"Jesus entered the temple area and proceeded to drive out those who were selling things, saying to them, "It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves" (Luke 19: 45-46).
Today's Epistle and Gospel go perfectly together. We have on one hand Judas Maccabees cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem after overthrowing the Greeks and Jesus cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem after seeing the misuse of the Temple by the Jews. In both cases we see prayer in the Temple taking second place to Gentile worship. In the first case it is the worship of Greek gods and in the second place it is the worship of commerce. Both are condemned and thus cleansed.
For us it is very clear: we need to do some "temple" cleansing as well. Our own bodies are "temples of the Holy Spirit," and therefore need to be cleansed of anything unworthy of God. Simply put, we need to have our priorities straight. God needs to be at the center of our "temple" and anything that goes in or goes out of our "temple," needs to have God as its ultimate end. When Jesus says to "pray without ceasing," he doesn't necessarily mean to be in a church 24/7, but He does mean to do everything in life for the greater glory of God.
In the end, we must decrease and God must increase. Everything should be done for Him and with knowledge that our very lives should be an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord.
