write this blog. The answer is not better safe sex education (although I'm all for safe sex education) and the answer is not more abortion clinics. The answer is valuing our bodies and sex and children and LIFE as sacred. A man and woman should be sacred to each other, their children should be sacred to them.
Truly, what has been gained by viewing our bodies as just physical and sex as just a means for pleasure?
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7
Please enjoy this look at true love. http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/why-we-got-married I would urge you to read and watch the video on that site. And visit their blog to see how love continues in them. http://prayforian.com True love IS real. There is no one who wouldn't want that…someone who really stood by them with such love no matter what, but SO few people honor love as God truly meant it to be. Its not for the faint of heart.
This amazing couple has a book coming out soon. Just so you know.
This blog post is for Christians. If you aren't a Christian, you will argue everything in this post and get little or nothing from it- there is really no point to you even reading it (you can take that as a challenge if you like).
Additionally, if you aren't a Christian, I don't have a personal interest in your morality. I love you and I'd like to see you appreciate the inherent value of your body, but theres no judgement. Christians are specifically told NOT to judge people who aren't Christians, did you know that?As the apostle Paul said, "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?God will judge those outside." 1 Corinthians 5:12-13
This blog post is for Christians who actually want to be what Christ says a Christian is. This post is not for people who like to think that God is up in heaven making nice things happen for "good people". This isn't a post for "Christmas/Easter" Christians who show up at church on holidays. This isn't a post for "Sunday" Christians who think that by sitting in a pew once a week they have an insurance plan for their soul and can do whatever they want the other six days of the week. This is a post for Monday-through-Sunday Christians. This post is for Christians who understand that their MOST IMPORTANT objective in life is to follow Christ- before anything else. It is for Christians who are "continuing to work out their salvation with fear and trembling"(Philippians 2:12). If that does not sound like you- I love you, but you probably need to explore your faith more before you tackle the nitty gritty truth about sexual immorality.
Now, before I get into said "nitty gritty", I want to make sure my words are tempered with love. I want to make sure you know my heart. I think that sexual sin is very understandable. Considering the culture we live in, the broken homes most of us come from, how parents and the Church so often fail to teach purity, how easily we are deceived by others, and how easily we deceive ourselves; I think the circumstances that bring many into sexual sin are very understandable. Understandable, but not justifiable. And thank God! Because that means that we are meant for so much more than what we settle for. “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink, sex, and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
I feel like that is what I am doing. Trying, desperately, to inspire my fellow Christians to leave the sin they seem happy to live in and grasp for the true joy of God's ideal, the perfect union of two souls in the covenant of marriage.
My heart breaks to see the pain and grief many of my friends have experienced because of sexual relationships; STD's, damaged self worth, unwanted pregnancy, abortion or the undesired responsibility of children, emotional dependence, betrayal, depression, infidelity, being dishonored and disrespected by the person who is supposed to "love" them. In order to deal with the pain, they justify the situations they find themselves in. They convince themselves that they don't deserve better; that the situations they find themselves in are "normal"; that it is unrealistic to expect better. They do this because then they don't have to acknowledge that they are guilty of disobeying their God. As unpleasant as a diminished sense of self worth is- it beats guilt and shame doesn't it? It is understandable.
That being said, I'm not going to mince words here. I'm not going to sugar coat this. I am EXHAUSTED with "Christians" who do not love Christ. How do I know they don't love him? BECAUSE THEY DON'T DO WHAT HE SAYS ("If you love me, you will keep my commandments." John 14:15). It is exhausting, frustrating, agonizing. I'm sick and tired of Christians separating the "spiritual" from the "physical". Therefore, I urge you,brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1 After all my preceding blog posts, I can't imagine a fellow Christian arguing with the fact that God clearly demands that we honor Him with our bodies. That means abstaining from sexual immorality. Even "tolerant" and "forgiving" Jesus Christ Himself says that sexual immorality is a sin that "defiles" us:
And Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Mark 7:14-23
And so, what are we supposed to do with sexual immorality? Run from it:
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 After six blog posts, I think I've made my point by now. As Christians we can agree that we need to abstain from sexual immorality, right?
So, what exactly is sexual immorality?
