Mark 11:15-18 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
We see in the above passage that Jesus is zealous about what happens in the temple of God. In righteous indignation, He is physically cleaning the temple of money changers, merchandizers, and any other commercial activities. God's temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations, a holy place where people meet God, not a place of mundane activities of the flesh. The temple was established so humans could touch the hand of God, to know He is real, and to serve him with all their hearts and might. His temple was a place of restoration, a place to find God's mercy and grace. Instead, the sinful and self-serving nature of man made the environment of the temple a place of gain, a place to win status and wealth, a place just like every other place on the face of the earth. Jesus' consternation toward such a situation, drove him to manifest an anger that we don't see elsewhere in the New Testament. His zealousness over what happens in the temple is still a prominent focus in the lives of Christians, for we are individually and collectively the temple of the living God: Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) Because we are that temple, we must live as God's home, as his abiding place, separate from the world. As Paul told the church, What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (2 Corinthians 6:16)
Yes, we are the living temple of God: we are where the Spirit of God dwells. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22) Just as Jesus cleansed the temple building, God cleansed our temples with the precious blood of Jesus. Now, we are a place of holiness, a place where God's Spirit can abide. Jesus made us acceptable to God; He made us holy. The blood alone makes us a place of perfection where the Spirit abides. Jesus said, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48) We are perfect in the eyes of God because of the works of the Son. He paid in full the price for sin. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4) Because He paid that price and fulfilled the law, we can forever dwell with the Lord God as his children, living for him, confident we will never be abandoned by God, for his Spirit dwells within us. Even at death, we will be resurrected by the power of the Spirt that dwells within us, for the Spirit will go to the Father, and He will take us with him.
How should we live if the Spirit dwells within us? So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. (Galatians 5:16-18) We are to live in Christ, allowing the active voice of the Spirit to lead us into a life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) The temple of God is where these attributes dwell because the Spirit is there, and we are that temple. If our lives are not controlled by the Spirit, if we are not immersed in the Spirit, we will display the attributes of the flesh in some way: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies. (Galatians 5:19-21) These acts will receive the judgment of God for they lead to death. Jesus drove such acts out of the temple. He cleansed the holy temple of God! The Bible says we are not bastards, but are children of God. If we act as if we are not children, we will come under judgment, for He disciplines his children to correct them, not to kill them. Today, hear the voice of the Lord while it is yet day. If your life has gone astray, call upon the Lord and repent. Ask God to cleanse your temple again with the blood of Jesus, and then follow him with your whole heart as you are led by the Spirit of God. He loves you with an everlasting love, and He will receive you to himself!
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