Focus: God's Temple

Text: 1Cor.3:9

"Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building."

By the Spirit's authorization and inspiration, Paul declares that we are God's farm and also His spiritual structure. As God's farm, He deserves bountiful harvest from us, and as His building, He wants to feel at home in His own house. Our hearts are God's home. It is absolutely not proper for us to make Him live like a stranger in His own home. 

Let's even inquire as to what kind of structure or building we are talking about. Paul has the answer, for he says, "In whom all the BUILDING fitly framed together groweth unto an HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord" (Eph.2:21). Here Paul tells us that we are a temple structure, not any other kind of edifice. A temple is a sacred shrine where God meets with His own people. It is a place from where worship ascends to God in heaven. Paul calls it a "holy temple." 

The Greek words are 'hagioi naos'. The normal Greek word for temple is 'hieron', which refers to the whole compartment of the temple, inside and outside, and indeed its whole environs. But 'naos' refers only to the place regarded as the most holy place or the holy of holies. It is the exclusive shrine where the throne of mercy is located right on top of the ark of the covenant. It is the place of the shekinah of God's glory - God's sacred shrine. In the Old Testament, only the high priest had the privilege of accessing it. It's a special place, made by the glorious and raw presence of God. So it amounts to a kind of tautology for Paul to call it hagioi naos. It's like saying, A holy, holy place, that is, an extremely or absolutely holy place. 

The church is God's sacred shrine on earth, and every individual member is meant to grow up into this most holy place.

*Be aware!

Let's look at the two aspects of this temple. First, Paul says, "Know YE not that YE are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1Cor.3:16). Be aware of what you are in Christ! The little word YE is a plural word, referring to all of us, not one of us or any of us. It means that all of us are together, collectively or corporately the temple. Every time and everywhere we gather together as God's people, God steps in, takes charge, and feels at home. Christ Himself says, "Where two or three gather in my name, I am there in their midst." His place is always at the center. He rules from there. 

Second, Paul says, "What? know ye not that YOUR BODY is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1Cor.6:19). By reason of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as individual believers, God possesses our individual bodies as His temple. So in one sense, it is all of us that collectively become holy temple of God, and in another sense, every believer's body is God's sanctuary. So there is a sense in which we are God's temple and another sense in which your body is God's temple. As members of the body of Christ, we are the sanctuary of God, and as one individual belonging to Christ, your body is God's sacred shrine. What a humbling thing to know that God claims our bodies as His personal sanctuaries! 

He lives in all of us. We are God's mobile structures, indwelt by the Spirit.

O how I pray that none of us would ever let this sanctuary of the Lord become a cemetery where God is buried and kept away from sight! God forbid!

Let God's sanctuary be God's sanctuary, all of us together as the church and each of us as individuals!

Jesus Christ saw His own body as God's temple. He says to the Jewish authorities, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up… But he spake of the temple of his body" (Jh.2:19,21). Child of God, your body is the "holy temple" of God. You are 'a medium of manifestation, a vehicle of vision, and an instrument of illumination.' From you God shines forth. He lets His glory out through you.

*Be warned!

We are God's temple. We are a holy people, belonging to a holy God. We have to grow into the holy temple. We must shun all that defiles this holy temple. Paul warns, "If any man DEFILE the temple of God, him shall God DESTROY; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1Cor.3:17). God will not tolerate or condone things that defile His temple. Interestingly, the words 'defile' and 'destroy' are the same word in the Greek - 'phtheirō'. So to defile means to ruin or destroy, and to destroy also means to defile, to corrupt, to waste, or to pine away. If you vandalize or allow God's temple to be vandalized, and you are that temple, then God will have you thoroughly vandalized. God is no joker. God is a clean God and He lives in a clean house. 

Paul speaks again here: "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (2Cor.6:16). Idols have no place in God's temple. John warn us, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen" (1Jh.5:21). Rid yourself of idols! Evacuate all idols from God's temple, of which you are! Give God His rightful place! God is not tired of being your God, and no idol can fit into His office or position as God. It is proper for a boat to move on top of the waters, but it is equally dangerous and terrible for the waters to enter the boat. With the boat on top of the waters, it sails; but with the waters invading the boat, it sinks. 

I say to you today, live in the world, but don't let the world get into you. Remember the words of Christ: You are IN the world, but you are not OF the world. You are the temple of God and the Spirit resides within you. Allow Him to preside where He resides!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter