You Are the Temple of God

The People of God Set Priorities
Hope and Confidence Come from God
Trust God's Promises

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

The Message

^14-18 Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:

“I’ll live in them, move into them;
    I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
    leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
    I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you;
    you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
The Word of the Master, God.

7 With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God.

For Reflection

With whom do you associate?  No one I know or for that matter have ever known cherished rejection.  We all need a sense of belonging.  Sometimes the need to belong influences people to think, say and do things they might not do in different circumstances or different groups of people.  It is hard to be yourself when yourself is different from the selves in the crowd you are a part of or into which you want to be a accepted.  The pressure to conform is powerful and it is a courageous person who can avoid being corrupted.  It is best to remember God lives in you and will protect you.  In God you will find a way to be acceptable, even if it means finding a more supportive environment.  Trust in God. 

Pray

Pray for the courage to be the person God intends you to be.