Summer Preaching Series August 23-24, 2025
“A Temple” I Corinthians 6:19-20
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
To this point all the verses serving as the basis of the sermons this summer have been your verses. You provided them to me. But today I chose the verses. Sort of. In the spring of 1971, 54 years ago, I bowed my head, and my confirmation verse was placed on my life.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
Why did Pastor Richard Schinnerer choose that verse for me? I know that I had eyes for Anita Mokelbust, one of my fellow confirmation students. Maybe this was a warning. “John – watch out.”
This summer we have had some of the most comforting verses that you will find in the Bible:
- Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)
- Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
- We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. (Romans 8:28)
But today’s verse is different. It is a command. It is a challenge. But this isn’t just my verse. I bet it is a verse that speaks to many of you.
First, “You are not your own.” That is quite a statement coming from God. You are not in charge of your life. You are not the one who makes the ultimate decisions. Who is in charge? Who gets the last word? If you are a Christian, if you have been baptized into Jesus Christ, joined to Him – then He is the one who is in charge. “You are not your own” – you are His.
This section is about what one does sexually with their body. The verse before our text sets the stage for this ultimate demand on us, “Flee sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” (I Corinthians 6:18)
So many people fight for their sexual “freedom”. “No one is going to tell me what I can do, or can’t do, with my body.” “No church, or pastor, or priest is going to set down rules that I am supposed to follow.” “No Bible is going to lay down the law with what I do with someone else.”
Really? God has something to say about our sexual life. In the letter to the Romans we read, “None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” (Romans 14:7-8)
“Flee sexual immorality.” That means not having sex with someone who is not your spouse. That means not living together before marriage. That means no “casual sex” with another. That means never watching pornography. That means not engaging in gay sex or lesbian sex.
Sex and sexuality are good gifts, but it can be ruined when not done within the guidance of God. Some of the worst choices we have made are with our body. We have hurt ourselves. We have hurt others. We have hurt the God who calls us his very own children. In Romans 6 Paul says, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” (Romans 6:12-13)
God is serious about what the body does. Just before our reading God thunders, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (I Corinthians 6:9-10)
God is serious about how we use or abuse our body or if we use or abuse the body of others. His punishment is so severe because the sin is so severe. And God is serious about the redemption of our body. This body is holy and sacred. God’s very temple. Our verse: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”
What price did God pay for you? The body, the physical body of Jesus Christ, was given for your body. The Bible says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” (I Peter 1:18-19)
Are you worth anything? Am I worth anything? Somedays we wonder. When we have been sinful or foolish, when we know that we have failed others, and ourselves, and our very God, we think we have no worth. God thinks differently. “You were bought at a price.” The cost? It was the price of God’s very own son, Jesus. He is the Lamb of God slain for you and your sins.
That verse that I just read from I Corinthians 6 about who doesn’t get into heaven, the one about the sexually immoral, and the homosexuals, and the drunks, and the greedy, not being in heaven, is a very condemning word. But that isn’t the final word from God. Here is the final word: “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (I Corinthians 6:11) “Once you were…but now you are.” Those are words that every sinner, all of us, hold to.
When the youth at Ascension were at the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans last month, the Westboro Baptist Church from Topeka, Kansas came to protest that gathering. They held up despicable signs like “God Hates You.” Please understand: they are not a church. And they are not Baptists. I know some Baptists and these folks are not Baptists. The President of our Synod, Matthew Harrison, walked up to them and asked why they were doing this. They said, “Your church is filled with sinners.” He responded like this, “Yeah. Millions of them.” Martin Luther once said, “Christ came only for sinners.” Jesus had called Matthew, a known sinner, to be one of His apostle’s. The response from those who opposed Him and His selection of Matthew was, “Why do you eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (See Luke 5:30-32)
“You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” He died for you. Now live for Him. Paul, in one of his writings says this call of living for God looks like this, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2)
You can honor the body that God gave you by how you live. But do you know that someone honors your body more than you could ever honor it? Your Savior, Jesus, honors these bags of bones in amazing ways. He gives you faith and hope. He forgives all sins that you, and I, have done to this body. His Holy Spirit dwells in this flesh. And He will raise this body on that day that Christ comes to judge those who are still alive at His return and those who have died.
After church last Sunday I went to see Marion Wilson. Marion has been battling pancreatic cancer. 14 hours after I left her and told her that I loved her and she told me that she loved me, she died. She was anxious that day. She said she was confused. She was wondering if she was doing the right things. I told her that Jesus was going to take her to heaven soon. I told her that her body couldn’t live much longer. I read this passage and she spoke it with me, word by word, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” (I Corinthians 15:42-44)
Our bodies. They are God’s temples, today, tomorrow and forever. Amen!!
