Another look at a familiar passage...

Ever read this passage? 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: Do 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

If you've been around the church for a while you've no doubt heard this passage. It's been used to promote & prohibit. Some use it to promote exercise, getting plenty of sleep and eating a healthy diet. Others use it to prohibit smoking, chewing tobacco and drinking beer (and any other "bad habit"), etc.

Before I go on let me post this disclaimer: I'm NOT encouraging people to be unhealthy. I'm NOT encouraging them to become addicted to unhealthy stuff or to eat bad food or to forsake sleep or take up bad habits. Now back to the Scripture...

Let's read it in context: (1 Corinthians 6:12-20, emphasis mine)

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."[b] 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.

The point is tht our bodies are temples of the holy Spirit so we should obstain from defiling ourselves by sexual immorality. This isn't about making time for the gym or quitting your Skoal. It really isn't. Context is always extremely important. It's funny how we acquire interpretations over time and then they become the default explanations and/or applications without serious consideration.