Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 3:16
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God ] “ , sanctuary, more sacred than ; the Holy Place in which God dwells, .” Wordsworth. Another view of the subject is now abruptly introduced. The figure in 1Co 3:10 is resumed, but is applied, not to the ministers, but to the people. As the teachers are to avoid unprofitable questions and seek ‘that which is good to the use of edifying, so the taught are to shun all that may do harm to the temple of God, that is the Church at large, for what is true of the individual (ch. 1Co 6:19) is true of the community. This figure of speech is a common one in the N. T. See 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:21-22; 1Ti 3:15; Heb 3:6; 1Pe 2:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Know ye not … – The apostle here carries forward and completes the figure which he had commenced in regard to Christians. His illustrations had been drawn from architecture; and he here proceeds to say that Christians are that building (see 1Co 3:9): that they were the sacred temple which God had reared; and that, therefore, they should be pure and holy. This is a practical application of what he had been before saying.
Ye are the temple of God – This is to be understood of the community of Christians, or of the church, as being the place where God dwells on the earth. The idea is derived from the mode of speaking among the Jews, where they are said often in the Old Testament to be the temple and the habitation of God. And the allusion is probably to the fact that God dwelt by a visible symbol – the Shechinah – in the temple, and that His abode was there. As He dwelt there among the Jews; as He had there a temple – a dwelling place, so he dwells among Christians. they are His temple, the place of His abode. His residence is with them; and He is in their midst. This figure the apostle Paul several times uses, 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:20-22. A great many passages have been quoted by Eisner and Wetstein, in which a virtuous mind is represented as the temple of God, and in which the obligation to preserve that inviolate and unpolluted is enforced. The figure is a beautiful one, and very impressive. A temple was an edifice erected to the service of God. The temple at Jerusalem was not only most magnificent, but was regarded as most sacred:
(1) From the fact that it was devoted to his service; and,
(2) From the fact that it was the special residence of Yahweh.
Among the pagan also, temples were regarded as sacred. They were supposed to be inhabited by the divinity to whom they were dedicated. They were regarded, as inviolable. Those who took refuge there were safe. It was a crime of the highest degree to violate a temple, or to tear a fugitive who had sought protection there from the altar. So the apostle says of the Christian community. They were regarded as his temple – God dwelt among them – and they should regard themselves as holy, and as consecrated to his service. And so it is regarded as a species of sacrilege to violate the temple, and to devote it to other uses, 1Co 6:19; see 1Co 3:17.
And that the Spirit of God – The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. This is conclusively proved by 1Co 6:19, where he is called the Holy Ghost.
Dwelleth in you – As God dwelt formerly in the tabernacle, and afterward in the temple, so His Spirit now dwells among Christians – This cannot mean:
- That the Holy Spirit is personally united to Christians, so as to form a personal union; or,
- That there is to Christians any communication of his nature or personal qualities; or,
- That there is any union of essence, or nature with them, for God is present in all places, and can, as God, be no more present at one place than at another.
The only sense in which he can be especially present in any place is by His influence, or agency. And the idea is one which denotes agency, influence, favor, special regard; and in that sense only can he be present with his church. The expression must mean:
- That the church is the seat of His operations, the field or abode on which He acts on earth;
- That His influences are there, producing the appropriate effects of His agency, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, etc.; Gal 5:22-23;
(3)That He produces consolations there, that he sustains and guides His people;
- That they are regarded as dedicated or consecrated to Him;
- That they are especially dear to Him – that He loves them, and thus makes His abode with them. See the note at Joh 14:23.
(These words import the actual presence and inhabitation of the Spirit himself. The fact is plainly attested, but it is mysterious, and cannot be distinctly explained. In respect of His essence, He is as much present with unbelievers as with believers. His dwelling in the latter must therefore signify, that He manifests himself, in their souls, in a special manner; that He exerts there His gracious power, and produces effects which other people do not experience – We may illustrate His presence with them, as distinguished from His presence with people in general, by supposing the vegetative power of the earth to produce, in the surrounding regions, only common and worthless plants, but to throw out, in a select spot, all the riches and beauty of a cultivated garden – Dicks Theology, Vol. III. p. 287.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Co 3:16-23
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
The two temples
Two points comprehend the apostles teaching in this chapter.
1. The foundation of Christian life and doctrine (1Co 3:11).
2. The form of Christian life and doctrine built thereon. It is to be worthy of the foundation (1Co 3:10; 1Co 3:12, &c.). Christian teachers have a covenant engagement–to erect a temple on a previously laid foundation. According to a specification, they are to use gold, &c. Pauls complaint is, that they appear not to have known the terms of their contract (text), and hence had departed from the true foundation, and consequently had developed a form of Christian life contrary to the form and Spirit of Christ. Note–
I. The Divine dwelling.
1. The Christian heart under the figure of a temple points back to Gods visible dwelling-place in Jerusalem.
(1) The former temple was the dwelling-place of Trinity. In the holy of holies the cloud was the memorial of the enduring mercy of the Father; in the outer courts the sacrifices typified the atonement of the Son, while the incense pointed to the sweet influence of the Spirit.
(2) The former temple was the treasury of sacred truth. All that symbolised the religious life of the Jews was kept in the ancient temple–Aarons rod that budded, indicating the perpetual freshness of the gospel; the golden pot of manna, indicating the nourishing properties of the gospel; the original copy of the law of Moses, indicating that the gospel is our directory. The gospel rod of Gods strength is treasured up in the Christian heart. The gospel food of Gods providing for the wilderness is received into the soul. The gospel, the perfect law, is hidden in the secret places of the heart. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage, &c.
(3) The former temple was but a partial revelation of the Divine glory. Sin explains all that earlier worship; sin, too, explains all our later worship. And not till sin is destroyed will the Christian heart be a perfect temple, and full revelation of the glory of God.
2. Compare the Christian heart with the future, or heavenly temple.
(1) The central figure in the heavenly temple is Christ. The Lamb is in the midst of the throne, is the chief subject of their song, Worthy is the Lamb. He is the object of their highest worship, They cast their crowns at His feet. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? Jesus in the midst of the throne of your affections; Jesus the object of your worship.
(2) In that heavenly temple there shall be no more curse (Rev 22:3); so in the Christian heart there is now no condemnation (Rom 8:1).
(3) In the heavenly temple there is no particular spot consecrated for worship (Rev 21:22), no set times, but it is all temple; so also in the human heart (Joh 4:21). Every place, season, faculty consecrated to worship.
II. The Divine indwelling. From the figure of the temple the apostle passes to the life of it, that which gives it its vitality. Observe the various methods of the Spirits manifestations in the Christian heart.
1. He is the Spirit of the new birth (Joh 3:6).
2. To the worker in the Kingdom of God He is the Spirit of new strength (Eph 3:16; Eph 1:17-18).
3. To the broken-hearted He is the Spirit, the Comforter. He is the Spirit to seal the covenant of the soul with its God (2Co 1:22).
4. He dwells in us–
(1) Through faith.
(2) By prayer. The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.
(3) By obedience to the Divine will, He makes us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
(4) By the assurance of faith, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirits, that we are the children of God.
(5) By fruit-bearing, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, &c.
Conclusion:
1. The oneness of the Christian Church. Paul in the last chapter complained of divisions. In this he speaks of them all as built on one foundation, and growing up into one temple, having one source of life, &c.
2. Its sacredness (1Co 3:17). (D. Y. Currie.)
Temples of God
I. Every Christian is a dwelling-place for God. That God dwells in us is only possible from His dwelling in Christ, through whom we touch Him.
II. Christians, as temples, are to be manifestors of God. The meaning of temple is that there the indwelling Deity shall manifest Himself. God dwelling in our hearts reveals Himself–
1. To us ourselves.
2. To others around us by our conduct.
III. Christians, as temples, should be places of sacrifice. What is temple without worship? What is worship without sacrifice?
IV. Christians, as temples, are to be holy. Holiness is separation to Gods service–dedication. The idols of covetousness, idolatry, intolerance, drunkenness, &c. When God enters, all Dagons fall to the ground maimed and destroyed. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Gods spiritual temple
The ancient temple was not more glorious and admirable to the human eye than such societies should be to the eye of faith. And learned men think that latter part of Ezekiels prophecy, though very obscure, concerning the measuring of the temple, is nothing but the promise of the building of the Church in the New Testament in an heavenly and glorious manner. First, the materials for the temple were to be polished and fitted by art ere they could be made part of the building. We of ourselves have not faith, have not preparedness for such Church duties, till God doth enable us. Look we, therefore, how we come into the Church of God? How is it brought about that we are so? If there be nothing but nature and custom, or because we are born in such places. Thus it is here, whatsoever our societies and meetings are in reference to God it is wholly of His making. Secondly, the materials of the temple were very excellent and precious, of gold and silver, &c., not hay and stubble. The best stone, the best wood that would not putrify, and all things were covered over with gold, and the gold was to be pure gold; even the very snuffers were to be of gold. Now what did this represent, but to show what kind of people those should be who were of the Church of God? Thirdly, the temple was full of external glory. A magnificent place, admired by heathens. Now the glory of Christians is likewise great, but in a spiritual and heavenly way. The Church is all glorious within (Psa 45:13). The gospel that is preached is styled a glorious gospel (1Ti 1:11); and the Spirit of God the Spirit of glory (1Pe 4:14). It is promised that the glory of the second temple should far exceed that of the first (Hag 2:9). Now how was that made good? not in any outward glory, but because Christ in a spiritual manner did reform all those corrupt doctrines, and did sit as a refiner to purify the sons of Levi. This was glory to have the spiritual worship of God. Fourthly, the temple was in a peculiar manner holy in respect of other buildings. Now when we say it was holy, we do not mean an holiness inherent, as angels and men are holy, but of dedication and consecration, a relative holiness, being set apart by Gods special command to such a use. Fifthly, because of this relative holiness it was a capital crime to defile this temple. There were porters set at the gate to keep out all unclean things (2Ch 23:19). Lastly, that which was the glory of the temple and the life of it was Gods gracious presence. (A. Burgess.)
The Divine Spirit dwelling in the Church
I. That the Spirit of God is God.
II. That the Spirit of God dwells in His Church, And now to open this let us consider–First, what the phrase to dwell in the Church implieth. Now this phrase, to have the Spirit dwell in us, denoteth–First, the propriety that it hath to us, that we are His possession, as an house is a mans own, where He is Lord and Master. And this is worthy of consideration, that we who once were the devils, he dwelt in us, he ruleth in the hearts of the disobedient (Eph 2:1-22.), have now him expelled from us, and the Spirit of God taken us for His possession. So that herein is a wonderful change when the Spirit of God comes and takes possession of a people who before were captives to Satan, and led aside according to his will (2Ti 2:26). Secondly, when it is said the Spirit of God dwells in a people, it supposeth that He doth fashion and prepare them for Himself. For every lodging is not fit for so noble a guest, but as great men carry their rich furniture with them to have convenient lodgings, so also doth the Spirit of God raise up a people by illumination and sanctification to be a fit habitation for Him. Thirdly, when it is said the Spirit of God dwells in us, it denoteth the familiarity and condescending communion that God vouchsafeth unto His children. Fourthly, in that the Spirit of God is said to dwell, it denoteth a permanent and constant abode in His people. For this you must know, the Spirit of God is many times working where yet He doth not dwell. There is a great difference between transient motions and constant mansions of Gods Spirit. Fifthly, the Spirit dwelling in us doth denote the intimateness and inward efficacy it hath. It doth not only dwell with us, but in us, which denoteth great intimateness.
III. Now let us proceed to show how the Spirit of God dwells in His Church. Now several ways we may consider of the Spirits dwelling in the people of God. First, there is an essential dwelling, or a gracious dwelling, by a special manifestation of more peculiar favours; we do not speak here of an essential dwelling, for so the Spirit of God is everywhere (Psa 139:7). Secondly, when the Spirit of God is said to dwell in His Church, it may not only be understood of the gracious effects thereof, but also of His person likewise. Lastly, the Spirit of God dwells two ways in His Church–
1. In respect of wonderful and miraculous operations.
2. In respect of saving and sanctifying graces.
IV. In the next place, let us consider the special works and effects of Gods Spirit in His Church. But to the particulars. First, the Spirit of God dwells in us after a saving manner in the general, by way of sanctification of the spirit, soul, and body, even the whole man (1Th 5:1-28). But more particularly, the Spirit of God dwells in a saving manner. First, by illumination, and opening of the dark mind of every man. Secondly, the Spirit of God quickens and reviveth those graces that by regeneration were infused to us. Thirdly, the Spirit of God doth enable us to kill and mortify sin (Rom 8:1-39.). Fourthly, the Spirit of God doth bestow a filial and ingenuous spirit upon believers, whereby they are carried out upon evangelical and gospel grounds in their obedience to God. Fifthly, the Spirit of God works comfort and joy in the hearts of the godly. Hence He is called the Comforter (Joh 15:26). Sixthly, that we may have this boldness and joy. The Spirit of God hath another effect, which is, to witness and seal unto our spirits that we are the children of God. Seventhly, the Spirit of God worketh wonderful support, and even glorious rejoicing, in all afflictions and tribulations. Lastly, the Spirit of God doth work the prayers of Gods people. (A. Burgess.)