Sexual immorality is any kind of sexual activity that deviates from God's intention for sex (Genesis 2:18-25). God's intention for sex is that a man and woman would remain pure until they were married, then become one as the Holy Trinity is one (echad, remember?), and remain faithful and bound to each other all of their lives.
As our Savior said,
“Haven’t you read,” Jesus replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh (echad)’?So they are no longer two, but one flesh (echad). Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”...The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given.For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
Matthew 19:4-12
Jesus quotes God's original intention for sex as found in Genesis and then presents two options: 1) Get married before becoming one (having sex) and stay with that person all your days ,or 2) Live your life as a eunuch (someone who doesn't have genitals).
I LOVE Jesus' words here because they leave no room for argument. You remain pure and get married and become one OR you remain single and live your life like you have no genitals; end of story. Anything else is sexual immorality. Now, all that makes me happy, but we aren't really any closer to identifying what specific acts are sexually immoral.
Lets look at the Greek word that was used in the original writings of the New Testament which is then translated into "sexual immorality" This Greek word is Porneia. Looks familiar right? Yeah, thats where the word "porn" comes from. Early English translations of the New Testament texts translated porneia into "fornication" meaning sexual intercourse before marriage. However, modern translations strive to have a more accurate word-for-word translation (as the English Standard Version does) and translate Porneia into simply "sexual immorality". It does not accurately encompass the Greek term to say that it translates directly into "fornication"; Porneia is a much broader term. Porneia is impurity. Surely this includes fornication, but it is not limited to fornication.
We don't seem to be getting any closer to the specifics of sexual immorality! Do we?
Well, that is kind of the problem. Sexual immorality isn't just sexual intercourse before marriage (fornication) or with someone other than your spouse after marriage (adultery). Sexual immorality is hard to define because it is an umbrella term. We could all sit and think of different things that dishonor and disrespect God's intentions for sex and would therefore be sexual immorality. The Hebrew text regarding purity in the Old Testament almost never refers to sexual intercourse itself. The Hebrew language in the Old Testament uses words and phrases that are translated into things like "to lie with" someone or "to know" someone or "to uncover the nakedness" of someone. Our modern culture tries to boil down the moral principle of purity so that we can do as much as possible without being "bad". So, as long as we don't have actual intercourse with someone we can pretend we are still being morally pure. This is SUCH a lie. We are commanded to treat one another as brothers and sisters with absolute purity (1 Timothy 5).
Would you look at naked pictures of your brother or sister? Would you have sexual fantasies about your brother or sister? Would you come onto them and say sexual things to them? Would you put your hands all over your brother or sister in a sexual way? Would you take your brother or sister's clothes off? Would you caress them? Would you put your mouth on them? Would you have sex and become one with them?
If you are single, you are to regard everyone of the opposite sex as brothers/sisters, reserving your sexual desire for your wife/husband. When you are married you are to regard everyone as brothers/sisters except for your wife/husband. This means no sexual intercourse AND no heavy petting above clothes, no manual stimulation below clothes, no mutual masturbation, no oral, no anal, etc etc. No sexual fantasies! Thats right, not only does God say any extramarital sexual acts are sinful but also any extramarital sexual thoughts (lust).
As Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:27-30
Jesus wants to make it clear to us that not only does He care about the purity of our actions but He cares about the purity of our mind and our heart. This is why He separately listed sexual immorality, adultery, coveting (lusting), and sensuality as sin that defiles in Mark 7:14-23. Jesus makes it clear that there are no loop holes. We are to take every thought and make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). I'm not saying this isn't hard to do. It IS hard, and there is no one who does not struggle with these commandments Even though I am a virgin, I promise you, I struggle with sexual immorality. I am keenly and painfully aware of my failures. They are more numerous than I would like. I do not write this blog from a place of pride. I write it from a place of hope. I want to be holy. I want to be able to stretch out my hands and receive the gift of love and perfect union in marriage that God intended. I want to honor God with my body and be worthy of that gift. I want my family and friends and the man I love to feel worthy of that gift. They should. They were meant to. I feel that I understand the heart of God concerning these commandments and I have a passion for them. If I could only share this passion so that others might be inspired to live as God calls them to live…that is my hope. Because no one grows up wanting to give themselves over and over and over to different people who use and abuse them. No one's heart is born with the pathetic expectations of love in our society today. When ever I speak with someone about purity, I approach it this way. I ask them, if true love was real wouldn't you want it? If sex was supposed to be this magical, perfect, intimate, soul-binding act; wouldn't that be worth waiting for? Every single person, the most flippant and promiscuous I know, has said "yes, of course I would want that. Who wouldn't want that? But its not real." It IS. It IS real. You give it away; you rob yourself of it.
