We don’t live in a place filled with temples but imagine we did. What sorts of things would you do in a temple? What sorts of things would you never dream of doing there? I grew up tip toeing in God’s house. It was a holy place, at least the auditorium was. Get in the hallway and you were back in secular space. I guess the wall between the two formed some sort of metaphysical barrier of holiness where you could be loud on one side but had to be quiet on the other. I still haven’t figured out how all that works. Anyway, back to the things you would/wouldn’t do in a temple. The fact is, we are God’s temple,
“16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.” – 1 Cor 3:16-17
For some reason it is easier to make that distinction in a room than it is in a body. We know we don’t lie or steal in the church auditorium much less something like sexual immorality (1 Cor 6:18-20). But the truth of the matter is the presence of God is much more profoundly present in our lives and even in our bodies than it is in a building built by human hands (1 Kings 8:27). So why is it that often we don’t even think twice about sin? Why is it that some things we would never do in the building but haven’t ever questioned doing them in our homes or in other places when the truth is we are the temple of God, not the auditorium?
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have you ever noticed the hush that fills the lobby of a bank? That’s a temple.
the waiting room of a doctor’s office? likewise.
There are others, too, where the ritual isn’t so reverent. But we are indeed surrounded by temples.