The believer a temple of God
Consider–
I. The people of God indwelt by God. The Spirit of God dwelleth in you.
1. We must accept that as literally true. The Spirit of God is a person, the attributes of personality are ascribed to Him. The Old Testament prepared for this teaching. I will put My Spirit within you. Then, in the New Testament, our Lord says, I will pray the Father, &c. As God the Father pardons sin, and God the Son atoned for sin, God the Spirit dwells in us to cleanse from sin.
2. This is granted to the lowliest spiritual condition. Indeed, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. Many spiritual blessings we have to wait and even strive for, but this is given at the beginning. I dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, and that is the first stage of Christian life.
3. This represents a permanent state. God comes not to tarry for a night, but This is My rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it. What a vision all this gives of infinite condescension.
II. This indwelling makes each of Gods people a temple. That implies–
1. Divine consecration. Other buildings might be put to other use, but everything under the shadow of the shekinah was inscribed Holiness unto the Lord. And that is the Divine emblem of the redeemed man; he is to be amongst men like a church in a city, the mirthful tide may beat against its gates, and the stream of business ever pass its doors, but it were pollution for either to cross its threshold, it and all within are Gods. The less distinction we make between the Church and the world the further we go from Gods purpose concerning us.
2. Divine testimony. For the temple stands amid the din and strife of the streets a silent witness for God. Such is the Christian amongst men; he is a church in the world. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His, and do you think He can dwell in a soul and the world not know it!
3. Divine revealings. God in the soul. What spiritual visions, what views of the King, what subtle voices, what inward brightness does it not suggest! The Kings daughter is all glorious within. And if He be there, the angels, His attendants, are there; angels of holy thought and affection and desire, making sacred melody, and reverently listening for their Lords will.
III. The fact of this indwelling is often forgotten by Gods people. How often do we need the Divine appeal, Know ye not, &c. For example–
1. When we doubt the Divine care. What! know ye not that ye are the temple of God? Will He not care for His own; will He dwell amid our needs and not meet them?
2. When we mourn an absent God. Know ye not, &c. He has not gone, He is in your soul, you carry within you the well of water springing up into everlasting life. Only unmourned sin has hindered His manifestation, and that hindrance can be removed and the shining of His face appear again.
3. When we shrink from setting holy example.
4. When we make light of sin. (C. New.)
Humanity the temple of God
Let us look at man as–
I. A Divine temple. A temple is a special–
1. Residence of God. God is in all material objects, but especially in moral minds.
2. Manifestation of God. God is seen everywhere, but never so fully as in the mind of man. We are all His offspring.
3. Meeting place with God. The temple at Jerusalem was specially such. There will I commune with thee. Man can meet God in nature, but not so fully and consciously as in mind,
II. As a Divine temple that might be destroyed. The destruction of a temple does not mean the destruction of all its parts, but the destruction of its use. Man might live for ever and yet be destroyed as the special residence, manifestation, and meeting-place of God. But this destruction is not by God. If any man. Alas! men are destroying this temple–their natures. An awful work this!
III. As the destroyer of that which will be destroyed by God Himself. Destroy, if not his existence, all that makes existence worth having, or even tolerable. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The Christian Church the temple of God the Holy Spirit
I. The Christian Church is Gods 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 (Joh 2:19-22; Col 2:9).
(3) Heaven (Rev 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 apostles argument is that God hath His own glorious temple still on earth.
4. Although this glorious work is sometimes invisible to mans eye, yet it is all comprehended by the Divine mind, and is daily extending in the world.
5. Now this good work is Gods and not mans. 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. Mans 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 (Eze 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 earths 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 Gods 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 Christs blood, and sealed as His by the Holy Spirit, you are called to glorify Him both in body and soul. As Christians are Gods 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.)
The house beautiful
Taking the idea of the text and looking upon the human form divine as the house beautiful, we would remark that–
I. The house should give signs of its superior occupant. We judge of the inmate by the residence. If everything around is disorderly, we attribute it to the character of the tenant. If the paths are clean and the flower-beds are trimmed, we know that there is taste and cultivation of the spirit of beauty on the part of the occupier. So we judge regarding the human house. Sin makes its marks upon the countenance. Care traces its wrinkles on the face. The house should be–
1. Kept clean. Sanctification is spiritual cleanliness. Christ will cleanse. And the soul made pure will manifest that purity in the outer life. The light of God in the soul will illumine the darkness around.
2. Well furnished. The Christian needs to be ready to account for his faith. He must be furnished for every good word and work. His mind should be stored only with remembrance-pictures upon which he can look with tranquility and delight.
II. We are not freeholders or absolute possessors of that house–we only have it on lease. It is but a temporary temple. The beams and rafters will be taken down, and the tenant will depart.
III. The tenant is more precious than the house he lives in. The soul is of infinitely more worth than the body. Fair though the house may be, more beautiful still is the tenant, radiant with the love that God bestows. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The nature and offices of the Holy Spirit
I. His personality. To dwell in a temple is a personal act. We understand by person a distinct, subsistent, intelligent being, as distinguished from a mere property or attribute. It is quite necessary to draw this distinction, otherwise we might imagine the Spirit of God to be nothing but a Divine power, virtue, or efficacy, resident in God, or derived from God. There are, certainly, attributed to the Holy Spirit faculties and operations which can only be attributed to a person, and not to a quality. He possesses understanding, The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. Affections are ascribed to Him, when we are bidden not to grieve Him, and when the Israelites are said to have provoked Him. He teaches men; guides them into all truth; can be blasphemed, and Christians are baptized into His name equally with that of the Father and the Son, whose personality are not disputed.
II. His divinity. If it be a personal act to dwell in a temple, there must, it would seem, be Deity in the person who, by His indwelling, makes the temple the temple of God. But we have clear evidence in abundance that He must be actually God. What inherent property and perfection of the Divine nature is there which is not attributed to the Holy Spirit? What operation is there, transcending that of a finite and created thing, which the Spirit is not said to perform?
III. His offices. If the residence of the Spirit in a man convert him into the temple of God, it is evident that the Spirit must be a renewing and sanctifying agent. Man being naturally inhabited only by what is evil, therefore a work of regeneration must be effected ere he can be dwelt in by One infinitely holy. Here we may observe that the office of the Spirit, in the economy of redemption, is a fresh proof of His Divinity. Man having been born in sin, and shapen in iniquity, it is the office of the Holy Ghost to effect such a change that the sinner may be described as born again, and made a new man in Christ Jesus. It were even nothing that Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, if there were no supernatural agency to apply to ourselves the expiatory virtue of Christs sacrifice. It is the office of the Spirit to translate us from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of Gods dear Son; and having once made us fellow-citizens with the saints, He equips us for spiritual conflict, enables us for every spiritual duty, and furnishes us with every spiritual consolation. Indeed, it were little to be brought within the circle of the family of God, if we were not also kept in it by the power through which we were first introduced. But this power never deserts those who give themselves to its guidance. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The Spirits dwelling
I. The fact. Ye are the temple, &c. In three ways
1. By building. No one is by nature a temple. The Holy Ghost quarries the stones, shapes the pillars, constructs the edifice.
2. By furnishing. He supplies the good thoughts, good motives, good principles, which actuate the Christians life.
3. By inhabiting. The Spirit does not build a house for the devils home. It is for Himself.
II. The inferences. It is implied that there should be, if we wish the Spirit to continue–
1. Fitness. The house must be kept in such a condition as is suitable for His presence.
2. Supremacy. God cannot share the kingdom.
3. Unanimity. How can two dwell together, except they be agreed? (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit
This indwelling is a profound mystery, but it is the characteristic glory of the Christian dispensation. Our Lord distinguishes between the work of the Holy Spirit before and after Pentecost: He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Once He came upon them, now He is in them. And where the Spirit dwells is holy ground. Of that indwelling the temple of Solomon gives us a prophetic glimpse. There shone a heavenly light, the symbol of the Holy Spirit who was to dwell in every true Christian, not as a passing visitor, but as a perpetual guest. And where He comes, He brings a new nature and capacities. He gives a new direction to the heart and will. He opens the understanding, and bestows a new power for holiness and for service. This indwelling is here set forth as an antidote.
I. To party spirit.
1. The love of faction which marked the politics of Corinth had crept into their religion. They nursed a temper of bitterness which hindered true work for God, injured their inner life, and grieved the Holy Spirit. Therefore St. Paul asks with surprise, Know ye not, &c. Their lack of charity helped to destroy the Church of God. It broke up its unity, it killed its spirituality. It provoked God to judge them. It was a desecration which the Holy God could not ignore.
2. The bane of the Church still is its unhappy divisions. Still Christian scorns Christian in proportion as the differences which divide them are trivial and unimportant. If the remembrance of our great mission fail to move us, at least let the tact that the Spirit of God dwells in us do so. If Moses appealed to the striving Israelites, Sirs, ye are brethren, may not we appeal, Sirs, know ye not that ye are a temple of God, &c.
II. To disloyalty to God.
1. Some of the Christians at Corinth knew well the freedom of Christs gospel. But there was a danger lest they should grow proud of their light and their liberty, and despise every barrier between themselves and sin. Therefore St. Paul sternly calls them to a life of separation from all evil (2Co 6:14-16).
2. The warning is not unneeded by English Christians. There are forces at work in society not unlike those at Corinth. Our charity is apt to degenerate into indifference. A feeble and uncertain grasp of truth leads too often to acquiescence in a policy or in practices which the conscience condemns. When we are tempted to take as our friend the godless, simply because they are clever or rich; when we are invited to put our hands to any work upon which we cannot ask the blessing of God, or to join any association which may make money at the cost of the character or the well-being of our fellow-men–let us remember that to touch the unclean thing is to defile that temple and to grieve the indwelling Spirit.
III. To impurity. In the foul atmosphere of that heathen city the Christians were exposed to fearful temptations, and needed an adequate motive and a superhuman power, if they were to keep themselves pure. And such they had (1Co 6:19-20). There are symptoms in the social life of England which cannot but excite the anxiety of every one who loves his country and is loyal to God.
1. If our literature is free from the coarseness of earlier centuries, it is too often pervaded by a subtle taint which poisons almost imperceptibly the imagination of its readers; while the silent and deadly effect of the publication in our newspapers of things of which it is a shame even to speak in secret, has corrupted the purity of thousands of souls.
2. The fashion of treating marriage flippantly, and the fact that leading reviews insert articles which deliberately question its sanctity, tend to strike at the very root of morality and home life.
3. The growing luxury which has accompanied the accumulation of wealth, brings with it its own Nemesis in the relaxing of our moral fibre.
4. And, while rejoicing in every honest attempt to remove all the disabilities under which women have suffered, I venture to think that the tendency to destroy the distinction between the sexes must help, in the long run, to rob a womans life of those graces which have been the secret of her highest influence, and her most invulnerable shield. Now to us, exposed to these dangers, the fact of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, when once realised, becomes a great safeguard, and a mighty incentive to a pure and self-restrained life. (F. J. Chevasse, M. A.)
The indwelling of the Spirit
He, uncreated love, pours out into our souls all our power of Divine love for Him and for each other. He, uncreated wisdom, orders our thoughts secretly. He, uncreated truth, dissipates from our mind the mist which we have gathered round ourselves. He, uncreated strength, instrengthens us to bear or to overcome all evil, and to will mightily all good. He, uncreated holiness, cleanses by His presence an habitation for Himself, and hallows by His abiding the dwelling-place, which He has repaired, that He might enter in; which He has enlarged, that it might contain Him. He Himself, within us, informs our memory that we may remember Him, enlightens our minds that we may know Him, moves our wills that we may choose Him and obey Him. He Himself, within us, quickens our diligence that we may seek Him, gives us wisdom that we may find Him, perseverance that we may attain unto Him. Nor is it our spiritual nature only which He so hallows. Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost. Yes, these poor bodies, which hunger and thirst, are heavy and weary; which shall return to corruption, which shall be subject to the dishonour of the grave–these God has chosen to be His dwelling-place; within these He is forming that glorious body which shall be after the resurrection; with these He unites Himself now, that they may be full of His glory hereafter. They shall shine above the glory of the sun, because they shall be filled with the light of His divinity. They shall know no decay; for He shall be their immortality. They shall know no weariness; for He shall be their life. They shall know no suffering; for they shall be made impassible, since He is not subject to suffering. They shall obey, unhindering, every motion of His will, for they shall be spiritual through His indwelling Spirit. How, then, should we reverence this our mysterious being. How should we reverently use the eyes; how keep them from all wrong use and all unlawful sight, which are, through the light of God, to see God! How should we keep the tongue from evil words, which, moved by the Spirit of God, is endlessly to sing the new song! How should we guard the heart from evil affections, which God has claimed as His own, and bidden us to give it wholly to Him; the soul which is capacious enough to contain God, yet not large enough to contain the world and God! (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy which temple ye are.—
The human soul Gods truest temple
I. The human soul Gods truest temple. This truth expresses one of the great changes introduced by Christianity. Why has Christianity abolished the one local house and consecrated man himself as the dwelling-place of God? Because–
1. God is equally present everywhere. Though recognised in Judaism, this never broke forth into its wonderful glory until Christ appeared. Men feared God, and the shadow of that fear led them to fancy Him far away. The whole tendency of Christs life was to wear down the barrier between God and man. He showed that nature was but the living work of an ever-present Father. But although equally present, God is not equally manifested everywhere. Thus God is revealed in His worship, but who sees Him? Not the careless or the carnal; but to holy men spiritual emotion has hallowed strange places, and made them temples. To Jacob, the stones became a temple. To Peter, the mountain where Christs glory shone became the Holy Mount. Nathaniel would never pass the fig-tree without feeling it to be a place of prayer. Perhaps we all have our holy places; the chamber where we first really prayed, &c. These are our earthly temples, because there God has been most clearly manifested to us.