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done. Hebrews 12:14-17 In this passage of scripture, sexual immorality is equated with the story of Esau. You can read the story in its entirety here. Esau and Jacob were sons of Isaac (the son of Abraham). Esau was the oldest but he "despised" his birthright. He gave up his inheritance and his legacy amongst God's people just to satisfy his immediate and temporary physical desire. That is what we do when we "despise" God's perfect gift of sex within marriage to satisfy sexual urges. We give up our right to the echad oneness that reflects the glory of God. We defile ourselves and lose the perfect inheritance we are meant for. This is manifested spiritually, physically, socially, and biologically. I am working on a blog post titled "Nature's case for Sexual Monogamy" which will explain what happens in your brain when you have sexual relations with multiple partners before marriage. Sexual immorality does indeed make it very, very difficult to partake of God's design for marriage and all the blessings within it. I believe that the verse "Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." (which precedes the metaphor regarding Esau)is saying that unless we strive to be close to God, we won't see the manifestation of His holiness in this life. This is why those who go from one sexual relationship to another can't believe that true love is real. They have blinded themselves to it. They aren't holy so they can't see that holiness here.
I've talked enough. I will let God have the last words.
For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable,not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God;and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister.The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before.For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 4:2-8
Are you among the 80% of Christians who have already robbed themselves of God's perfect gift in marriage?* Already deep in sexual immorality? Been there done that? Again and again and again? The next blog is for you.
* According to statistics in the 2009 National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, sourcehere.
In "Your Body as Sacred" numero uno, I went over the attributes of humanity that are the expression of God's image in us. For me, this would be enough motivation to treat my body with the reverence that God expects. However, after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ; Christians obtained a much more significant reason.
If you are a Christian than your body is the temple of God.
The Holy Spirit lives in you; I alluded to this briefly in my "Echad" blog entry when I quoted 1 Corinthians 6. Today, I'm going to fully explain this amazing spiritual responsibility. Fair warning, this is a long blog. I have trouble condensing and abridging while writing about purity because I think it is so misunderstood and unnappreciated today even among Bible-believing Christians. I think its imperative to be as comprehensive as possible so that I am as clear as possible. Also, I don't want it to ever seem as though I am using Bible verses out of context which is why I try to cover so much scripture, so that the context is apparent.
Let's begin. Since I like starting from square one, lets define what a "temple" is. According to Google, a temple is "a building devoted to the worship, or regarded as the dwelling place, of a god or gods or other objects of religious reverence." This is a great definition. Thanks, Google.
Now, lets revisit Genesis. Before the fall of man, Adam and Eve had perfect communion with God. He walked in the garden with them and spoke to them face to face. They didn't need a church. God was present with them in a tangible way. Then they sinned and ruined everything, and God cast them out of the garden of Eden.
After the fall of man, we (meaning human beings) were no longer worthy of communing with our holy, righteous Creator. You can read all about it here, but the point is this; before sin entered the world, God dwelt with us. He walked with us. Just think of it, perfect communion, in person, with the Lord, God Almighty…and then our sin separated us from Him. That is what sin does; it separates.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
Isaiah 59:2
So what now? How did we commune with God after the fall of man? Where did we find His presence? Short answer: We didn't.
Not for a LONG time.
Except for Noah, Abraham, and a few others whom God used to further His plans; God gave the human race the silent treatment. No decrees, no commandments, no answered prayers. Nothing. Then, after establishing a nation of people through Abraham, God commanded Moses to have a tabernacle built.
Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
Exodus 25:8-9
*A tabernacle is a mobile "temple". At this time in Israel's history, God's people were constantly on the move as they had not yet entered the Promise Land.
Note the use of "dwell" in this verse as in our Google definition of "temple". The tabernacle was to be where God chose to manifest His presence in the world so that His people would be able to commune with Him. This is obviously a big deal. If you are going to follow God, you need Him to lead you; how can He lead you if you have no means of communion with Him? See the dilemma? And so God tells Moses to build a tabernacle so that He might commune with his people. He tells Moses how to build it down to the very. last. little. detail.
