YOU ARE GOD’S TEMPLE

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

I. DO YOU NOT KNOW

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) — 16 Do you not know…

1 Corinthians 3:9 (ESV) — 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:10–11 (ESV) — 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:22–24 (ESV) — 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 (ESV) — 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

II. YOU ARE GOD’S TEMPLE

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV) — 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

The imagery of the gathered church as God’s temple, which occurs twice more in Paul (2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21), is a pregnant one both for the Jewish Paul and for the Gentile Corinthians. The word used (naos) refers to the actual sanctuary, the place of the deity’s dwelling, in contrast to the word hieron, which referred to the temple precincts as well as to the sanctuary[1]

“If the Christian believers were not holding onto the foundation of Christ, with faith, hope and love, then neither the nature nor the fruit of the gospel would be seen in Corinth and there would be nothing to challenge the city’s idolatry and immorality.” Let’s Study 1 Corinthians David Jackman

III. GOD’S TEMPLE IS HOLY

1 Corinthians 3:17 (ESV) —17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

1 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV) — 18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

[1] Fee, G. D. (2014). The First Epistle to the Corinthians (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F. Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.; Revised Edition, p. 158). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.