2. God is most clearly manifested in humanity. Christ, pre-eminently, was the glorious temple in which God dwelt, and through whom the Divine glory was revealed to the world. There was the holy of holies; there the altar which made every other altar fire grow pale and expire.
II. The manner of realising this. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (verse 16). Assuming that, how may we attain more of the full presence of God in our souls? In man there is a trinity of power, and in order to become a temple all these must be consecrated.
1. Intellect to realise Gods presence, To awaken the soul to energy you must think on Him. Go, then, and stretch every faculty of your souls to realise His glory and His presence.
2. Emotion. Thought is vain apart from this.
3. Action. Thought and feeling are both vain without this. Work from your emotion, and ultimately you may do all from it. Thus man becomes a temple of God–intellect the holy place; the hearts emotions the altar of sacrifice; the actions of life the revelation of both.
III. The results of the realisation.
1. God manifested to the world. They say our temples are being deserted; that the young and the labourer are, going away. Is not this because we are not temples? It is vain to build stone temples to God unless we become His living ones.
2. Elevation of life above the sinful, trifling, earthly. His is no vain life who has, through the Spirit, become a temple of Jehovah! In the temple at Jerusalem there was a veil; at the death of Christ that veil was rent. In the temple of every human heart there hangs a veil; death will rend it, and will reveal either the glorious image of the Father, or the image of the demon-god for which it has lived. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
Defiling the temple of God
Why false doctrines are a defiling. First, from the pure nature of Gods truth, and His worship, which falsehoods do stain and take away the glory of. Oh, then, how humble, tender, and careful ought men to be! Are the truths and ordinances of God by institution, and in their original so pure? Come not, then, with thy foul hands to handle such precious things. Secondly, they are called defilements and pollutions, because the truths and Church of God are not only pure, but dedicated and appropriated to Him, as the only object. Thirdly, errors and heresies may well be called defilements, because they are a disease, and so spread over the Church. Fourthly, they are defilements, because they pollute the conscience, mind, and heart, and whole life of a man. Hence you have that phrase, Men of corrupt minds (1Ti 6:5; 2Ti 3:8). Lastly, Corrupt doctrines are called defilements, to show how loathsome and abominable they should be to us. We have despatched the sin supposed, we come to the punishment proposed–Him shall God destroy. Let us consider the aggravation of this destruction. First, it is an eternal destruction; a destruction that is always destroying, and yet the party is not extinguished. Secondly, it is a universal destruction in a moral sense. There is not the least mixture of any joy, of any hope. Thirdly, it is an inevitable destruction. God will destroy; who can stop Gods hand? (A. Burgess.)
The mystical temple
There was, under the law–
1. The outward court, where the people did stand, and the inner temple, into which none but the priests did enter. So with a Christian; there is the outward temple of his body (1Co 6:19), and the holy of holies, his soul, where none but Christ our High Priest must come.
I. The resemblances between a believers soul and a temple.
1. All the materials were fitted for the building of the temple: the timber was to be sawn, the stones to be hewn and polished. So by nature we are not qualified for a temple, we are unhewn and unpolished. So far from preparing ourselves for a temple, we indispose ourselves; but God hews us by His prophets (Hos 2:5), and cuts and carves us by afflictions, and so makes us meet for a spiritual temple.
2. The temple was very magnificent (1Ki 6:32). So the soul of a believer is an illustrious temple. God Himself brings His glory into it (Psa 45:13). Christ never admired the goodly stones of the visible, but admired the glory of the spiritual temple (1Pe 3:4).
3. The temple was a place set apart for Gods peculiar worship; it was separated from all other places. So a believers heart is consecrated ground, and set apart for Gods service (Psa 4:3; Psa 119:38).
4. The temple was a place of Gods special presence: He did there command His blessings. So in a spiritual heart God wonderfully manifests His presence: there He gives forth the influences of His grace, the communications of His love.
5. The temple was adorned with curious pictures; so the temple of the heart hath Gods image in it (Col 3:10); is drawn by the pencil of the Holy Ghost.
6. The temple had a fire burning on the altar; so a believers heart is the altar on which there is a sacred fire still burning (Rom 12:13; Psa 119:97).
7. The temple, being an hallowed place, was to be kept clean (2Ch 29:15; 2Ch 23:3). So must this (2Ch 7:1).
II. This Divine temple of the soul differs from other temples, and hath a transcendent excellency above them.
1. Other material temples, though of a beautiful structure, yet have no life in them; but a believer is a living temple (1Pe 2:5). Hypocrites who have only a name to live (Rev 3:1), are not temples, but tombs.
2. This is an heavenly temple; other temples are constituted of earthly materials. The believers soul was breathed from heaven, and that which is in heaven is to be found in Him. In heaven there is–
(1) Light (Col 1:12), so in a saint there is the light of knowledge (Eph 5:8).
(2) Love (1Jn 4:7), so a saints heart is a temple of love (Joh 21:15).
(3) Joy (Mat 25:23), so a saint hath joy in believing (Rom 15:13).
3. He is an everlasting temple; other temples are of a perishable nature. God will not demolish His own temple. Christs blood cements all the stones together, and as long as the foundation and cement hold, so long this temple shall last, and that is for ever.
III. Uses.
1. Of information.
(1) See the difference between the godly and the wicked: the heart of the godly is a temple; the heart of the wicked is a cage of unclean birds (Rev 18:2).
(2) See wherein a great part of the nations safety lies; namely, in having store of these spiritual temples. In ancient times temples were places of safety. The saints are Englands sanctuaries.
(3) If the saints are the temples of God, then how dangerous is it for any to abuse and injure them!
2. Of examination. All Gods temples are made in some measure like Him.
(1) God is a spirit. Are we spiritual?
(2) God is pure. Have we holy and chaste affections?
(3) God is merciful. What shall we say to them who have no mercy?
3. Of exhortation. You who are the temples of God.
(1) Do not defile Gods temple (verse 17).
(a) By intermixing with the wicked. Bad company is defiling (1Co 5:9).
(b) By uncleanness. This sin defiles both the outward temple and the inner.
(c) By error. Heresies are as the leprosy, which defiled the house in which it was (Lev 14:39).
(2) Be as temples.
(a) Do temple work. Offer up spiritual sacrifices (1Pe 2:5)–of prayer; of a broken heart (Psa 51:17); of praise (Psa 50:23).
(b) Study temple purity. The temple was very holy. So Christians. Holiness beautifies Gods temples, and is the cherisher of a Christians peace.
4. Of consolation.
(1) Such as are Gods spiritual temples shall have much of Gods company (2Co 6:16).
(2) Such as are gracious temples shall one day be glorious temples. (T. Watson.)
The holiness of Gods temple
Take the figure in connection with any of the kinds of habitation spoken of in Scripture–
1. The home.
2. The tent.
3. The palace.
4. The temple–it exhibits a most comforting truth to us.
To be Gods home or dwelling, His tent or tabernacle, His royal palace, His chosen temple, of which that on Moriah was a mere shadow, how solemn the admonition as to personal holiness conveyed to us by this! In Gods temple there is the blood, the fire, the smoke, the water, the lamps, the incense, the shewbread, the cherubim, the glory–all consecrated things, and all pertaining to what is heavenly!
I. What intimacy with God. Acquaintanceship with Him who has made our heart His home is the least which could be expected. He must be no stranger to us. There must not merely be reconciliation–for that may consist with some degree of distance–but intimacy, peaceful friendship, loving acquaintanceship. If God be our inmate, how intimate ought we to be with Him in all respects! Of an old Scotch minister it is said (as the finishing stroke in his character), He was one very intimate with God. So let it be said of us.
II. What calmness of spirit. In all false religion there is excitement, in true religion calmness. Man is never more truly and deeply calm than when filled with the Spirit of God. The tendency of much that is called religion in our day is to agitation, bustle, noise, unnatural fervour. God keeps His temple in perfect peace.
III. What solemnity of soul If God be inhabiting us as His temple we ought surely to be solemn men–called to a solemn life, speaking solemn words, manifesting a solemn deportment. Should the worlds rude laughter echo through the aisles of the Divine temple? or its uproarious mirth ring through the holy of holies?
IV. What recollectedness of thought and feeling. With God dwelling in us, shall we allow wandering thoughts or forgetfulness of the Divine presence to prevail. Let us gather up our thoughts and keep them gathered.
V. What spirituality and unworldliness. God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We need the spiritual heart, shutting out the world from a shrine which Jehovah has entered and made His own. If we are temples of the holy Ghost, and if His temples are holy, then are not such things as the following shut out?–
1. Vanity. How inconsistent 1
2. Pleasure. Can a lover of pleasure be a temple of the Holy Ghost?
3. Politics. What have the poor party politics of this world to do with the worship of this glorious temple? Can the smoke and dust of the world commingle with the incense of the golden altar?
4. Covetousness. Absorption even in lawful business is inconsistent with our being temples of God. Let us not grieve that Spirit whose temple we are. Let us allow Him to fill us wholly, and to cast out all that is unbefitting the holiness and glory of His habitation.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. Ye are the temple of God] The apostle resumes here what he had asserted in 1Co 3:9: Ye are God’s building. As the whole congregation of Israel were formerly considered as the temple and habitation of God, because God dwelt among them, so here the whole Church of Corinth is called the temple of God, because all genuine believers have the Spirit of God to dwell in them; and Christ has promised to be always in the midst even of two or three who are gathered together in his name. Therefore where God is, there is his temple.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The apostle, 1Co 3:9, had called the church of Corinth, and the particular members of it, Gods building; after this he had enlarged in a discourse concerning the builders, and the foundation and superstructure upon that foundation; now he returns again to speak of the whole church, whom he here calleth the temple of God, with a manifest allusion to that noble and splendid house which Solomon first built, and was afterwards rebuilt by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah at Jerusalem, as the public place for the Jewish church to meet in to worship God according to the prescript of the Levitical law: in which house God was said to dwell, because there he met his people, and blessed them, and there he gave answers to them from the mercy-seat. He calls them the temple of God, because they were built, that is, effectually called, for this very end, that they might be to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, Eph 1:6; and, as the apostle Peter further expoundeth this text, 1Pe 2:5, the people of God are a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And God by his Spirit dwelt in them, both by his person, and by his gifts and graces, which is a far more noble dwelling in them than the dwelling of God was in the Jewish temple. From this text may be fetched an evident proof of the Divine nature, of the Third Person in the blessed Trinity; for he is not only called here the Spirit of God, but he is said to dwell in the saints: which dwelling of God in his people, is that very thing which maketh them the temple of God; and those who are here called the temple of God, are, 1Co 6:19, called the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. Know ye notIt is no newthing I tell you, in calling you “God’s building”; ye knowand ought to remember, ye are the noblest kind of building, “thetemple of God.”
yeall Christians formtogether one vast temple. The expression is not, “ye aretemples,” but “ye are the temple“collectively, and “lively stones” (1Pe2:5) individually.
