Christian joke for the larger man

Church is just over. What a buzz. We had 46 folk across 2 services: not our best and many regulars were away for legitimate reasons, but we also had some visitors, God's Word was proclaimed and I am feeling good about the world.

Then my 'friend' Malcolm sent this link. So deflating! Follow it here: http://www.reverendfun.com/index.php?date=20080222

But seriously, I know Malcolm isn't cruel, and I know his sense of humour, and I think it's funny, so despite my feigned offence, I took none really. And I'm not having a go at Malcolm by writing what follows, for I know Malcolm's theology is more robust than that which I am about to criticise.

As an aside (and this only makes sense if you read the link), the argument "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit" is trotted out against smoking, being overweight, and anything that our culture thinks (or knows scientifically) is wrong.

And yet, we don't argue that way when it comes to legitimate drugs. I'm on Effexor/XR and some sort of cholesterol drug. Isn't that potentially abusing the temple of the holy spirit? What about my mate who is very thin, doesn't smoke, yet drinks coffee like it's going out of style. He is a drug-addicted pastor!

So the logic doesn't hold.

Furthermore, it's just really bad exegesis. We read in 1 Cor 16, 17: "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." (NIV)

The 'you' in the original is really 'youse'.

In short (since I've just been called for lunch): the context is about destroying the church. Youse, collectively, when youse gather together to form the church (the body of believers), youse are the temple of the HS. If any of youse destroys the temple (ie does stuff that is hurtful or divisive to the church), youse are destroying God's temple and God will destroy him.

Context removes any proof-texting about health and fitness and reminds us it's about our responsibility to do everything humanly in our power to seek unity in the body of God's people, the church.