"In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." -EPHESIANS 2:22 [KJV]
These
words will apply both to the whole body of Christ viewed
collectively, and to each separate member of that body viewed
individually; and what the Church of God is in its completeness in
Christ, as it will be in heaven above, and what it is in its visible
and militant state on earth now, so is every individual member of
that Church in this time state; and it is this solemn truth which
makes the words before us to have such a forcible application to
every individual believer. As we shall all have to answer for
ourselves, "to die," as one said, "alone," and as
religion is a personal matter, how careful should it make each
individual believer so to walk before God and man that he may have
both an inward and outward evidence that his body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost [I CORINTHIANS
6:19], and that
he is a habitation of God by the Spirit.
If he realise this, and live under its solemn weight and influence, how careful he will be not to defile that body which is the temple of the Holy Ghost; how desirous and anxious not to defile his eyes by wandering lusts, nor his ears by listening to worldly and carnal conversation, nor his lips by speaking guile, or indulging in light and frothy talk, nor his hands by putting them to anything that is evil, nor his feet by running on errands of vanity and folly; but to view his body as a member of Christ [I CORINTHIANS 6:15], and therefore sanctified to His service and to His glory.
-Gospel report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869 A.D.)
June 11th, EARS FROM HARVESTED SHEAVES
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