God . . . SpiritGod’sindwelling, and that of the Holy Spirit, are one; therefore the HolySpirit is God. No literal “temple” is recognized by the NewTestament in the Christian Church. The only one is the spiritualtemple, the whole body of believing worshippers in which the HolySpirit dwells (1Co 6:19; Joh 4:23;Joh 4:24). The synagogue,not the temple, was the model of the Christian house of worship. Thetemple was the house of sacrifice, rather than of prayer.Prayers in the temple were silent and individual (Luk 1:10;Luk 18:10-13), not jointand public, nor with reading of Scripture, as in the synagogue. Thetemple, as the name means (from a Greek root “to dwell”),was the earthly dwelling-place of God, where alone He put Hisname. The synagogue (as the name means an assembly) was theplace for assembling men. God now too has His earthly temple, not oneof wood and stone, but the congregation of believers, the “livingstones” on the “spiritual house.” Believers are allspiritual priests in it. Jesus Christ, our High Priest, has the onlyliteral priesthood (Mal 1:11;Mat 18:20; 1Pe 2:5)[VITRINGA].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,…. The apostle having spoken of the saints as God’s building, of himself as a wise master builder, of Christ as the only foundation, and of various doctrines as the materials laid thereon, proceeds to observe to this church, and the members of it, that they being incorporated together in a Gospel church state, were the temple of God; and which was what they could not, or at least ought not, to be ignorant of: and they are so called, in allusion to Solomon’s temple; which as it was a type of the natural, so of the mystical body of Christ. There is an agreement between that and the church of Christ, in its maker, matter, situation, magnificence, and holiness; and the church is said to be the temple of God, because it is of his building, and in which he dwells: what the apostle here says of the saints at Corinth, the Jewish doctors say of the Israelites n,
, “the temple of the Lord are ye”; and which being usually said of them in the apostle’s time, he may refer unto; and much better apply to the persons he does, of which the indwelling of the Spirit was the evidence:
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you: in particular members, as a spirit of regeneration, sanctification, faith, and adoption, and as the earnest and pledge of their future glory; in their ministers to fit and qualify them for their work, and carry them through it; and in the whole church, to bless the word and ordinances, for their growth, comfort, and establishment. This furnishes out a considerable proof of the deity and distinct personality of the Spirit, since this is mentioned as an evidence of the saints being the temple of God, which would not be one, if the Spirit was not God, who dwells therein; and since a temple is sacred to deity, and therefore if he dwells here as in a temple, he must dwell here as God; and since he is mentioned as distinct from God, whose Spirit he is, and dwelling, a personal action is ascribed to him, he must be a distinct divine person.
n R. Alshech in Hag. ii. 5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Holiness Prescribed. | A. D. 57. |
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Here the apostle resumes his argument and exhortation, founding it on his former allusion, You are God’s building, v. 9, and here, Know you not that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile (corrupt and destroy) the temple of God, him shall God destroy (the same word is in the original in both clauses); for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. It looks from other parts of the epistle, where the apostle argues to the very same purport (see ch. vi. 13-20), as if the false teachers among the Corinthians were not only loose livers, but taught licentious doctrines, and what was particularly fitted to the taste of this lewd city, on the head of fornication. Such doctrine was not to be reckoned among hay and stubble, which would be consumed while the person who laid them on the foundation escaped the burning; for it tended to corrupt, to pollute, and destroy the church, which was a building erected for God, and consecrated to him, and therefore should be kept pure and holy. Those who spread principles of this sort would provoke God to destroy them. Note, Those who spread loose principles, that have a direct tendency to pollute the church of God, and render it unholy and unclean, are likely to bring destruction on themselves. It may be understood also as an argument against their discord and factious strifes, division being the way to destruction. But what I have been mentioning seems to be the proper meaning of the passage: Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? It may be understood of the church of Corinth collectively, or of every single believer among them; Christian churches are temples of God. He dwells among them by his Holy Spirit. They are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit, Eph. ii. 22. Every Christian is a living temple of the living God. God dwelt in the Jewish temple, took possession of it, and resided in it, by that glorious cloud that was the token of his presence with that people. So Christ by his Spirit dwells in all true believers. The temple was devoted and consecrated to God, and set apart from every common to a holy use, to the immediate service of God. So all Christians are separated from common uses, and set apart for God and his service. They are sacred to him–a very good argument this against all fleshly lusts, and all doctrines that give countenance to them. If we are the temples of God, we must do nothing that shall alienate ourselves from him, or corrupt and pollute ourselves, and thereby unfit ourselves for his use; and we must hearken to no doctrine nor doctor that would seduce us to any such practices. Note, Christians are holy by profession, and should be pure and clean both in heart and conversation. We should heartily abhor, and carefully avoid, what will defile God’s temple, and prostitute what ought to be sacred to him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Ye are a temple of God ( ). Literally, a sanctuary (, not , the sacred enclosure, but the holy place and the most holy place) of God. The same picture of building as in verse 9 (), only here the sanctuary itself.
Dwelleth in you ( ). The Spirit of God makes his home () in us, not in temples made with hands (Acts 7:48; Acts 17:24).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Temple [] . Or sanctuary. See on Mt 4:5. Compare Eph 2:21; 2Co 6:16.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Know ye not.” (Greek ouk oidate) “Do you not perceive, see, or recognize” – Paul probes the Spiritual perception of the carnal, strife torn, contentious members of the Corinth church, to stir them to recognize their high calling to service through the church.
2) “That ye are the temple of God.” (hoti naos theou este) “that you all constitute a shrine or temple of God?” Can’t you comprehend that Jesus is in your fellowship, and Divine Royalty beholds your personal and church life? Paul rhetorically questions. See also 1Pe 2:1-9; 1Pe 2:19-22.
3) “And that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (Kai to pneuma tou theou en humin oikei) “And the spirit of the Trinitarian God is enshrined in the fellowship of you all.”
The Holy Spirit, the paraclete, the indwelling vice-gerent or representative of Jesus Christ, is in every fellowship of scripturally baptized and covenanted affinity of believers who are pledged to each other to work together in any locality to carry on a program of work and worship of Jesus Christ according to His Word. Paul believed this and wanted to remind the Corinth church members of their lofty calling which entailed accountable conduct before God and the world. Joh 16:7-15; Joh 14:16-18; Act 2:1-8; Act 2:15-21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
16. Know ye not, etc. Having admonished the teachers as to their duty, he now addresses himself to the pupils — that they, too, may take heed to themselves. To the teachers he had said, “You are the master-builders of the house of God.” He now says to the people, “You are the temples of God. It is your part, therefore, to take care that you be not, in any way defiled.” Now, the design (190) is, that they may not prostitute themselves to the service of men. He confers upon them distinguished honor in speaking thus, but it is in order that they may be made the more reprehensible; for, as God has set them apart as a temple to himself, he has at the same time appointed them to be guardians of his temple It is sacrilege, then, if they give themselves up to the service of men. He speaks of all of them collectively as being one temple of God; for every believer is a living stone, (1Pe 2:5,) for the rearing up of the building of God. At the same time they also, in some cases, individually receive the name of temples We shall find him a little afterwards (1Co 6:19) repeating the same sentiment, but for another purpose. For in that passage he treats of chastity; but here, on the other hand, he exhorts them to have their faith resting on the obedience of Christ alone. The interrogation gives additional emphasis; for he indirectly intimates, that he speaks to them of a thing that they knew, while he appeals to them as witnesses.
And the Spirit of God. Here we have the reason why they are the temple of God Hence and must be understood as meaning because (191) This is customary, as in the words of the poet — “Thou hadst heard it, and it had been reported.” “For this reason,” says he, “are ye the temples of God, because He dwells in you by his Spirit; for no unclean place can be the habitation of God.” In this passage we have an explicit testimony for maintaining the divinity of the Holy Spirit. For if he were a creature, or merely a gift, he would not make us temples of God, by dwelling in us. At the same time we learn, in what manner God communicates himself to us, and by what tie we are bound to him — when he pours down upon us the influence of his Spirit.
(190) “ De cest aduertissement;” — “Of this caution.”
(191) Audieras, et fama fitit. Virg. Eclog. 9. 11.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
1Co. 3:16.A temple (R.V.) misses, or denies, the typology binding Old Testament and New Testament together here. A case where, as often (e.g. 1Co. 11:20), one of the great leading facts of the Old Covenant is divested of its temporary, local robing and embodiment, and brought forward into the new world of the New Testament, to find a new embodiment in the Church. The old building has gone; the new shrine where God dwells on earth is growing, rising, every day. A local Church, and still more the aggregate Church, is the New Testament form of the old Temple idea. It is the Temple to-day. This a collective Temple; in 1Co. 6:19-20 an individual application of the same idea is found. The word here is that which signifies, not the whole structure inclusive of the surrounding courtyard, but only the actual Temple building itself. In is here practically among; as distinguished from the indwelling in the man, 1Co. 6:19 (see Appended Note from Evans).
1Co. 3:17.Defile and destroy, same word; combining impair, mar, ruin, destroy.
1Co. 3:18.Cf. 1Co. 15:33 for the thought (not for the word); men seem to persuade themselves that they shall somehow evade the penalty of sin, although others do not escape. Thinks.As 1Co. 8:2; not with any hesitation, but with much confidence. Among you.And yet taking his place, and holding his own, as a wise man of the world in the world. Cant be done! Incompatible things altogether! The connection between inflated self-esteem and a slavish submission to party leaders is exposed in 1Co. 6:6. Surely no implied caution to, or censure on, Apollos!
1Co. 3:19.Note the small change of translation. Quotation of words of Eliphaz, from Job. 5:13. [On the general principle of such a quotation being taken as part of what is written, see Homily on xv. 33, 1.]
1Co. 3:20.Psa. 94:11. Reasonings (R.V.).
HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.1Co. 3:16-20
The Temple of God.Very little in this paragraph which is not dealt with elsewhere. For 1Co. 3:16-17 see, e.g., 1Co. 6:18-20; for 1Co. 3:18-20 see, e.g., 1Co. 1:18 sqq. Note, however, that the Temple is here collective, the whole Church; in 1Co. 6:18-20 it is individualindeed, the very body of the Christian man.
I. Note how, from paragraph to paragraph, the illustrations change.In 14 Paul is the nursing father (Isa. 49:23); the Church is the house where the holy seed is growing up, or ought to be, into strength and ripeness of godliness. In 1Co. 3:5 figure is dropped, unless ministers be a figure. Paul and his friend and successor Apollos are employs of God, enrolled in His service, to bring men to Christ and to faith in Him; John Baptist-like, to bring Bridegroom and Bride together. There has been a division of labour, and the thought is made pictorial in 1Co. 3:6. Paul and his fellow-worker are seen toiling each at his task in Gods field or in Gods vineyardlabourers in the vineyard, each of whom is to receive whatsoever is right according to his work. [There is more in the Scripture than was in the Scribe. The mind of the Spirit is often fuller than any thought in the mind of the human writer. Yet the use of the illustration goes so little beyond the division of tasks amongst the qualified workers, and the payment according to results and fidelity, that an expositor may hesitate to fill out these two hints with the typology of the Vine and the Vineyard of God, found, e.g., in Psalms 80; Isa. 5:2; Ezekiel 15; Ezekiel 17; Mat. 21:28; Mat. 21:33, sqq.; Luk. 13:6 (where the two figures for Israel are conjoined); and, with most profound significance, Joh. 15:1, and Mat. 26:20 (adding, perhaps, 1Co. 9:7).] Then again the picture changes; as the dissolving-view picture fades out when another is superposed upon it, so the busy labourers at their husbandry have scarcely been shown to us before the field has faded and a building is rising as we watch. There is no doubt who is the Architect; whose is the great, leading, essential Idea of such a house. It is a busy scene. Not Paul or Apollos only are workers together with God this time. Every Corinthian teacher, every Corinthian believer, is a co-worker too. Paul has done his part of the work; well and truly laid does this Master-mason declare his foundation to be. Yet more truly the foundation is bed-rock; of Gods laying, in the prehistoric ages of a wider than earthly history (Rev. 13:8; 1Pe. 1:20).
The Churchs one Foundation
Is Jesus Christ the Lord.
What Paul or Cephas may lay is rather the lowest courses of the masonry, which, in their turn, rest upon this Rock of Ages (Isa. 26:4, margin). It is mercy and blessing to man that he is permitted, privileged, to be a worker together with God; but we touch the fringe of The Great Problem in all human thinkingthe problem of Evilwhen we see how this has entailed the invariable consequence that the design of the Great Architect never gets fairly carried out. Nor is it only that the workers blunder or are innocently incompetent; the deviation from the design of the Great Builder has a moral character. The material is bad; the building is careless; the work will be fit for nothing but the firevery much of it. In our paragraph the building is specialised in its character. What we saw as a great house rising is now the Temple of God. And then the figure drops once more. Upon the screen are portraits; Corinthians strutting themselves in their fancied wisdom; He who knoweth men pronouncing His verdict: Fools! You are only setting a trap for your own feet! And the chapter leads up to the last solemn sentences in which is recited Gods grant of all men, all things, to His Church, to the individual Christian. A party said at Corinth, We are of Christ. The truth is far wider than that. They all are Christs; He is not divided (1Co. 1:13); He belongs to no one party; all the parties belong to Him; as yet, all the schisms at Corinth have not cut off any of them from Him. The seemingly so humble We are of Christ too easily passes over into the miserably exclusive We are of Christ. Ye are all Christs; all that is His is yours; all things are yours.
