God's Temple
E. Hurndall 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17 Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?… Declared to be the Church of Christ. Each community of Christians is a temple of God. The old temple has perished; this is the new and the imperishable. The Christian Church has often been insignificant in numbers, wealth, position, earthly learning; men have despised her; judged by human standards she has appeared contemptible; but the Divine thought has been this - the temple of God! I. RESEMBLANCES. 1. Erected under Divine direction. The old and new temples are of God; they express his thought and purpose. Believers who constitute the new temple become believers through him; for faith is the gift of God. They are gathered into the Church as spiritual stones, by his servants, under his direction, and each has an appropriate place. God is the Author of the constitution of the Church. 2. Erected for the Divine glory. The supreme object. Everything in the Church to be made subservient to this. To glorify God should be the life object of the redeemed. And: 3. Erected for the welfare of men. The temple of old was for God and also for man. The Church has a great mission to the world. There is no conflict between the two objects. As the Church seeks to save the lost, she is most truly seeking to bring glory to God. Her worship is likely to be a mockery unless her work is faithfully performed. 4. Set apart for God. The Church should be separate, holy, peculiarly God's. "A peculiar people - a people for God's own possession" (1 Peter 2:9); "Ye are not your own." 5. An object of beauty. The beauty of holiness should clothe the Church. The world's admiration has often been commanded, in early days and since. And better still, God has approved. 6. Of great variety in its parts. Vast diversity in gift and condition, but one spiritual building. In the Christian Church there cannot, perhaps, be too much variety as there certainly cannot be too much oneness. 7. The dwelling place of God. Not only for God, but God's dwelling place. This was the glory of the Jewish temple - the Shechinah - the Divine presence. The Church's joy and glory are that "God is in the midst of her." He dwells not now in temples made with hands, though he does dwell in the temples made by the Divine hands. The ancient temple was unmeaning and useless without the presence of Jehovah. So is the Christian Church: "Ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). 8. From it true worship should arise. Sanctuary worship, home worship, business worship, recreation worship, worship throughout all the life of those who constitute the temple. 9. In it should ever be the great sacrifice. Not the sacrifice of the Mass, but "Christ crucified" manifestly set forth. The temple of old would have been offensive to God without sacrifice, so we cannot be acceptable to him without the atonement. When the Church loses the cross she loses God. In every Christian community there must be a Calvary. And the true Jerusalem has not its Calvary "without the gate;" Christ crucified is central, chief, predominant. II. PUNISHMENT FOR INJURY. Aaronic priests who violated the ancient temple were doomed to death; injurers of the Church of Christ will meet a terrible fate. In ver. 17 the Greek verb, which means "to bring into a worse state," is repeated; what we do to the Church, God will do to us - if we injure it, he will injure us. At Corinth the dividers of the Church were likely to become destroyers, and so God will "destroy." These are far more serious offenders than those named in vers. 12 and 15. God is jealous over his temple, and men may not do evil to it with impunity. Those who sin against it sin directly against him. Note: We may injure the temple of God in many ways. For example, by (1) false doctrine; (2) unchristian spirit; (3) personal unholiness; (4) conniving at unholiness in others; (5) failing to do our part; (6) failing to take our place in the Church. III. HOW CAREFUL WE SHOULD BE IN ALL THAT CONCERNS THIS TEMPLE. In Church life and Church work. How serious are these! in them there is no room for trifling. Alas! how many are living in the Church, and even labouring in it, who seem to feel little or no responsibility! Let us realize what this Church is, and then assuredly with more care than the Aaronic priests shall we comport ourselves. To avoid offence and injury and failure, we shall need the wisdom that cometh down from above (vers. 18-20). - H. 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?