GOD’S POWER IN YOU

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

In ancient Greek there are several different words for “you,” making clear when we’re talking about a single individual “you” or a communal “you.” In English, we’ve got only the one “you,” which, I imagine, is why the American South invented “y’all.” It’s also why, in this passage, we read the clumsy translation “you yourselves,” because we’re talking about the collective, not the individual—the communal “you.”

To paraphrase Paul, “There’s still a tabernacle. There’s still a place in the world where God’s glory dwells. It’s y’all.” It’s the church, not the building or structure or governance but the collective lives of Jesus’ followers. As a community, all who call Jesus “Lord” are bound together by the Holy Spirit.

There’s even more, though. Paul continues to build on this train of thought: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples 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 bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19−20).

This time, it’s the singular “you.” You—your individual, physical body—is now the dwelling place of God through the Holy Spirit, which I think is just as he originally intended when he breathed his ruakh into the first humans in Genesis. Every follower of Jesus has been filled with the very Spirit that filled Jesus.

A life deeply rooted in Scripture is essential for a healthy relationship to God, self, others, and the world at large. Equally essential, though, is a life deeply rooted in the Holy Spirit, who leads by experience and functions in partnership, not competition, with the explanatory Holy Bible.

The Holy Spirit is the familiar stranger in the background of the Bible’s every turn, inching closer and closer to us as the story moves forward. To gather the whole biblical theme up in a single sentence: God’s Spirit has been given to us and to you. That has been the plan all along.

What does it say about God’s thoughts toward you that he wants to dwell within you?