Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16, ESV
As Paul is speaking against divisions in the Church, he addresses us with this question. This reality is a double-edged sword. For the Christian, the fact that our Lord has made His home within us can be both comforting and terrifying. Comforting in that God is always near, but terrifying that we are set apart and meant to be different. That is the dichotomy of who we are meant to be as a people. Fearful that we will mess up and desire not to anger God, but loving and free in the knowledge that God is always with us and will not forget us. God knows our hearts, and in that knowledge, He is fully aware of all aspects of who we are and what we think. There is nothing hidden from God. We are not meant to live a divided heart; the Church is not meant to be divided by personalities but is meant to be united in Christ and Christ alone. As we walk in the realization of how we have been set apart as His people, it can be easier to find unity with one another, especially as we think about how our Lord has placed Himself squarely within us. He is not behind us or before us but is in us, and within each step we take, He is there stride by stride. This does not excuse us to do and act as we please, but quite the contrary because we are called to remember that within our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, God has made His temple inside of them too. In this reality, we are called to seek with every fiber of who we are to also protect and honor them as also holy and beloved just as we know that we are too.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.