Do ye not know that ye are [the] temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwells in you?
The Corinthians were lining up behind favourite teachers. Paul answers with a question about something they already knew but had stopped weighing: God has a dwelling on earth, and they are it.
Paul does not introduce a new doctrine here. He recalls a fact the Corinthians knew but had let go flat, and one writer turns the same question back on the reader.
The apostle now appeals to the Corinthians, briefly but with energy, about the character of this building he has been speaking of. He is not announcing a new truth to them. It was something very well known, which they still did not value as they should. What a marvel of divine grace that they should be indwelt by the Spirit of God! We know it as a doctrine just as well as they did. Has the wonder of it grown less with us? Do we need to be urged about our responsibility in view of this relationship to the Supreme?
A temple is not made by its materials but by the One who lives in it. On that basis God has a house on earth now, made up of believers together and not of each one on his own.
So God has His temple on earth now as surely as He had of old in Israel… It was always the presence of God that made God's temple. Its true glory was not the costly stones, nor the splendour of gold or silver. It was the cloud in which the LORD was pleased to come down… So now it is not just that there are Christians. God has His house, or temple. It is the assembly. Not the people taken one by one, but those built together for that purpose by the Spirit… The Spirit does dwell in each believer, but that is another truth… How solemn that a divine Person, the Holy Spirit, dwells where Christians are — and this because of redemption!
If the Spirit lives in this house, what is His part in it?
The Holy Spirit is not in an assembly as God's house or dwelling. He is in the assembly… The assembly is as much the house, or temple, of God as it is the body… And if the Holy Spirit dwells in that dwelling place, is He to do nothing there, or to direct everything?
The same truth settles the rivalry over teachers. In a house that belongs to God, no name can head a party.
Where He dwells, God is necessarily everything. His dwelling is holy. All His name and nature are displayed there. Man may not put his folly on show there. There is no room for rival schools and religious pride. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Glory itself belongs to that temple.
The holiness of this temple is not a report on how the Corinthians were living. It comes from the One who lives there, and that is what makes right living possible.
The apostle is not speaking of practical holiness here. He means the holiness that comes from the Spirit dwelling in them. And that indwelling is the power of practical holiness. He presses the responsibility of those who act in arrogant defiance of Him. In grace He has taken this place of relationship with the redeemed people of God.
Paul writes in the present. It was already true of them as they were. That is why the words both search us and lift us.
And notice, these words describe not what the church will be by and by, but what it is now. How loudly such facts call for holiness of heart and life! They call for "truth in the inward being," and for conformity to His will in everything! Could anything be more solemn, and yet could anything be more blessed? To have a place there, to be at home with God in His holy temple, to live where "God's Spirit dwells" — that is our highest dignity and richest blessing on earth.
- Known — Paul appeals to a fact they already had; the danger is not ignorance but a wonder that has worn thin.
- Occupied — Presence makes a temple, not materials. The Spirit dwells where Christians are, and He dwells there because of redemption.
- Collective — The Spirit lives in each believer. This verse speaks of believers built together. Both truths stand, and in that house He is there to direct.
- Undivided — Where God is everything, rival parties and boasting in men have no place. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos?
- Holy — The holiness comes from the Guest, and that same indwelling is the power for holy living now, not later.
If any one corrupt the temple of God, *him* shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are *ye*.
These words are a warning to a whole church. Paul has just called the Christians at Corinth God's temple, the place where His Spirit lives. Two questions follow. What does it mean to "destroy" this temple, and who is the person God threatens?
The address is plural. One writer shows which of the two Greek words for "temple" Paul chose.
Two thoughts go with the House of God: approach and display. We see the first in the Tabernacle and the second in the Temple of Solomon. As far as we know, the term "House of God" is never used of any local company of saints, but the temple is, as we have it here. It views the saints in Corinth as the shrine from which God showed Himself. The New Testament uses two words for "temple", hieron and naos. The first takes in all the temple buildings; the second only the sanctuary or inner shrine. It is naos here.
This is not only about Corinth:
Paul addressed this to the saints at Corinth as a body. What was true of the saints at Corinth is true of the local assembly in any city. The Holy Spirit is not only in each one who composes the assembly, but He dwells in the assembly as a company. It is this that makes it such a serious matter for anyone to defile the temple of God.
Older translations read "defile" in the first half of the verse and "destroy" in the second. One writer explains why the punishment fits the crime so exactly.
"Defile" and "destroy" in this verse are the same word and warn that God would repay with justice anyone who defiled this temple. Such a person would not have the knowledge of God. His presence in that company was spoiling the pure display of God's nature and character, either by bad doctrine or by bad practice. Take a person in that company who could only corrupt, by his teaching and his practice. God would corrupt him in the end. Such a one would be like a weed among the wheat.
One writer starts with a prior question: what makes this temple holy in the first place?
God's holiness attaches also to His temple... But what exactly does the apostle mean, and who takes on this guilt? To answer that, we must first ask another question: what makes the temple holy? Paul says, "you are God's temple." But how did they become that? The answer is, "through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth." God's temple is founded on His truth. So it is false teaching, above all, that defiles it. Moral debasement and corruption always follow false teaching, and they defile it too. Holiness can only live with truth.
Earlier in the chapter Paul writes about builders. This verse speaks of someone else. Commentators differ about where he stands. Some read him as an enemy from outside. Others read him as someone inside the company who does not know God.
Verse 17 however does not speak of a builder, but a destroyer, and therefore not a believer at all. Some people outside are willing to do Satan's work of destruction. Sometimes "fierce wolves" come in among the saints, meaning to destroy... This refers to an enemy. Even so, let the believer be careful not to look like a destroyer in the slightest way.
Is the sentence too harsh? One writer asks whether a holy God could act any other way.
There is the enemy at work, using men who bear the Lord's name, to corrupt or destroy. For God speaks of evil doctrine according to its own nature, if it works unhindered... Awful end! Could the holy God feel or act otherwise? It is useless to plead love; for in truth the blow of love, caring for the objects it loves, is beyond everything to be feared. He will surely destroy those whom Satan uses in this way, under whatever disguise, to pollute the very streams of life and blessing for souls.
The verse does not end with the destroyer. It ends with the readers: you are that holy temple.
God's dwelling-place holds this holy and exalted position. So it is clear that nothing unholy, in principle or in practice, must be tolerated. Everyone connected with it should feel the weight and seriousness of that word: "the place on which you are standing is holy ground."... Most weighty words these, for every member of God's assembly — for every stone in His holy temple!
- Temple — Paul's word means the inner sanctuary. He uses it of a group, not of one person. The local assembly is the shrine from which God shows Himself.
- Truth — that sanctuary rests on God's truth. So false teaching defiles it first, and moral corruption follows.
- Destroyer — this verse is not about a poor builder. It is about a destroyer, and one writer says he is no believer at all.
- Retribution — one word does double duty. The man who corrupts the temple is corrupted by God. Justice, measure for measure.
- Ground — the closing words turn to you. You are that holy temple, so nothing unholy can be allowed in it.