3:16 ¶ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him
shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
This is a difficult verse for all of the pagan Christians who try
to make church buildings and cathedrals the special place where a believer
meets with God. But, first, let’s look at what it means to defile the temple of God. This is not about smoking cigarettes or having
a glass of wine as much as some of you would like to think that it is.
To defile yourself can be to spiritually or ritually corrupt you
and it can mean to corrupt by your own sin.
Leviticus 11:44 For I am
the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be
holy; for I am holy: neither
shall ye defile yourselves with
any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Leviticus 18:20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy
neighbour’s wife, to defile
thyself with her…23 Neither shalt thou
lie with any beast to defile
thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down
thereto: it is confusion.
Matthew 15:17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever
entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the
draught? 18 But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
19 For out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands
defileth not a man.
This appears to be setting the stage for the next thing Paul wants
to warn the Corinthian church about, open sin that is permitted in their midst.
He connects the first warning about following an individual and identifying
your faith with that person moreso than Christ and then moves into an
admonition about open sin in the congregation that is not being dealt with.
This seems to be a warning that the Christian who persists in sin
will at least be most miserable and can even die as a result of God’s judgment
of our flesh on earth.
Esther 3:13 And the letters were sent by posts into all
the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old,
little children and women, in one day, even
upon the thirteenth day of the
twelfth month, which is the
month Adar, and to take the
spoil of them for a prey.
Those who trust Christ as their Saviour in genuineness and truth
have the Spirit of God and Christ dwelling in them.
Luke 17:20 ¶ And when he was demanded of the Pharisees,
when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of
God cometh not with observation: 21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom
of God is within you.
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man
love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come
unto him, and make our abode with him.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Your body is the habitation of God through the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
The temple of God in
this passage also referred to as the temple
of the Holy Ghost, who is also a part of God’s identity.
1Corinthians 6:19 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?
Notice how in Romans 8:9 the Spirit
of God and the Spirit of Christ
are linked as synonymous references?
The church is Christ’s body on earth.
Colossians 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and
fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
In the pagan world of ancient times a god was supposed to dwell in
their temple. That was their habitation. That is where you went to worship them
and offer, as is done today in India, food offerings and devotion. In
Christianity God’s temple is in the body of every believer. He dwells in each
of us.
The very same power that raised Christ from the dead dwells in
you. We should ask to be filled with that Spirit of God and there is even
evidence of that filling, physically and by our behavior and attitudes, denying
the sins the flesh craves so badly.
Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is
excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ; 21 ¶
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is
no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in
the Spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of
vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
It is not necessary to ask God to come down in a church service
and, “walk among the pews,” because if He is not here in each of us already we
are lost.
Each of you who are trusting in Christ are the temple of God.
Think about that.
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