II. The Church is the Temple of God.[N.B. the, not a.] Fulfilling the age-long truth that God loves to dwell amongst men. God with us is the keynote in which, if Sin had not put all things out of tune, the story of the relations of God and man would have run on in one lovely strain of most perfect music. He planted His Tent in the midst of the tents of Israel in the wilderness; He accepted the Royal Palace built for Him in His capital, Jerusalem, by His viceroy Solomon. Men looked from their housetops in the city across to the Temple; they hushed their thought as they passed beneath the boundary walls of its outer courtThe King, Jehovah, is within there! And when their sin had cost them the presence of the occupying Shekinah-cloud, the Palace stood still, a witness to the desire of the heart of God to dwell amongst men. [All this is carried out in chap, 6, where see.] The word used is that for the actual Temple building, the Naos or Shrine. Around this lay broad outer courts, the outermost and largest being open to the world, the Court of (even) the Gentiles. It was an ill day for the Church when it added a great outer court, the Court of the World. In a true sense, perhaps, like the Court of the Gentiles, it may be included in the Hieron. The outer Court of the World does stand in a true relation to God. But the ill-day is when the court of the baptized, or unbaptized, world is counted part of the Naos; when the sacred name which belongs to the Shrine only is extended to the outer court, to the great confusion of thought and discipline and practice. Ye are the Naos. The Church with the indwelling of the Spirit of God is the present-day embodiment and exhibition of Gods Thought. [Not the last; the last but one. The last and most perfect is in Rev. 21:3. And in heaven to-day is another, concurrent, exhibition of it, where He sits who is, and will eternally be, the God-man. (The two are one: Eph. 1:23).] The individual and the collective modifications of Pauls illustrations are combined in 1Pe. 2:5. The whole building is instinct with Life, because every single stone is living. Peters figure hardly bears, even in a readers mind, to be put into visible shape. The truth is clear. The Temple is built up of temples. Men whose body is a temple, and they alone, build up the Temple of God. But there is a presence of God which specially belongs to the Church as such.
III. Defile and destroy are the same word.A vox media, for which Evans suggests mar. Sin, as so often is repaid in kind. It shapes, as well as earns, its own punishment. [In part, a sinner makes his own kind of hell.] The man who does anything in the corporate life of the Church, which is a grief and an offence to the Divine Tenant of the Temple of to-day, shall find that he has grieved the Spirit of his personal life. It is the One Spirit of Holiness who everywhere, in church or soul, makes its most grievous penalty His own withdrawal. Let the life of the body depart, and from that moment it begins to be marred and destroyed by disintegrating moral corruption. In this particular instance the defiling is done by the introduction of party spirit, and by the introduction of the wood, hay, stubble into the structure, whether of Church order or Christian doctrine, or personal character and life; not to add by the envying and strife which proved the Corinthians yet carnal. Let every man in Corinth watch not only lest he offend against the holiness of his personal Christian life, but be jealous of anything which might impinge upon the corporate holiness of The Church of Christ. Let every Corinthian enrol himself in the honourable Guild of the Temple-guardians [lit. Temple-sweepers, Act. 19:35] of the shrine of the great God and His Spirit.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(16) The temple of God.From the thought of grand edifices in general the Apostle goes on to the particular case of a building which is not only splendid but holythe temple of Godthus reminding the reader that the rich and valuable metals and stones spoken of previously are to represent spiritual attainments. He introduces the passage with the words Do ye not know, implying that their conduct was such as could only be pursued by those who were either ignorant or forgetful of the truth of which he now reminds them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Know ye not Recognise you not this solemn fact?
Temple of God Not only are ye a building, 1Co 3:9-15, but ye are a temple.
Dwelleth in you As the Shekinah or divine Presence, dwelt in the holy of holies.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.’
‘Do you not know.’ A favourite expression to the Corinthians (1Co 3:16; 1Co 5:6 ; 1Co 6:2-3; 1Co 6:9; 1Co 6:15-16 ; 1Co 6:19; 1Co 9:13; 1Co 9:24). He is stressing that they do not appear to know, or are ignoring, what they ought to know. It is only used once elsewhere (Rom 6:16).
The thought of God’s building leads on to the thought of His people being built together as His temple (compare Eph 2:20-22). The thought has been progressive – God’s cultivated field, God’s building, God’s temple; growth, establishment in truth, indwelling by the Holy God. The temple has not specifically been in mind up to this point, or it would have been mentioned earlier, but the idea springs from the previous idea of God’s building.
1Co 3:16-17 are in fact an advancement and an added warning. We come back to the main point in 1Co 3:18-23. But as Paul contemplated God’s building he was filled with awe at what the people of God, His ‘church’, represented. They are the holy temple of the living God, His dwelling-place on earth, sanctified as belonging to Him. And he is filled with apprehension as to what would happen to those who sought to destroy it. As men who touched the holy Mount were to be immediately struck dead because the living God was manifested there (Exo 19:12-13), how much worse it will be for those who seek to destroy the holy dwelling-place of God.
‘Do you not know that God’s temple you are?’ The word for temple is ‘naos’, the sanctuary, the innermost and most holy part of the temple, the part where God was most seen as dwelling. For that is the thought that is being stressed, that they are the dwelling place of God through His Spirit. Just as God descended on the Tabernacle of old (Exo 40:34-35), so has He descended on His people (Act 2:1-2). It is thus needless to ask whether the whole temple is in mind, or just the inner sanctuary. For whichever it is the emphasis is the same. It is the personal dwelling-place of God that is in mind.
‘The temple of God.’ Lack of the article does not indicate just one of many temples. This is indeed the only temple. But when the predicate is placed prior to the verb it is regularly without the article (compare ‘the Lord’ in 1Co 4:5; Joh 1:1). It is the essential Temple of God, the temple not made with hands, but made by God Himself.
‘And that the Spirit of God dwells in you.’ This is a reference to the presence of the Spirit in all who are His (Rom 8:9), but the emphasis here is different. Here it is less on what benefit we have received by receiving the Spirit, and more on the holy position we have been put in by His indwelling. We are God’s holy, set apart and unique dwelling-place on whom God has descended in glory. We are sanctified by God. The earthly temple has been thrust aside and has been replaced by the temple which is God’s people, wherever they are, and they are one and indwelt by the holy God. Thus they are precious and under God’s specific protection. That is why those who minister to them must especially beware of how they minister. They are dealing with God’s holy dwelling-place. ‘For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.’
‘The Spirit of God.’ The Spirit is God in His fullness revealed as active on earth. We are in danger of so distinguishing the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son that we can overlook that He represents the fullness of the Godhead in spiritually manifested, visibly active form (as Jesus was the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form (Col 2:9)). He is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Father (Mat 10:20), the Spirit of Christ (Rom 8:9; Gal 4:6), the unique and ‘totally other’ (in contrast to this world) ‘Holy’ Spirit, God represented in person on earth.
‘If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.’ Again the thought has moved on. This is not a reference to the builders, whether adequate or inadequate, but to the preciousness and sacredness of God’s people in His sight, and the assurance of full judgment on those who seek to destroy them, whether the persecuting Jews, the antagonistic Romans, belligerent peoples of other religions, or, worst of all, deceitful philosophers and the false preachers and teachers who have removed the heart from the Gospel and totally distorted it (for examples of the last see 2Pe 2:1 ; 1Jn 2:18; 2Jn 1:7; Jud 1:4).
Of course there is the hint of warning here. The teachers in Corinth must beware lest they turn out not only to be hindrances but actually destroyers. Let them take heed and ensure that they point their hearers to the true foundation. Then they will be able to be sure that the worst of all scenarios will not be theirs. Not all will necessarily turn out to have been truly saved.
It is noteworthy here, in view of what we have seen earlier, that Paul still sees the Corinthians as God’s Temple. Lacking they may be, but they are His dwellingplace. They are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called His holy ones (1Co 1:2). He is not in total despair of them. But what he does dread is the terrible fate that awaits those among them who seek to lead them astray. For them he can only forecast the worst. The Greek is emphatic ‘if anyone the Temple of God destroys, destroy him God will’. He will receive what he has sown.
Having made the point the thought now moves back to those who are true ministers of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (the then Old and New Testaments, although the latter mainly at this stage in oral form).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Church Is God’s Sacred Sanctuary For The Spirit of God Dwells In Them And They Are Hid With Christ in God. Let Divisive Teachers Therefore Beware (3:16-23).
Paul now applies his building analogy to the idea of the Temple. When men seek to establish a religion they build a Temple. Well this is what God is also doing. On the foundation of Jesus Christ He is building His Temple, and this Temple is His people. It is not quite the same illustration. Previously the building being constructed was a general one (although the Temple could well have been called to mind) for Paul wanted the Corinthians to think of buildings that they knew. That building was God’s people (‘you are God’s building’ – 1Co 3:9) but the construction was pictured as being adorned with gold, silver, precious stones and so on. It was a picture of the church being adorned and established by the teaching and wisdom (either true or less true) of those who took responsibility for it. Now the building has become the whole people of God, established by God, in whom God has come to dwell by His Spirit.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Every Christian a temple of God:
v. 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
v. 17. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
v. 18. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.
v. 19. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
v. 20. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain. This is not merely a warning lest any of the readers find themselves sharing the fate of such whose efforts will not stand the test of the last day, but it is an arraignment of those who become destroyers of God’s house, whom therefore, in turn, God will destroy. To bring this out, Paul shows a different side of the picture: Do you not know that a temple of God you are, and that the Spirit of God lives in you? All Christians, being built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ and the apostles, have received the Holy Spirit, the Triune God, as the tenant of their hearts. Their hearts have become a shrine, a true temple, of the Godhead. And the underlying idea is that they all, because of this indwelling, together form the great temple of the invisible Church, the habitation of God through the Spirit. If, therefore, any person will corrupt, defile, desecrate the temple of God, this man will God destroy. If the agitators and false teachers in Corinth, if the errorists of all times, will persist in defiling the holy place of the pure temple of God in the individual Christian as well as in the Church as such, by a perversion of doctrine, by inciting wrangling and strife, then the wrath of God will strike them at last. For the holiness of God can never permit such a defilement to go unpunished; every injury of that kind is a desecration of the sanctity of the temple. And the added clause, “which you are,” reminds the Corinthians of the obligation which is imposed upon them by their sanctity; it urges them to be on a sharp lookout against the defilers of their temple, and not to permit the desecration to take place. The work in which they are engaged is a sacred work; they themselves are hallowed and consecrated to God; therefore they must watch over their sanctity with a jealous eye.
Since there was great danger that some of the Corinthian Christians might have been so thoroughly imbued with the glittering show of human wisdom in the work of the Church as not to heed the apostle’s warning, he adds another word. No one in their midst should deceive himself; no one should be involved in misapprehension and blindness; no one should presume willfully to know more concerning this matter than the apostle. If anyone among them had the idea that he was wise in the wisdom of this transitory world, he had better become a fool according to the standards of this world, for then only could he become wise in the sight of God. “Those who follow human wisdom exalt human masters at the expense of God’s glory, and there are teachers who lend themselves to this error and thus build unworthily on the Christian foundation, some who are even destroying, under a show of building, the temple of God. ” The power of the Word of God over the heart of man must be demonstrated in this way, that he places all the wisdom of this world at the disposal of the true wisdom from above, and that he rejects all wisdom which in any way conflicts with the revealed truth of the Bible, though he be mocked and derided a thousand times as a hopeless fool and as a narrow-minded bigot. For it is only by taking all human thoughts and opinions captive under the obedience of Christ that a person will be placed in the position that he may understand the wisdom of God in the Word of Salvation. In support of this St. Paul reaffirms what he has spoken of at length in chapter 1: For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; and as such it deserves only one fate, namely, to be cast aside as worthless before God. This statement the apostle substantiates by two passages from the Old Testament. In Job 5:13 it is said of the Lord: He that grips, catches, the wise in their own craftiness, their supposed wisdom. The wisdom of the world is here pictured as a craft, a subtle trade, which is carried on to the detriment of others. But God catches those that practice such cunning in their own wiles, thus showing how foolish their professions are. The second passage is from Psa 94:11: The Lord understands the arguings of the wise that they are futile. What is true of the vanity of human thoughts in general is true in particular of those that assume the leading position in the counsels of human philosophy. Whenever they leave the eternal truth of God’s Word, they become groundless, void of truth, and therefore full of folly.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
1Co 3:16. Know ye not that ye are the temple, &c. “I told you that ye are God’s building, 1Co 3:9. I now observe more than that;Ye are the temple of God, in which his Spirit dwells.” Many of the first ancient writers represent a holy mind as the temple of God, and speak in the highest and strongest terms of the obligations men are under to keep his temples inviolate and unpolluted. Indeed, we cannot conceive a more forcible argument for internal purity, than this, which leads us to consider our bodies as the temple of God, inhabited by his ever-blessed and most holy Spirit. The word rendered defile, in the next verse, more properly signifies destroy, and should be so read, to keep up the contrast. See Elsner, Wetstein, Calmet, and Ostervald’s useful treatise “on Uncleanness.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 3:16-17 . . . [544] ] could be regarded as said in proof of 1Co 3:15 (Billroth), only if Chrysostom’s interpretation of , or Schott’s modification of it (see on 1Co 3:15 ), were correct. [545] Since this, however, is not the case, and since the notion of , although limited by , cannot for a moment be even relatively included under the of 1Co 3:17 , because the is the very opposite of the (Gal 6:8 ), this mode of bringing out the connection must be given up. Were we to assume with other expositors that Paul passes on here from the teachers who build upon the foundation to such as are anti-Christian , “qui fundamentum evertunt et aedificium destruunt” (Estius and others, including Michaelis, Rosenmller, Flatt, Pott, Hofmann), we should in that case feel the want at once of some express indication of the destroying of the foundation , which, for that matter, did not take place in Corinth, and also, and more especially, of some indication of the relation of antithesis subsisting between this passage and what has gone before. The apostle would have needed at least, in order to be understood, to have proceeded immediately after 1Co 3:15 somewhat in this way: . . [546] No; in 1Co 3:16 we have a new part of the argument begun; and it comes in all the more powerfully without link of connection with the foregoing. Hitherto, that is to say, Paul has been presenting to his readers that he may make them see the wrong character of their proud partisan-conduct (1Co 4:6 ) the relation of the teachers to the church as an . But he has not yet set before their minds what sort of an . they are, namely, the temple of God (hence is emphatic). This he does now, in order to make them feel yet more deeply the criminality of their sectarian arrogance, when, after ending the foregoing discussion about the teachers, he starts afresh: Is it unknown to you [547] what is the nature of this building of God, that ye are God’s temple ? etc. The question is one of amazement (for the state of division among the Corinthians seemed to imply such ignorance, comp 1Co 5:6 , 1Co 6:15 f., 1Co 9:13 ; 1Co 9:24 ); and it contains, along with the next closely connected verse, the sudden, startling preface arresting the mind of the readers with its holy solemnity to the exhortation which is to follow, 1Co 3:18 ff.
