Part 9: Do You Realize What You Are?

1 Corinthians 3:16–23 NASB95

16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. 18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.” 21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.

Introduction

Last time, we continued in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he continues the theme of how it’s not about following the person who preached or baptized them. Dividing over such things is sinful. Paul focused in that passage that all are workers in God’s Kingdom. And what matters is that the workers lay the same foundation (Christ). But the workers will receive different rewards/payment based upon their works. But that is not up to us to give; it’s God’s to give.

For us: we must all unite on working in the kingdom and we must be careful how we build. The materials we use to minister to others with and make disciples need to be those that last and will not be burned up. In short, we ought to be storing up treasures in heaven.

This week: Paul confronts the Corinthians to consider who they really are in Christ: the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Implications of being God’s temple: we are to seek unity and avoid division. Warning: those who divide will face judgement.

The wise thing to do as Christians is to maintain unity at all costs and avoid boasting and pride.

1. The Temple of God (3:16)

1 Corinthians 3:16 NASB95

16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

The Temple Through the Bible

The Garden - Garden of Eden is a special place, set apart from the other parts of the earth; Like priests Adam and Eve work the garden and oversee the animals; God makes his presence known to Adam and Eve

Genesis 3:8 “8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

The Tabernacle - special tent-like structure, set apart for worship practices and sacrifices; priests work in the tabernacle; God makes his presence known there; the Ark of the Covenant represented God’s throne

Numbers 9:15 “15 Now on the day that the tabernacle was erected the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony, and in the evening it was like the appearance of fire over the tabernacle, until morning.”

The Temple - Tabernacle becomes a solid structure, never to move

1 Kings 8:12–13 “12 Then Solomon said, ‘The Lord has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud. 13 I have surely built You a lofty house, A place for Your dwelling forever.’”

Jesus -

John 1:14 “14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 14:9 “9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

The Temple Now

1 Corinthians 3:16 NASB95

16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

“You” - plural; Paul is talking about the church

Have you ever truly considered what it means, as a church, to be the temple of God?

2. The Implications of Being God’s Temple (3:17)

1 Corinthians 3:17 NASB95

17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

“destroys” = “to corrupt morally, as by intemperance or sensuality.to be perverse (depraved)” — “to be or become actively deviating from what is considered moral, right, proper, or good.to be undone” — “to be or become ruined or destroyed.to mess up” — “to make a mess of or create disorder in; perhaps with the idea of ruining or making useless by its disorder.” [LSJ Greek-English Lexicon]

AMP = “If anyone does hurt to God’s temple or corrupts it [with false doctrines] or destroys it, God will do hurt to him and bring him to the corruption of death and destroy him. For the temple of God is holy (sacred to Him) and that [temple] you [the believing church and its individual believers] are.”

NIrV = “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. God’s temple is holy. And you all together are that temple.”

What kind of destruction does have Paul in mind? Division. There will be judgement for dividing the church.

Judgement for Division

1 Corinthians 3:17 “17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”

Christ takes the disunity of his church very seriously.

Examples:

Division over the Gospel -

Galatians 1:6–9 “6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; 7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” [anathema - devoted/handed over to evil, the devil; be under God’s wrath]

Division over sexual immorality -

1 Corinthians 5:1–2 “1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.”

1 Corinthians 5:5 “5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Division over lawsuits -

1 Corinthians 6:5–6 “5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, 6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?”

Division over the Lord’s Supper -

1 Corinthians 11:17–22 “17 But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. 18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you; and in part I believe it. 19 For there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you. 20 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, 21 for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you.”

1 Corinthians 11:30 “30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.”

Why does God take division so seriously? Because we, as God’s temple, are to be holy.

Be Holy/Be Unified

1 Corinthians 3:17 NASB95

17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Division in the body of Christ—the church—directly reflects on the character of God. The reason: we are his temple. And if we are his temple, the presence of God is to be here among us. And if this true, then what we say or do shows the world who God is (or who he is not).

Examples . . .

So what shall we do knowing that we are God’s temple set apart to be holy and untied?

3. Be Wise (3:18-20)

1 Corinthians 3:18–20 NASB95

18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; 20 and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.”