It takes SIX chapters of scripture to describe how God's temple is to be constructed, how the furniture is to be built, and how the temple is to be used.
For example:
"Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker.All the curtains are to be the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide.Join five of the curtains together, and do the same with the other five.Make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and do the same with the end curtain in the other set.Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other…"
Exodus 26:1-5
And etc.
Get the point? God is keenly interested in every aspect of His temple, and not just because He has a passion for interior design. He wants to make it VERY clear to Moses and the rest of Israel that they are building something holy. It takes THIRTY-SEVEN verses to dictate the construction of the temple. You can read all about it here. Want to know what it probably looked like? See here:
This picture is a very informative representation. Please note all the gold furniture inside the tabernacle. There is a large lamp stand, a table for bread offerings, an altar for burning incense, and in the back (behind the veil of purple and scarlet) we find the ark of the covenant. Also, you would find the bronze alter and the bronze basin in the courtyard (not pictured). The bronze altar was where the sin sacrifices were burnt and the priests would wash themselves in the basin so they would be ceremonially clean before entering the tabernacle.
If you follow the link I provided, to the whopping six chapters we are discussing, you will see that God was as picky about the construction of all these items as He was with the tabernacle itself, and God continually reinforces that the Israelites are to follow His instructions exactly.
Additionally, He gave detailed instructions on how to make the incense to be burned, the anointing oil, the garments the priests are to wear, and etc. God leaves nothing out. Over and over He tells Moses that these implements of worship are to be "holy", "most holy" to the people of Israel and sacred to their children for the generations to come.
In Exodus 40, the Lord instructs that all these items and the tabernacle must be consecrated before they are used. To consecrate means "to declare sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose" (thanks, Google). Ceremonially, this consecration is performed by anointing the temple, the items, and the priests with blood from sacrifices as well as the sacred oil.
*If you are offended by the idea of animal sacrifice, please see the first note below.
Now, I will be entirely honest. I used to think these chapters in Exodus were terribly boring. Truthfully, the first two times I read the Bible all the way through I definitely skimmed these parts. They lost me with all the cubits and the poles and gold, and I just didn't care. Ok, cool architecture but what does it have to do with me? Nothing, or so I thought. I was reading through these chapters earlier this year and I finally read it all word for word. You know what suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks? These verses aren't just about a sacred building built thousands of years ago, these verses are about my body.
Bear with me. You'll see.
Lets return to the idea of consecration. So, once the temple and all the items in it were anointed with blood from "sin offerings" (aka animal sacrifices) and sacred oil, they were now HOLY. They belonged to God and became symbols of His glory among the Israelites. This means they were sacred. According to Google, if something is sacred than it is "connected with God (or the gods) or dedicated to a religious purpose and so deserving veneration." Veneration means "great respect; reverence". Now the most sacred,holy part of the tabernacle was called the "Most Holy Place" and it housed the Ark of the Covenant. Think of the Ark of the Covenant as the anchor of God's presence in the tabernacle/temple. When the Israelites traveled or went into battle, they would dismantle the tabernacle and carry the Ark before them. By God's power that came from the ark, the Israelites conquered their enemies. It was in the "Mercy seat" of the ark that God spoke to His people.
“You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat.Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends.The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be.And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.
Exodus 25:17-22 So while the tabernacle and all its items were sacred and holy (and essential for worship), the ark was where communion with God specifically took place. Therefore, the ark of the covenant was really the physical manifestation of God's glorious presence. This is the closest we've come to true communion with God since Eden. Now, there were a lot of rules about showing the appropriate respect/reverence for God's temple and the holy items in it. Breaking these rules required either a sin offering/sacrifice or you simply died. Lets talk about this in detail regarding the ark of the covenant.