] not: a temple of God , but the temple of God . For Paul’s thought is not (as Theodoret and others hold) that there are several temples of God (which would be quite alien to the time-hallowed idea of the one national temple, which the apostle must have had, see Philo, de monarch . 2, p. 634), but that each Christian community is in a spiritual way, sensu mystico, the temple of Jehovah, the realized idea of that temple, its . There are not, therefore, several temples, but several churches, each one of which is the same true spiritual temple of God. Comp Eph 2:21 ; Ignatius, ad Eph. 9; 1Pe 2:5 ; Barnab. 4; also regarding Christian persons individually, as in 1Co 6:19 , see Ignatius, ad Phil. 7. This accordingly is different from the heathen conception of pious men being temples (in the plural). Valer. Max. iv. 7. 1, al [550] , in Elsner and Wetstein.
] appends in how far ( being the explicative and ) they are . God, as He dwelt in the actual temple by the (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 2394), dwells in the ideal temple of the Christian church by the gracious presence, working and ruling in it, of His Spirit , in whom God communicates Himself; for the Spirit dwells and rules in the hearts of believers (Rom 8:9 ; Rom 8:11 ; 2Ti 1:14 ). But we are not on this ground to make refer to the individuals (Rckert and many others); for the community as such (1Co 3:17 ) is the temple (2Co 6:16 f.; Eph 2:21 f.; Eze 37:27 ).
did not need the article , which comes in only retrospectively in 1Co 3:17 , just because there is but one in existence. Comp 2Co 6:16 ; Eph 2:21 ; Wis 3:14 ; 2Ma 14:35 ; Sir 51:14 .
[544] . . . .
[545] This holds, too, against Ewald’s way of apprehending the connection here: Are any surprised that the lot of such a teacher should be so hard a one? Let them consider how sacred is the field in which he works.
[546] . . . .
[547] This lively interrogative turn of the discourse, frequent though it is in this Epistle, occurs only twice in the rest of Paul’s writings, namely, in Rom 6:16 ; Rom 11:2 .
[550] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
1Co 3:16-23 . Warning address to the readers , comprising (1) preparatory statement reminding them of the guilt of sectarian conduct as a destroying of the temple of God, 1Co 3:16-17 , verses which Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others quite mistakenly refer to the incestuous person; then (2) exhortation to put a stop to this conduct at its source by renouncing their fancied wisdom, 1Co 3:18-23 , and to give up what formed the most prominent feature of their sectarianism, the parading of human authorities, which was, in truth, utterly opposed to the Christian standpoint.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
VITHE RUPTURE OF THE CHURCH BY PARTY SPIRIT PROVOKES HEAVY JUDGMENT. THE RENUNCIATION OF OUR OWN WISDOM THE CONDITION OF TRUE WISDOM. THE LOFTY TITLE OF CHRISTIANS TO ALL THE INSTRUMENTALITIES AND MEANS OF SALVATION
1Co 3:16-23
16Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, [Gods temple15] and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17If any man defile [destroy] the temple of God, him16 shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are [of which sort are ye]. 18Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world,17 let him become a fool, that he may be [become] wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness 20with God: for it is written, He [that] taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 21Therefore let no man glory in men: for all things are yours; 22Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are [om. are18] yours; 23And ye are Christs; and Christ is Gods.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
[He passes to another argument against the sin of ranging themselves in opposite factions under human leaders, particularly such as corrupt the essential purity and fundamental soundness of the spiritual fabric of the Church. Words.].
1Co 3:16. Know ye not that ye are Gods temple?It will hardly do to connect these words directly with the precedingif for no other reason than simply because the threat of destruction made in the following verse stands in direct contradiction to the promise of salvation there held forth, showing that Paul has a new case in mind. [Olshausen, however, regards the Apostle as simply intensifying and carrying out still further his previous figure. The edifice is now spoken of as Gods temple, and the guilt of desecrating or injuring the building by introducing incoherent materials into its structure is enhanced in proportion. And still further, the taught as well as the teachers are also here brought into view. So substantially Hodge, Alf., Stanley; Calvin says more correctly: Having admonished the teachers as to their duty, he now addresses himself to the pupils]. : know ye not? This phrase is not to be confounded with : or know ye not?and it might very well serve to introduce a new turn of thought, indirectly suggested by what precedes. Thus far, Paul has contemplated the Church as a building belonging to God, and has exhibited the great responsibility attendant on the work of erecting it, after the only proper foundation has been laid. Now he describes its sacred character more fully by likening it to a temple inhabited by Gods Spirit, the violation of which incurs condign punishment. By the question: Know ye not? he appeals directly to the consciousness of Christians and intimates to his readers that in that spirit of partisanship which they cherished and which was so destructive to the integrity of the Church, there was a strange and criminal obscuration of true Christian feeling, inasmuch as they were conducting themselves just as if they possessed it not, and knew not what belonged to their profession. In the objective clause the emphasis lies on temple (), marking an advance upon the more indefinite term, building, used before. , according to its derivation, () means indeed a building in general. But the Greeks used the word only to denote the dwellings of gods, and especially that room where the image stood. [ is more holy than . Words.]. Here it denotes the spiritual sanctuary, the place where the true God reveals His presence, and bestows blessings, and is worshipped, forming one complete whole, and consisting of all such as carry in themselves the Spirit of God. This appears from the explanatory clause followingand (km explicative) that the Spirit of God dwells in you.Hence Christians are called a spiritual house (1Pe 2:5), also a habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph 2:22); comp. also 2Co 6:16 ff.; Rom 8:9; Rom 8:11; 2Ti 1:14; Eze 37:27, etc. , to reside permanently (comp. Joh 14:23.) The words , in you (not, among you), refers, like the statement: ye are the temple, to the Church, or to individual believers, not, however in their separate capacity, but in their organic connection. Here the law of all organization obtains, that every organ is a complete whole in itself. As Christendom unitedly is a temple of God, so is also every Christian congregation and every individual Christian. But as the whole is to be understood and apprehended only in its parts, so are the parts to be understood only as connected in the whole. The translation: the temple of God is by no means needed for the Bake of setting aside the idea of a plurality of temples. We can employ the rendering: a temple of God, simply as signifying the kind of building implied. [Meyer on the contrary more justly says: is the temple of God, not a temple, for Paul does not conceive of the various churches as various temples of God, which would be inconsistent with the Jews conception of Gods temple; but of each Christian church as in a mystic sense the temple of Jehovah. So there are not many temples, but one only, and many churches, each one of which is ideally the same temple of God. So Stanley and Alford].
1Co 3:17. If any one destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy.This is the first clause in an inference which rests upon the undoubted recognition of the inviolability of the temple of God, as maintained also in the Jewish Scriptures. All injuring, or desecrating, or even disturbing the sanctuary of Gods manifested presence, was deemed a sacrilege, which incurred the Divine vengeance. This is strongly indicated by the immediate succession of the same word in the two forms, and . If any the temple of God destroyeth, destroy him shall God. See a like case in Rev 22:18. The punishment here implied as related to the old temple was that of temporal death. Used, however, in relation to the spiritual temple, the word, in the first instance, signifies the rupturing of the Church by violent partisanship, which must finally end in its entire dissolution; and in the second instance, as indicating the consequent punishment, it denotes exclusion from salvation (), [Stanley says that , in the LXX. and in the New Testament, seems to have lost the sense of defile, and merely to retain that of mar or destroy. And so Hodge, who says the passage may be rendered If any man injure the temple of God, him will God injure. Olshausen goes still further: The connection shows that the word cannot be understood of absolute destruction. Probably the Apostle chose the strong word only on account of its having been used just before for the purpose of intimating that God would requite like with like. But such modification of its plain meaning is certainly contrary to the parallel which the Apostle introduces. The violater of the sanctuary of the ancient temple was unquestionably punished with death. And to preserve the analogy, we ought to maintain the word in its original signification].
Next follows the proof with the application of the penal principle just stated to the case in hand.For the temple of God is holy.It lies in the very idea of a temple that it is holy and inviolable, and that therefore all injury done to it is a crime.And of this sort are ye refers to the object generally as one of a class, and not definitely, thus serving to render a proposition general; here it means: of which sort, viz., holy. The antecedent here is not temple, but the adjective holy.19 That they were the temple of God he had already asserted in 1Co 3:16. Recurring to 1Co 1:1 he hereby awakens a feeling of reverence and a holy communion of Spirit in opposition to that unworthy servility engendered by a divisive regard for human authorities. Osiander. [Meyer well remarks that this clause is the minor proposition of a syllogism: Whoever mars the temple of God, him will God destroy, because His temple is holy: but ye are are also holy as His spiritual temple: therefore whoever mars you shall be destroyed by God. Alford].
1Co 3:18. The Apostle now proceeds to point out the real source of the mischief he rebukes. The rupture of the unity of the Church by a party spirit, sprang from a pride of knowledge, and a vain conceit of that wisdom which belonged to and this world, and not to Gods kingdom. This was especially the case with the party of Apollos, which the Apostle seems chiefly to have in his eye, throughout this chapter. As it took pride in Apollos, because of his dialectic and rhetorical skill and learning, and clung to these qualities in him, so also did it seek to imitate his manner, and signalized itself for laying a great stress upon secular wisdom, and for no little conceit in that respect. This tendency Paul denounces as unfounded in truth, and unsuited to such as strive for the kingdom of God. In his view it involves a self-deception, more or less gross, against which he felt constrained to warn them.Let no one deceive himself.The deception here consisted in a persons imagining himself to possess a profound insight into the truth and ways of God, when in fact he was utterly devoid of it, yea, was involved in entire misapprehension and gross blindness in reference to it. Such delusion passes away only when all conceit of wisdom is given up, and a person is willing to be regarded a fool, or consents to renounce all secular wisdom in the exercise of that simple faith which he before had regarded as folly, and which passes for folly with the world. And this is what the Apostle requires when he says:If any one thinketh to be wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. may mean either: to think, or to appear; hence the clause may here be translated, if any one passes for a wise man, either in his own estimation, or in others estimation. The former rendering is best sustained by what has been said before. Hence the exhoration, let him become a fool, must be understood as relating to his own, and not to others judgment, and in such a way that either the words , in his own esteem, shall besupplied; or that the person be regarded as passing over to a standpoint, which had until then appeared to him and to others like-minded as folly. The latter sense best suits the word. [And here it must be borne in mind that this renunciation of our own wisdom, or of the worlds wisdom, is required because all such wisdom is one only in appearance, and not in reality. It is its intrinsic worthlessness that renders it discreditable]. The phrase in this world, lit. in this age, is not to be united with the clause following, [as Origen, Chrysostom, Luther, Rosenmuller] as though it meant, let him become a fool in this world; the order of the words forbids this. But it belongs to wise, as designating the sphere where this wisdom prevails; q. d. wise in this world (comp. 1Co 3:19). [Alf. following Meyer says: it belongs not simply to wise, but to the whole clause going before; to the whole assumption of wisdom made by the man, which as made in this present world, must be false; for, adds Meyer, those very persons who thought to become eminent among Christians through their wisdom in this premessianic period, when the knowledge of Divine things is yet in its infancy, and exceedingly limited, were not really wise, but were ensnared by their own self-decit. Such a limitation, however, of the meaning of the word , age, here is very questionable. It is plain from the following verse, that this age is to be interpreted not temporally, but qualitatively, as synonymous with this world ()]. , among you, designates the sphere in which the person supposed hopes to shine by his wisdom.
