16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. 18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.” 1 Corinthians 3:16–20
You hear about people living a self-destructive lifestyle, who are pushing the limits through riotous living. They’re often described as going off the deep end, or “he’s away from the Lord right now.” The question is asked of those who claim to be a Christian in this state, has he or she lost his mind? Is he or she even a Christian? I guess it is possible for someone indwelt by the Holy Spirit to egregiously sin over a sustained period of time, but that person should by definition be one miserable soul.
In Paul’s day, living a wanton existence would not be easily concealed, but it seems a lot easier in this age to live a double life. But in either case, God sees. Truth is, you cannot stay one step ahead of the law for long with an all knowing, all seeing God taking matters into his own hands, especially if he happens to live inside you. There is no so called “double life” with him. He sees and knows everything. Your sins will find you out.
So Paul was bringing this issue to light to a church nestled in a vulgar society with the temple of Aphrodite and its thousand temple prostitutes open 24/7. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. The Lord demands holiness. So, is a little of this and a little of that acceptable if you’re one confession away from righting the ship? I would say absolutely not from Paul’s teaching here. He talks about our reliance upon our own wisdom and our own craftiness and our own reasonings (dialogismos, “dialogs with ourselves”) to justify taking some extra rope. But with that rope he will see to it that we hang ourselves. When someone’s truly his, he will be reined in sooner or later, and loss will be suffered. What is that loss? At the very least, sweet time in fellowship with Him.
But in most cases, the loss of one’s ministry, public or otherwise, one’s reputation, one’s family, and one’s job hang in the balance. We don’t want to keep on pushing the envelope, or even to lean in questionable directions. “Get thee behind me Satan” should always be our mantra. We can’t afford a misstep.
Bottomline is this. We should feel absolutely miserable when we sin, guilty and ashamed, and angry that we have yet again slipped. At least this is a good starting point. Otherwise, if there is no waveform on the oscilloscope, first things first, and that is to be saved from your sin.
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