We have talked about this before: the things in the kingdom of God are opposite of the things of the world. Everything is to be upside down in the church compared to the world. We must become foolish in the eyes of the world, so that we become truly wise (i.e., have godly wisdom).

Worldly Wisdom

Focuses upon the self and “hero-worship”; Worldly wisdom divides. This kind of wisdom, says Paul, is “useless” (vain, empty).

Worldly wisdom says: there are differences among people and so we must keep a distance; “those people” (whoever they are) do not do things like the rest of us, and so we can’t really include them; they do not “conform” to how we understand things to be done

Worldly wisdom makes divisions. Godly wisdom is different.

Godly Wisdom

Focuses upon Christ; Godly wisdom unites around him and only him. It make no distinctions. It is impartial. It unites with those who do things differently than the “norm” - the southern norm, the northern norm, the northeastern norm, the western norm, the country norm, the city norm . . .

Godly wisdom unites on the basis of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. All other differences do not matter.

Mark Taylor commentary:

1 Corinthians (2) The Wisdom of God vs. The Wisdom of the World (Reprise) 3:18–23

The way to become truly wise is to become a “fool,” which is to embrace the cross not only as the object of faith but as a value system, a way of thinking and behaving

Galatians 3:26–28 “26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Knowing, then, that we are God’s temple and thus are holy, we are to be wise. The principle of wisdom that we are to keep is to maintain unity:

4. Keep the Unity; Make No Distinctions (3:21-23)

1 Corinthians 3:21–23 NASB95

21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.

Here we see Paul coming full circle from where he began at the beginning of this letter.

Recall: he addresses how the church was following men (Peter, Paul, Apollos) and dividing over who baptized whom. There, he concluded with “let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor 1:31).

He then went on to say that he “determined to know nothing . . . except Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).

True wisdom (godly wisdom) avoids boasting in men. I.e.:

Boasting Not Allowed

1 Corinthians 3:21 NASB95

21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you,

“Boasting” = “brag, speak loudly, loud-tongued” - if one boasts, he is being arrogant, and arrogance comes from pride.

AMP paraphrase: “. . . let no one exult proudly . . .” Older translations: “Do not glory . . .”

Boasting is one of the sins in the long list that Paul gives in Romans of those who practice it deserve death and hell.

“He baptized me” or “I baptized that person” - translate into our time: “I built this church” “I built this ministry” “I did this” or “I did that”

When such expressions are made, esp those that begin with “look what I . . . “ or “I did . . .” we are in the territory of sinful bragging and boasting.

The only thing that is allowed in God’s kingdom is boasting in the Lord. When it comes to what we do or others do, boasting is not allowed. What is allowed is unity:

Only Unity Allowed

1 Corinthians 3:21–23 NASB95

21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.

Mark Taylor commentary:

1 Corinthians (2) The Wisdom of God vs. The Wisdom of the World (Reprise) 3:18–23

Paul’s declaration, “All things are yours!”, followed by “whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, etc.” is the exact opposite of the rhetorical caricature of 1:12, “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas.” The Corinthians do not belong to these men; these men belong to them, that is, the church, and all belong to Christ, who belongs to God.

Another way to think of this: Paul, Peter, and Apollos—all pastors/ministers of the church—are mere servants of Christ. They are meant to serve, not to become rock stars with fans and roadies. Do not glory in them; glory in the Lord.

Conclusion

Question: are we building up the temple of God or destroying it?

We are God’s temple—we are his church. Will we follow the way of wisdom by seeking unity?

Or shall we bring down God’s church by creating division through various means: whether making distinctions through cliques, gossip, slander, or dividing up ministries so that they are entirely separate from each other?

This is the way of foolishness—the way of the world, which makes divisions and seeks to build up the self, seeks number one.

Christ calls us to remember that we are united in him. We need to remember who we are: we are ONE.

There is no Jew or Greek. There is no male or female. There is no white or black or Asian. There is no rich or poor. There are not just English speakers in the church; En la iglesia no solo hay personas que hablan espanol, aunque algunos estadounidenses piensen que solo hay personas que hablan ingles.

We are all one in Christ Jesus, and we are to love one another as such.