1Co 3:19-20. Sustain the previous exhortation, and shows that in becoming a fool a person but coincides with Gods judgmentFor the wisdom of this world is foolishness with GodAs such, therefore, it deserves to be cast aside. Wisdom of this world (), comp. 1Co 1:21; 1Co 2:6. It is a wisdom ruled by the spirit of this world that oversteps its proper bounds, seeks to satisfy itself about divine and human things, is tainted with error, and therefore stands in direct opposition alike to the highest reason, and to God, and to great objects for which the world and man were created (). Osiander. [ is used with the Dative to express standing before a person as a judge, and submitting to his decision or sentence. Hence the expression before God carries a deeper meaning than simply in his sight. God has passed upon it and condemned it.]The proof of this.For it is written, He taking the wise in their own craftiness.This passage is cited from Job 5:13, and is a part of the speech of Eliphas. It accords with the original text, and agrees in sense with the Septuagint. [The phraseology of the latter, however, is changed for stronger terms, , catching for , taking and , craftiness for , prudence]. The sentence is incomplete, since Paul quotes only the words suited to his purpose, omitting those on which these grammatically depend. Hence they need no supplement. Human wisdom, art, cunning are here stated to be incapable of standing before the wisdom of God, since God catches those who rely on these aids, in their own craftiness, and the very excellencies on which they pride themselves, are turned into a snare through which they are entrapped. By thus causing them to be destroyed by their own devices, God shows them up to be nothing less than the veriest fools. This citation, the only one in the New Testament, taken from the book of Job, like much which Eliphas spoke, belongs to that wisdom which uttereth her voice in the streets, and is marked as here with the stamp of Divine truth.And again.The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain.This second passage, taken from Psa 94:11, was originally directed against those proud contemners of God, who acted as if there were no God above, observing and noting down all their unrighteous deeds. In accordance with the object he has in view, Paul here employs the word the wise, instead of men, as it stands both in the original Heb. and in the Sept. But this is no arbitrary alteration, since the whole Psalm treats of those vain sophists, who pride themselves on their perverse and groundless notions respecting God. in Hellenic speech, was used to denote all those capricious reasonings and reflections which either opposed Divine truth or tended to render it doubtful, comp. Rom 1:21; Eph 4:17. , groundless, void of truth, therefore, counter to wisdom, and belonging to folly. Whether this word in the original belongs to the wise themselves, or to their reasonings, is questionable. The essential meaning is the same in either case. [It appears from these two verses thus placed in juxtaposition, that St. Paul followed the LXX., but uses his own discretion in doing so, and sometimes substitutes for it a translation approaching more nearly the original. Words.].
1Co 3:21-23. From all this a warning is derived.So then.[This word is used by St. Paul to introduce the summing up and conclusion of his argument here and elsewhere in this Epistle, 1Co 3:7; 1Co 4:5; 1Co 8:33; 1Co 11:33; 1Co 14:39; 1Co 15:58.Words.] It serves even in classical writers to introduce an imperative clause when this follows upon another which contains the reason why such command is given. (Comp. Passow, ii. 2.) [Also Winer, N. T., Gr. Pt. 1Co 3:5, note 1; also Jelf. Gr. Gram. , 867, 1].Let no one glory in men.That is, so far as they set up for themselves, and rely on their natural powersnot as possessed of spiritual gifts and because of such. In the latter case the boasting would be in the Lord. The caution is addressed to those who are inclined to make much of men in consequence of their education or supposed wisdom, cleaving to them in partisan attachment, and disparaging other servants of Christ in comparison, to the overlooking of the unity of the Church. Such persons are guilty of putting the highest value on what is merely a natural advantage. And all such should be avoided by reflecting, that the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For this there was an additional reason:For all things are yours.Here he exhibits to us the dignity of Christians, [in contrast with the World and its folly], as persons who, by virtue of their union with Christ and, through Him, with God, are precluded from dependence on men, and have a direct claim on every thing Which belongs to God and Christ, so that all things serve their advantage and promote their exalted destiny (Rom 8:28)even as all things are compelled to serve Christ (Mat 21:3; Mat 27:60; Mat 11:27). As Neander well says: The sovereignty over the world was indeed conferred on man in his original estate. But this, being lost through sin, was restored again by redemption. The spirit which is bestowed on Christians, carries in itself a principle which every thing must eventually obey, and which will subjugate the world ever more and more, until at last the promise, that the meek shall inherit the earth, is fulfilled, and the world has become the theatre of the Divine kingdom. From the drift of the passage we may see the utter groundlessness of Billroths view, who supposes the warning here to be addressed to teachers, cautioning them against boasting on account of their partisans. In such a case, we should be obliged to interpret yours of the teachers, which would be impossible. It is to the Church in general that Paul is here speaking. Instead of glorying with a one-sided partiality, in the fact that, this or that person belonged to them as their master, he would have them maintain a blessed consciousness of the privilege, that all things and persons belonged to them alike.
What in particular these things were, he goes on to specify, beginning with the teachers whom they had made the occasion of their strifes.Whether Paul, or Apollos or Cephas.(Comp. 2Co 4:5.) Each one of these they were all to turn to their own advantage, instead of adhering to any one exclusively. Here he could not add, or Christ, for this would be to reduce Christ to the same footing with his servants. The Christ-party do not come into view here, and could hot, since their relation to the Apostles was only a negative one (comp. on 1Co 1:12).or the world.This leap from Peter to the whole world gives a sudden breadth to the discourse, as if he were borne on with a sort of impatience to set forth his theme in its fullest scope.Bengel. Comp. Rom 8:38. There is here neither a climax, as if he were proceeding upward from the lowest point, nor an argument from the less to the greater, [as Calvin, when he says: If Christ has subjected to you also the world and life and death, how much more men, so that they should serve rather than rule you?] Nor is the term world to be understood as denoting: the university of the learned; nor yet: the knowledge of all natural things wherein the learned boast; nor: unbelieving teachers as contrasted with the aforementioned believing ones; nor: all the rest of mankind. But the word is to be taken in its most comprehensive sense; Christians, who are the destined heirs of the world (Rom. 4:38), have even now a claim upon the world. It belongs to them. It must serve them. Yet in order not to make the term synonymous with the expression: all things (1Co 3:21) we shall have to limit it (with Osiander) to mean the visible world, with a special reference to mankind dwelling in it. [The present order of things, says Hodge, is maintained and directed to the promotion of the great work of redemption. And Barnes well expands the thought, the world is yours, under four particulars: (1) The world was made by the common Father, and all His children have an interest in it as His work. (2) The frame of the universe is sustained and upheld for their sake. (3) The course of providential events is ordered for their welfare. (4) They have the promise of as much of this world as is needful for them (Mat 6:33; Mar 10:29-30; 1Ti 4:8)]. With this view the following members of the sentence best accord.There we have indicated the most momentous states and changes belonging to this visible sphere.or life, or death.The former expresses the fullest exercise of all our vital energies in all its varied influence and bearings; the latter denotes the entire suppression of this activity. And both these must promote the advantage of believers and help onward their salvation. [They are dispensed and administered so as best to fulfil the designs of God in reference to the Church. The greatest men of the world, kings, statesmen and heroes, ministers, individual believers and unbelievers, live and die just as best subserves the interest of Christs kingdom.Hodge. Life is yours: (1) Because believers enjoy it. It is a real life, not vain show. (2) Because its various events tend to promote their welfare and work together for their good. Death is yours: (1) Because believers have peace and support in their dying hour. (2) Because it is the avenue which leads to their rest. (3) Because they should triumph over it, in that it will be swallowed up in the glory of a higher life, releasing us from what is mortal to put on immortality.Barnes.]Or things present or things to come.These terms alike refer to the present life, and include all its vicissitudes from the passing moment onward, whether joyful or sorrowful.All are yours.A summing up and emphatic reassertion of what he opened with. And from this he passes on to state the ground on which Christians possess such wealth; But ye are Christs.[Here the category changes; Christ is not yours in the sense in which all things arenot made for and subserving youbut () you are His.Alford]. It is this fact which gives to believers their royal power over all creaturely existences. By partaking in Christs redemption, they once more attain unto a dignity which originally belonged to man (Gen 1:26; Psa 8:6) and which is promised Gods people (Exo 19:6). And this is a dignity far transcending all that ever was surmised by Pagans or is expressed in their most famous sayingssuch as: the wise alone are kingsare richare free, The analogousness of such language to that of the New Testament indicates the remaining traces of the nobility of human nature; but without Gospel redemption the dignity of man thus set forth would be wholly unrealized. Antiquity planted itself upon self-exaltation, Christianity on self-humiliation.Neander. (Comp. 1Co 2:15; 1Jn 5:1; Rev 3:21; 1Pe 2:9). By belonging to Christ, the Church and all its true members become partakers of his glory as the One to whom all things have been given by the Father. In their fellowship with Hima fellowship involving entire dependence on their parkthey are made independent of all else, and all else stands at their service. By the fact expressed in: ye are Christs, all partizanship is cut off, all generic differences are dissolved, and a proper relation to all teachers established. Meyer says finely that the active relation of possession mentioned in 1Co 3:22 (all things are yours) and the passive relation of being possessed here brought out (ye are Christs) are both alike opposed to the disorders arising from subservience to human authorities. We may, perhaps, detect here a slight intimation intended for the Christ party, that in their partisan appeal to Christ there was an ignoring of that connection which all alike sustained to Him, and a disparaging levelling of their Lord to an equality with human leaders.But Christ is Gods.[And even being Christs does not reach the highest possession: He possesses you not for Himself, but (, again) the head of Christ is God, (1Co 11:3).Alford.] Thus it is shown that by belonging to Christ we indirectly belong to God, and are planted upon an immovable basis of independence and power (comp. Joh 10:28-30). And so, on the one hand, we see our union to God to be mediated by Christ, and, on the other, that Christ is subordinated to the Father, as shown in 1Co 11:3. To consider this subordination however as belonging solely to His human nature, would not accord with a correct view of the whole subject. It is the whole Christ that is here spoken of, and that too not simply as in His state of humiliation, but also in His state of glory (comp. 1Co 15:28; Php 2:9). In His essential equality with God, He is at the same time subordinated to God (comp. Joh 5:23-26; Joh 14:28; Joh 17:8). [There is, says Alford, a striking similarity in the argument in this last verse to that in our Lords prohibition, Mat 23:8-10, But be not ye called Rabbi, for one is your Master, even Christ; and call no man your father upon earth, for one is your Father, who is in heaven.]. This last clause gives to the whole course of thought a most exalted close, and to the argument presented its strongest and noblest foundation, and rounds off the whole paragraph by a most fitting allusion to the idea of the one holy temple of God with which it opened (1Co 3:16, comp. 1Co 3:9), in order to show Christians that by virtue of their union to God through Christ they are really taught of God.Osiander.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The sacredness and inviolability of the Church. It is Gods temple. If so, then it is the place of His gracious presenceHis sanctuary, to be treated with tender reverence and awe. To introduce strange fire (Lev 10:1-2) into it is a sacrilege which incurs the heaviest judgment, even an exclusion from the communion of saints. Of this crime they are guilty who bring into the Church some other authority than that of Gods word, and pin their faith to something else than that which God has given, and prize another wisdom beside that which is in Christ. By such conduct the Church is desecrated, and robbed of its true character as the temple of God. In fact it is as such destroyed. And this occurs whenever party spirit prevails. In such a case mans word and wisdom usurp the place of Gods word and wisdom. Then adhesion to some particular human leader is made a test of Christianity and a condition of brotherhood. Then Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, etc., (1Co 1:30), is crowded out of His supremacy. In place of this one holy image of God, the only proper pattern for believers, there comes in the idol of some human personality to be copied as the true standard of character, and this not for the sake of any resemblance it may bear to Christ, but for the sake of some natural peculiarities it may happen to possess. Instead of the flame of a holy love kindled by the Spirit and warming toward all, there burns the Are of human partialities, which begets alienation and hostility towards all who do not cherish like preferences; and when such are the results of party spirit, it must be seen that he who engenders or furthers this spirit mars the work of God, and desecrates His sanctuary. And can such a person hope to escape condign punishment from Him who is thus insulted in His own temple?