For example, only those who were ceremonially clean could touch the ark and it was to be carried by the Levite priests (Exodus 25, Deuteronomy 10, 1 Chronicles 15). Four hundred years after it was made, King David's men were transporting the ark on a cart (when they were supposed to have priests carrying it) and the oxen pulling the cart stumbled. The ark began to fall and a man reached out to touch it in order to keep it from falling, and he died. The man died because the ark was being misused and the man was not consecrated or ceremonially clean, he was not worthy of touching the glory of God (1 Chronicles 13). When the Philistines had captured the ark of the covenant, God inflicted all sorts of illness on them (1 Samuel 5). No one except for Moses and the priests were supposed to touch, approach or even SEE the ark of the covenant (it was covered by three layers of cloth when carried in the open), and seventy people were killed when they irreverently removed the cover and looked into the ark (1 Samuel 6). Sound familiar? If you have good taste in movies, it should:
That clip is definitely my favorite representation of God's glory in action. Now, lets talk about this reverence that God's glory so rightly deserves. Some people are offended by the idea that God might kill someone simply for disrespecting him. He kills an "innocent" man just for stopping the ark from falling? He killed seventy people for opening it up and looking inside just because they weren't priests? Watch that clip from Indiana Jones, do you feel badly for any of those Nazi's? Do you think it is unfair that God melted their faces off? Why not? Because they are the bad guys. They are Nazi's so they represent, perhaps, the purest evil seen on this planet and (more importantly) they tried to kill Indiana Jones! So, it is a victorious thing when God's glory consumes them (because they are unworthy) and spares Indiana and Marion (made worthy by the respect they show when they close their eyes to the glory of God). Even the nameless Nazi soldiers are not guiltless. They made their choice, they put on their swastikas. They are the bad guys.
Guess what, compared to the glory of God, we are all the bad guys. There is no one righteous, not one, who continually does good and never sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20 and echoed in Romans 3). Our "righteousness" is like "filthy rags" to God (Isaiah 64:6) All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God(Romans 3:23). We all deserve to have our faces melted off in comparison to the righteous glory of God. If you are one of those people who have difficulty buying this, please read the note at the bottom of this entry.
So, how do these verses relate to our bodies?
If you are a Christian, if you believe God had to send Jesus to die for your sin so you could have eternal life, than God sanctifies you with His glory; He dwells within you. Your body is the temple. Not the building you go to on Sundays, YOU are God's holy temple.
For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, andI will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thereforego out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing;then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you,and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear (reverence) of God.
2 Corinthians 6:16 to 7:1
In this letter from the apostle Paul to the church at Corinth, we are told that our bodies deserve the same reverence that God's first tabernacle deserved. This means we have a responsibility to God and must strive for holiness in our bodies. This truth is present throughout the Bible from the prophetic books of the Old Testament (Jeremiah, Isaiah) all the way through to Revelation. Am I suggesting that those of us who do not honor our bodies as the holy temple of God should have our faces melted off? Well, luckily Christ died for sin so we don't have to worry about our faces melting off, but it is absolutely something we are held accountable for. God expects us to honor our bodies as temples of His Holy Spirit. This is non-negotiable.
I'm about to get into doctrine for Christians. If you are an atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, Druid, whatever; the only thing I want to say to you is that your body is meant to be a temple of the living God. You are fearfully and wonderfully made and you deserve respect, appreciation, and you deserve to be CHERISHED and RESPECTED by others. You are gorgeous and marvelous and awe-inspiring Ok? That's all I have to say to you.
So fellow Christians,
My body, your body, is the temple of the living God, because His Holy Spirit dwells in us. What does that mean exactly, to have the Holy Spirit in us? Lets read how Jesus Christ, himself, introduced the Holy Spirit:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him...If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him...These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:15-27
So, the Holy Spirit is part of the trinity, "God in three persons" (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). I like to think of it like the different states of matter- solid, fluid, and gas. I often wonder if that isn't a truth of God purposefully displayed in physics for us. So God is God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, just as water is water (liquid), ice (solid), and steam (gas). It is all H2O. Jesus explains that God the Father will send the Holy Spirit to dwell in His people after He returns to heaven. So, as Jesus said, if you love Him and strive to follow His commandments, than you belong to God; you are forgiven and sanctified through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and you have the Holy Spirit in you. From the passage of scripture above you see that the Holy Spirit is called a "helper". You might think of it like a conscience on steroids, convicting the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement (John 16:8). It works as a moral guide and also aids in our ability to understand God's word (being called the Spirit of Truth throughout the Bible) so we can apply it to our life.
