When you are baptized for the remission of your sins, you are promised the gift of the Holy Spirit as stated in the words of Peter in Acts 2:38-39 “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’” If you do not have the Spirit, you do not belong to Christ. Romans 8:9-11 “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Since you have the Spirit dwelling within you, your body is now the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” Since your body is the temple of God, you must not defile your body or God will destroy you! Your body is now holy – separated and dedicated to God. To defile is to corrupt, make impure or dirty, depraved, contaminated or perverted.
You could defile your body physically by what you eat, drink, or with drugs or other bad ways that you might physically treat your body. I strongly encourage you not to defile your body physically. But perhaps more importantly, you do not want to defile your body with sin such as sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Your body and your spirit do not belong to you any longer. You have been purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ. Consider your body and your spirit to belong to God. You must use them as He desires, not as you desire. Therefore, you are to glorify God with your body and spirit. You are not to defile your body with sins such as sexual immorality. Romans 6:12-13 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
You are told that what you say can defile you. James 3:5-6 “Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.” Matthew 15:11 “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Be careful that your tongue is used for good and not for evil. Evil uses of your tongue include lies, boasting, blasphemy, cursing, gossip, words to tear down another, foolish talking, course jesting, and so forth. Pay special attention to the words that come out of your mouth so that they don’t defile you, the temple of God.
My encouragement to you is that you appreciate that your body is the temple of God. The Holy Spirit lives within you. You do not belong to yourself; you have been bought at a price. You must not defile the temple of God (your body). You can defile the temple with sins such as sexual immorality or evil use of your tongue. Use your body and spirit to glorify God!