Lysis is an interesting word. A common meaning of the word is the disintegration of a cell by rupture of the wall or membrane commonly caused by a viral infection. Once the perimeters of the cell are breeched, it will die. The breakdown of good and healthy cells and subsequent cell death has obvious and sobering implications for the possibility of longevity.
Physical lysis, however, is of far less concern than its spiritual counterpart because spiritual death is permanent. The Apostle Paul wrote, “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” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). The comparison of a physical cell to a spiritual temple is an easy one to grasp, as is the weakening of the structure walls due to defilement.
The question of the wise then is, “How then do I maintain the walls of this temple that I am?” Through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you’” (Jeremiah 7:23). We maintain the walls of this temple through obedience to God’s word which defines the ways in which we are to walk. That is what makes the walls of the temple, which we are, strong and spiritually viable.
Conversely, the walls of the temple which we each are, can be ruptured by forgetting God’s ways, which are actually ancient paths. “Because My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, from the ancient paths, to walk in pathways and not on a highway” (Jeremiah 18:15).
Truth never ceases being the truth no matter how much a person may wish he or she could make it so. Various generations, or individuals within them, in the course of human history have stumbled in their ways because of their distaste for the ancient paths that require faith in God and patience in their following. As a consequence, God says, “I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity” (Jeremiah 18:17) All this is a result of a viral spiritual infection which has the capacity to break down our temple walls.
God, however, didn’t call us in order to watch our spiritual walls crumble as we die a permanent death. The Apostle Paul declares the truth of the matter. “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7). It is God’s desire that we each live and thrive as we maintain our spiritual cellular integrity. In His loving kindness, God points us to the answer as to our spiritual well-being. “Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; Your elders, and they will tell you” (Deuteronomy 32:7). The wise will look beyond themselves to the truth that never changes – the paths of old – wherein is life and strength.
Marshall Stiver
