The Christian Church the Temple of God the Holy Spirit
J. G. Angley, M. A. 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?… I. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IS GOD'S TEMPLE. 1. The temple of God is a phrase used to signify something dedicated to Jehovah, whether a material or a spiritual building. (1) The temple in Jerusalem. (2) The human nature of Christ (John 2:19-22; Colossians 2:9). (3) Heaven (Revelation 7:15). (4) The Christian Church. This is the spiritual house of God, composed of all faithful souls. 2. In writing to the Church at Corinth, the apostle remembered the pride that city had in its temples whose glory fired all its people with delight. All of this grandeur was displayed for what? For senseless idols who could hear no prayer nor impart any blessing. The gospel came to destroy all false systems of religion, and to build up a more glorious temple of God than any heathen or Jewish temple ever was before. 3. Now, if the Christians in Corinth lost much delight and cherished associations in forsaking their temples, if the Jewish converts, too, lost all their pride in the glory departed from their temple, the apostle's argument is that God hath His own glorious temple still on earth. 4. Although this glorious work is sometimes invisible to man's eye, yet it is all comprehended by the Divine mind, and is daily extending in the world. 5. Now this good work is God's and not man's. Human skill may rear classic temples, but no power less than Divine can take a rough block of human sinfulness, purify it from its defilements, and gloriously prepare and polish it for some fitting place in the spiritual temple of the living God. II. THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS IN THE CHRISTIAN TEMPLE. Heathen classics believed that their divinities resided in their temples. Advancing a step nearer truth, some of the wise men of old taught that a good man himself was a temple in which the divinity dwelt. Now these were glimmerings of Divine truth. 1. It might well be argued that to dwell in any place denotes a living being and a distinct personality. Man's soul dwells in his body, and this constitutes him a real living person; the Spirit of God dwells in the Christian soul, and animates by Divine power all the living Church. 2. God clearly taught this truth to the Hebrew Church (Ezekiel 36:25-28), though its fulness of blessing was only bestowed in Christian days. If any man of rank or power sat down familiarly in some poor cottage how the world would marvel! Especially if in his condescension he bestowed on it some of his own treasures as gifts of his power. How much more, then, ought we to be astonished and delighted that God, the Eternal Spirit, visits earth's dwellings of dust. 3. But the infidel theories of the day banish God from all His own works. Yet if I behold some great building, I naturally inquire who was the architect, and who dwells or acts there? Apply this illustration — (1) To creation. Will any man, then, tell me that this glorious temple is the mere work of chance, that no Almighty Spirit regulates or minds it? (2) To a living Church. Can it be possible that this is no work of God? Has not God's Spirit dwelt in it, creating its life, diffusing its light, and commanding its heavenly power, love, peace, and joy, and making it the centre of rich blessing, humanity, charity, and civilisation to the world? (3) To the Holy Spirit dwelling in the Christian soul. III. THE OBLIGATIONS AND BLESSINGS OF THESE IMPORTANT TRUTHS. 1. As you are bought with the price of Christ's blood, and sealed as His by the Holy Spirit, you are called to glorify Him both in body and soul. As Christians are God's temple collectively as "the body of Christ," and individually as "members of Christ," how then ought they to live in holiness, peace, and love! 2. Who can tell the invaluable blessings and gifts of the Holy Spirit thus dwelling in the heart? In short, they are Divine light, guidance, help, and comfort. (J. G. Angley, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? WEB: Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you?