1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Being the temple of God means that we, as Christians, those who have been immersed into the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38), are joined together in one family as “the church” or the “ecclesia” we are a holy dwelling place for God’s presence. Acts 2:41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. We know from Acts 2:38 that those who were immersed into the name of Jesus Christ received two things: forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The Greek word translated as “you” in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 is plural. So when Paul said, “You are the temple of God,” he was referring to the believers as a group—the local church. The temple in Jerusalem was a sacred building dedicated to the worship of God. According to Paul, the church was the equivalent of the temple. God’s presence resided in the church, and the church was to maintain holiness.
From humanity’s beginning, God has desired to live among and commune with His people. When He made His covenant with Israel, the Lord promised, “I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:11-12).
As the Israelites wandered in the desert, God wanted to inhabit a place with His people. Exodus 25:8 “have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” At that time, the people lived in portable tents, so the presence of God dwelled in the tent of the wilderness tabernacle (Exodus 27:21; 40:34-38). His presence was the guiding force that told the people when to stay put and when to pull up stakes and continue on their journey (Exodus 40:34-38). Later, after the Hebrew people entered the Promised Land and lived in fixed dwellings, God affixed His name to a place, sanctifying Solomon’s temple as the Lord’s holy dwelling place (1 Kings 8:10-11). In the New Testament, God’s presence was manifested in a new way: in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the living, incarnate, eternal Word of God (John 1:1-4, 14-18). God took on human flesh and made His home among us. Through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, God lived among His people. His name, Immanuel, means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:21-23).
Jesus Christ became the new earthly temple of God (John 2:21). “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body,” says Colossians 2:9 (Colossians 1:19). The complete image of the invisible God is revealed in Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:15). Yet Christ is only the initial installment of God’s indwelling presence.
Today, the New Testament church—the body of believers, constitutes the temple of God’s Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 6:19). Jesus said, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).
Paul also taught the Ephesians that, as members of God’s household, the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:20-22).
The church is a spiritual temple made of “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5). Not only is the church as a whole or as the local body the dwelling place of God’s presence, but individual Christians are also to consider themselves the temple of God’s Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? 2 Corinthians 6:16 For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
A song which pictures each Christian as the temple of the Holy Spirit is “Sanctuary.” The text was written and the tune was composed by John W. Thompson and Randy Scruggs, who was the eldest son of the legendary banjo player Earl Scruggs of Flatt and Scruggs fame. The hymn “Sanctuary” was copyrighted in 1982 by Whole Armor/Full Armor. Among hymnbooks published by members of the Lord’s church for use in churches of Christ, it has appeared in the 2007 Hymns for Worship Supplement, the 2010 Praise Hymnal, the 2010 Songs for Worship and Praise, and the 2012 Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs. Over the years different people have added different lyrics and verses. The song seeks to encourage us to be sanctified in our lives and service to the Lord. John 17:19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. To be sanctified means to be set apart. Paul, inspired by God, told the Corinthians and God tells us through these words in 1 Corinthians 6:11 that those of us in Christ have washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. As vessels in which God’s Spirit dwells we are set apart for service to Him. We have been saved from sin but saved for service to His kingdom.