I Tell You The TRUTH,

An unusual thing happens in the week preceding Christ's crucifixion. This is how it is recorded by the Apostle Luke:

Luke 19:

47Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. 48Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

Jesus uses two quotes from scripture in his announcement to the temple merchants. The first is a reference to the "house of prayer" taken from Isaiah 56:7. The "den of robbers" is found in the following text…

Jeremiah 7:11:

9" `Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"--safe to do all these detestable things? 11Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.

As always, the smallest verse is significant to the entire gospel. God's word always fits together and one scripture will confirm another. This short story about Jesus driving out those who were selling has great significance to us even today. If you think I'm going to refer to churches that sell merchandise within the walls of the church, that's not where I'm heading at all. The answer lies in the temple. And that's where we get a deeper understanding. It is the temple that Christ desires to keep holy. So let's take a look at the temple today…

1 Corinthians 6:

12"Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything. 13"Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." 17But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19Do 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; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Today, we often get caught up in keeping the church righteous and letting the true temple of God remain unclean. When Jesus made such a radical move as to drive out the merchants, He wanted us to understand that sin requires radical action. It must be driven out. And as you just read from Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, your body is the temple where the Spirit of God now dwells. You and I have a responsibility to maintain the temple and honor God with our bodies. It is no different than the words of Jeremiah above. Our own body can become a den of robbers, worshiping the God's of this world, yet calling ourselves sons of God. But take head, the God of Jeremiah continues to watch the temple.

The good news is this. It was Jesus who cleaned out the old temple and it is Jesus who cleans out the new. We have a Lord who dwells within us and is willing to clean house whenever He is asked to.

No matter who you are or where you are in your walk with the Lord, there is always a need to be cleaned. We need to confess our sins daily and He is faithful to clean them and take them out with the trash - never to be heard from again. Let today be house cleaning day. Invite Him to take out the trash. Sometimes it involves a good scrubbing, which might just hurt a bit. Sometimes we need to allow Him to break out the sand blaster and let Him truly remove the trash that has become attached to the temple walls.

Get your own Truth Works Devotions by email!