Posts: Temple of God

The Temple of God

“Coming toward Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, and precious; you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house into a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4 – 5) Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would be like a corner stone of a building, the point from which all else is measured. Peter went a step further and described the faithful as “living stones” in this Temple. Every faithful person is structurally necessary and purposeful.

“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of My God, and he shall go out no more.” (Revelation 3:12) In John’s vision, Jesus instructed him to write this to the church at Philadelphia in west-central Turkey. Pillars require a solid foundation or they will tilt and the building will collapse. In a structure, they hold up something, are clearly visible and striking, and usually represent something important, as their support function could have been done more cheaply. Many ancient pillars have stood for millennia in earthquake zones. That’s the faithful.

“For we are the Temple of the living God, as God has said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be My people.’” (2 Corinthians 6:16) The spirits of the faithful comprise the temple in which God lives. In this context, Paul used that image to illustrate that the faithful are reserved for God’s purposes, and that the faithful are not part of other structures. Allegiances with outsiders will be inherently unequal and at cross purposes. Rather, the faithful bring outsiders in so they also may be inhabited by God.

“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19) The faithful, remembering that each is a dwelling for the Spirit, should be motivated to morality. Certainly, our pre-Christian habits and experiences have left behind inappropriate desires. Rather than leaving the faithful to wrestle with those feelings year after year, the Spirit transforms them, step by step, such as faith allows. To guard against self-deception in the interim, Paul supplies this illustration of a believer’s body as a temple; keep it clean.