Monday 18 January 2021

Temple.


In church we had the reading 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 - St Paul on fornication, prostitution, and the body as a temple of the spirit.

Unexpectedly our leader said that this wasn't an admonition against sex but a refutation of the practice of temple prostitution.

Temple prostitution was practised in most pagan temples of the period as a method of union with the god or goddess.

But St. Paul says that this is not necessary because we are unified with God though Christ and our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit within us.

This is consistent with the Old Testament tradition of likening the worship of foreign gods to prostitution. 

Photo credit: Sutori.

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