Sounds simple right? However, the Holy Spirit works in deeper spiritual ways as well. Other scripture speaks of the Holy Spirit expressing our hearts to God when we can't seem to find the words ourselves:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27
*In the Bible "saints" refers to ALL believers- not just those deemed "saints" by the Catholic church.
In a powerful, spiritual way, as we seek God, the Holy Spirit helps bring forth the "good" things in us. The inspiring motivational qualities of life that help us follow God's word and do good works:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
And my favorite:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13
Personally, I can't imagine life as a Christian without the Holy Spirit. I have seen and felt these "benefits" (sort to speak) of the Holy Spirit throughout my life. It makes sense to me that for this gift of communion with God we are expected to honor our bodies as God's temple. Seriously, doesn't that just make sense?
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
So, how does one honor their body as the holy temple of God? In many ways. We are told to do this by taking care of our bodies, staying as healthy as possible. We are commanded to use our mouths to exalt God and build up other instead of cursing, being crude, and tearing each other down. We are to use our bodies to serve those who are less fortunate. And (my favorite commandment concerning our bodies) we are told not to defile the temple of God with sexual sin.
And Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
mark 7:14-23
So what should we do when it comes to sexual immorality? RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
So, what exactly is sexual immorality and how do we deal with it?
That's another blog for another day.
Note on Animal Sacrifice:
Let's talk about animal sacrifice for just a moment- let's clarify. The wages of sin is death (Roman's 6:23). When we (as the human race) chose to walk away from God, we were cast out of the Garden of Eden and made mortal. We die. Each one of us. That is a consequence of our "original" sin. Now, without forgiveness of sins, the wages of sin is eternal death which is the eternal separation from God (remember, sin separates). Before Christ came and died as a PERFECT sacrifice for our sins, God allowed His people to "try" to atone for their sin through animal sacrifice. If you eat burgers, I don't want to hear you complain about this. Killing an animal to avoid hell is a little more noble than killing an animal for a BLT, in my opinion. If you are a vegetarian or a vegan, remember, God doesn't like death either. God's "original" plan was to hang out in His garden with a bunch of vegans, but we mucked that up. Death is our fault. Death is the price we pay for rebelling against God and Jesus came to pay that price in full so that we don't have to kill animals anymore in a pathetic attempt to present ourselves as righteous. So, in a way, Christ sort of died for people and animals. Personally, I think that God allowed animal sacrifice for atonement of sin so that we would have to be intimately involved with the consequences of our actions, so that we would understand the severity of our sin and the punishment of death. Sometimes, I think I might work harder to live righteously if every time I sinned I had to go out and kill one of my pet chickens or my sweet goats. Really, that was the point of all the ceremonial laws that God gave through Moses and the animal sacrifices when those laws were broken; God made it impossible for His people to ignore their sin and how short they fell of the righteous glory of God.
Note on the reverence that God deserves:
Where were you when He laid the foundation of the earth? Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place? That it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Job 38.
You know how, when you are a child, your parents punished you to teach you respect? To respect danger, like not running across a road without looking or touching a stove. To respect your parents and your elders. To respect authority like your teachers and police officers. Then, when you are an adult should you need to be punished? When you have matured, shouldn't you simply do what is right because you know it is right? You understand the benefits of doing what is good and the consequences doing what is bad without having to be told by someone else. Isn't that maturity?
This is what God did with the human race. Humanity was largely "on its own" from the time we were cast out of the garden of Eden until God began speaking through Moses with laws and commandments. From the time of Adam until Moses we filled the world with evil. We corrupted the goodness that God gave us and sinned and sinned. WE made all those laws necessary. We had to be told not to rape and murder and commit incest and adultery and lie and steal and cheat. God spoke through Moses to lift us up out of the wicked spiritual anarchy we were in, and He had to teach us respect. This was a thousand years before Christ; the human race was primitive and utterly wicked (compared to things like gender equality and the Geneva Convention and human rights movements of today). However, by the time Christ came, it was excepted that we would be mature enough and ready to understand His teaching. So through Christ, all that punishment is no longer necessary. We get grace and mercy. Does that make sense? Like the kid who is punished to keep from touching the stove until he is old enough to understand why, God punished those who disrespected His glory until the human race was mature enough to understand our need for Christ. This is why God killed those who directly disobeyed His commandments regarding His glory in the ark of the covenant.