2. The Christians regal glory in its nature and grounds. All things are yours and ye are Christs, and Christs is Gods. Since God is love itself, He keeps nothing for Himself, but imparts to others allyea, His very Being in the fulness of its perfections and blessedness. This He does in an original and eternal way within the sphere of the Godhead, to his only-begotten Son, who, by virtue of this communication, is, has, and can do every thing the same as the Father. He does it also in an indirect manner towards all creatures made in His image, according to their measure. Hence the appointment of man to lordship in his own province. [This lordship he indeed lost by reason of sin, and became the slave of the circumstances which he ought to have ruled. But in the work of redemption it has been restored to him through the interposition of this Son, who became the second Adam, and, in His assumed humanity, reestablished this supremacy for all who should believe on Him. Fear not, He says to His own, for I have overcome the world. Hence it is] in Christ that we see this appointment to Lordship actually fulfilled; and how it was fulfilled may be seen, both during His life of humiliation, when He controlled all things by the word of His power, and in His exaltation to universal power and authority at the right hand of God. In this power believers are now invited to share by union with Him. Through Him the whole creation stands subject to their disposal. Every thing He has is made to subserve the purposes of His love in them and promote their sanctification and glory.
But since now, for a period, their life is, to a certain degree, hid with Christ in God, so also is their power. Nevertheless this power is to be experienced even here in striking ways, and ever more and more through the prevalence of their prayers. And the terms on which they receive it show the ground on which it rests, viz.: the fellowship had with Christ, and through Him with God. Prevailing prayers are such as are offered in the name of Christ or according to the will of God (Joh 14:13 f.;Joh 17:23; 1Jn 2:14), or as are presented in faith (Mat 17:20). In them there is an identifying of ourselves with God through Christ, so that all private preferences are given up, and we keep ourselves in exclusive dependence on Him. Besides, as in Christ Himself there was manifested this same demeanor towards the Father; as He, the Divinely equal Son, kept Himself in perfect dependence on God, and determined to be nothing else but the revealer and executor of the Fathers will; as He, the first man, was obliged to qualify Himself for the exercise of Divine power in the way of obedience,just so it is with believers. Their voluntary and complete dependence on Christ and through Him on God is the condition and source of their all embracing power. The fact that they belong to Him is the ground that all things belong to them.
[3. All sound title and right to use the creatures of God, together with the ability to use them to advantage, are conditioned on faith in Christ. He, having by His obedience recovered for man his lost sovereignty, makes those who believe on Him joint heirs with Him to this inheritance. And He also imparts to them that purity by which all things are pure to them. Hence to them every creature of God is good, when received with thanksgiving and sanctified with the word of God and prayer. And in the ordering of His providence all things are made to work together for their good. Not so is it with the wicked. A kind of natural right to possession and use they may indeed have in the present condition of things; butit is under Gods toleration and only for a time. If they continue unbelieving to the last, they are finally despoiled of all. While even in this life the good they seem to have is no real good, and nothing is pure, since even their very mind and conscience is defiled. This is what Origen seems to teach. All things belong to the saint. The whole world is the possession of faith. But the unbeliever has no claim to even an obolus; for the goods which he has he holds as a robber, since he knows neither how to use them nor yet the God that made them. (Taken in substance from Wordsworth)].
4. [Christ is Gods. On the subordination of Christ to the Father, see on 1Co 8:6 and 1Co 11:3].
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Starke:To be the temple of God, inhabited by the Holy Spirit, is the highest dignity of Christians. It ennobles the humblest to a greatness that far surpasses all secular honor and glory. The Spirit dwells in us: 1, through faith in Christ; 2, through peace with God; 3, through hope; 4, through love; 5, through special gifts and powers; 6, through comfort, cheer, patience, joy in the cross; 7, through true life in the soul, continuing even when it passes out of the body; which itself also partakes of this life, whether it be in this or in the future state, (Selnecker) 1Co 3:16.How fearful the woe which awaits those who mislead and destroy souls, either by false doctrines or by an ungodly life (1Co 3:17).Let him become a fool. What a paradox! A fool firstthen wise! The world seeks to be wise and then becomes foolish. But what is this becoming a fool? Not the losing of our understanding and will, [but the confession of ignorance, the avowal of our knowing nothing, that we may be willing to be taught, so as truly to know every thing] (1Co 3:18).God sometimes lets the wise run their course, accumulate their knowledge, construct their cunning systems, so as at last to be caught as in a snare by their own devices, and be the more thoroughly convinced of their folly. [Few are so profoundly sensible of the incompetency of the human intellect and the meagreness of human attainments as those who have most profoundly and honestly explored and discussed the great problems of nature, humanity and God] (1Co 3:19). The Church is not for the teachers, that it should be subject to them and called by their names; but they are for it, to serve its welfare and build it up. Hence no man or set of men has power over Christians to prescribe laws for them and bind their consciences. Let no one therefore choose a mere man for his guiding star unconditionally, or follow his lead blindly; much less should any one count himself blessed in having adopted this one rather than that as the controller of his life and conscience. Nor yet let him provoke dissensions and divide the Church by asserting his partialities to an undue extent (1Co 3:21).All things are yours[all true Christian teachers of every name, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or Calvin, or Wesley, or Leighton, or Fuller. Every faithful minister profits the whole Church; and every member of the Church may and ought to derive benefit from the teachings of all. It is thus the mind is expanded beyond party limits into a true Catholicity]. And this world,sun, air, water, fire, earth, all stand at your service, and ye can use them and praise the Creator for them. Your natural life, too, preserved by this worlds goods, [is, while preserved, for your advantage, even though it may be passed amid pains, and privations, and disabilities, that seem worse thin death]. Finally, death is yours, as it opens an entrance into eternal blessedness and glory (1Co 3:22).Ye are Christs. He has bought you with His blood, and is your proper Lord and Master. He is the Headyou, the members. Hence cleave to Him only. Be called after him only. Christ is Gods, as the appointed Mediator and Ambassador of God to men. Likewise, as Head of the Church, He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and acted ever in the Fathers service and to His glory (1Co 3:23).
Heubner:The indwelling of the Spirit is opposed to all party strife. Hence in moments of holy inspiration, [in times of religious awakening], sectarianism melts, [and the hearts of believers of every name flow together], 1Co 3:16.The conceit of our own unimpeachable wisdom is self-deceit or self-betrayal (1Co 3:18).The wisdom which would know nothing of God and would discard a Saviour, will be finally exposed by God in all its nakedness, and all its aims baffled and punished (1Co 3:19).To be proud of our own denomination or of our own leaders is nothing but a concealed self-love, which seeks to shine in the glory of another. And this is derogatory to the Christian name, for the believer is servant to no man (1Co 3:21).Since all things are ours through Christ, all things should conduct the Christian to Christ. [Failing in this, their use and enjoyment become so far prejudicial and unlawful. They are then not properly ours]. (1Co 3:22).Ye are Christs, then ye should serve Him, even as He, the image of God, served God in all things and conducted all to God (1Co 3:23.)
W. F. Besser:
1Co 3:18. Be not deceived. Self-deception is an injurious thing; it renders much labor useless, and despoils us of our reward. But worst of all is that self-betrayal which hardens the heart against brotherly admonition.Let him become a fool. Such is the power and wonder working of Gods word, that it moves me to become an enemy to myself; and to empty myself of all that which best pleases my flesh; and to become a fool in this world, to give up the reputation of being a sagacious man, who moves on with the party of progress, and stands upon the apex of the civilization of the time; and so to pass into obscurity and contempt.(1Co 3:19). God weaves a snare for the wise out of their own craftiness, wherein he catches them while they think to slip from Him by their arts: e. g., explaining away His miracles through their rationalism.(1Co 3:21). The building here does not belong to the builders but the builders to the building.
1Co 3:22 as compared with 1Co 1:12. Christ does not stand in the second rank with His servants. He is the Lord of Glory. The declaration all is yours promises the world to Christians preminently in this sense, that all secular art and service help to furnish mortar for building the temple of God. Christians are called not to curse the world, but to overcome and rule it for God. The world is nothing but a scaffolding that will be broken up when it has served its end in assisting to construct Gods house. But this house, which is destined to be eternal, are we.All this worlds wisdom is folly with God, if it insists in playing the mistress in His house; but if it act the part of handmaid, it is in its place.(1Co 3:23). Though Christ may employ His servants for bringing all those who have been purchased by His blood to become His by faith; still the saints thus called hang upon Christ, independently of any man, just as needles are drawn and held by the power of the magnet, even though some other needle, which had been first attracted, should sustain them by virtue of the magnetic power streaming through it.
[Barnes: 1Co 3:20. Words of the wise, vain. This admonition especially applicable to ministers. They are in peculiar danger on this subject, and it has been by their yielding themselves so much to the power of speculative philosophy that parties have been formed in the Church, and that the Gospel has been so much corrupted].
[J. Barrow: 1Co 3:16. The Divinity of the Holy Ghost. I. His nature and originalthe Spirit of God. II. His personalityHe dwelleth in us. III. His DivinityChristians are called the temple of God because He dwelleth in them. IV. His sanctifying virtuein that he constitutes us temples by His presence in us. Application. 1. We are obliged to render all adoration to the majesty of the Divine Spirit. 2. The consideration of His presence and work should awaken devoutest gratitude. 3. We should desire and pray for Gods Spirit. 4. We should demean ourselves worthily toward the Spirit. 5. The doctrine full of comfort and encouragement.J. Howe:
1Co 3:16. The Christian a living temple, I. built, and II. inhabited, by the Holy Ghost.See this whole subject largely discussed in Howes works, pp. 77113.R. South:
1Co 3:19. Worldly wisdom. I. Principles: a. Dissimulation in concealment or false pretences; b. Self-interest as opposed to conscience or religion; c. Self, the chief end; d. All its beneficence and gratitude are practiced with an eye to advantage. II. The folly and absurdity of these principles: a. The end pitched upon not suited to mans condition, either as to duration or rational nature; b. The means pitched upon are unsuited to his end, inasmuch as they are insufficient and often contrary to it].
Footnotes:
[15]1Co 3:16.[Gods should stand first as in the Gr. to mark the emphasis].
[16]1Co 3:17.. Lach., Tisch., and others read according to many and in part weighty authorities [A. D. F. Syr.]. Meyer: , because after in the protasis is most usually employed, and it was corrected to this as more usual. [So Alf., Words., and others following B. C. L. Cod. Sin.].
[17]1Co 3:18.[The proper order is, If any one thinketh to be wise among you in this world. See exegesis].
[18]1Co 3:17. is to be omitted according to preponderant authorities [A. B. C. D. F. Cod. Sin.].
[19]Hodge prefers the rendering of the E. V. which follows that of all the previous English versions, as well as the Syriac, Vulgate and Lathers. And this rendering is sustained by Jelf. Gr. Gram. 816. 7, 821. 3. The plural in is to be explained on the principle of attraction.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1947
THE DANGER OF DEFILING GODS TEMPLE
1Co 3:16-17. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
EVERY passion of the human mind should be called forth in aid of vital godliness. The saints indeed are more influenced by considerations that excite their love and gratitude: but they still need to be sometimes impressed with truths that may awaken a holy fear and jealousy, especially when their conduct has been such as to deserve reproof. The Corinthians were in a high degree culpable on account of their contentions: the Apostle therefore warns them of the consequences of acting in a manner so unworthy of their profession.
In discoursing on his words, we shall consider,
I.
The acknowledged privilege of Christians
Christians, like the temple of old, are the habitation of God
[The temple was the place where God dwelt in a more especial manner. Not only was the visible symbol of his presence there, but there also he manifested himself to his people in tokens of his love and communications of his grace. Thus does he also now reveal himself in his church [Note: Eph 2:20-22.]: yea, every individual believer is thus consecrated to his service, and honoured as his immediate residence [Note: 2Co 6:16.].]
Nor is this a doubtful, but a clear acknowledged, privilege
[Ignorant people may doubt whether there be any Holy Ghost [Note: Act 19:2.]: but true Christians know him, and know themselves to be his habitation. St. Paul frequently appealed to the Corinthians respecting this, not imagining that any one of them could entertain a doubt of it [Note: Compare with the text, 1Co 6:19 and 2Co 13:5.]. They must have often read of it in the Jewish scriptures [Note: Neh 9:20. Isa 66:1-2.] Often too must they have heard it from him: nor could they fail of knowing it from their own experience. If for an instant they reflected on the light, the strength, the consolations with which they had been favoured, they could not but ascribe them to the agency of Gods Spirit and consequently they must be conscious of his dwelling in them as in his temple. Believers at this day have certainly not less grounds for drawing the same inference with respect to themselves: for they also are a spiritual house [Note: 1Pe 2:4-5.]; and therefore they may, and should, know, that they are in the actual enjoyment of this privilege.]
But as this privilege is attended both with duties and dangers, let us consider,
II.
The declaration founded upon it
God denounces the heaviest judgments against those who abuse this privilege
[He would not suffer any unclean person to enter into his temple of old, however free he might be from moral pollution, or however ignorantly he might have contracted his ceremonial defilement [Note: Num 19:13.]. These ordinances were intended to shew, that sin of any kind, and much more such as now prevailed among the Christians at Corinth, was extremely hateful in his sight: such purity does he require in all that come nigh unto him. Doubtless there are errors, both in faith and practice, which, though injurious to his peoples happiness [Note: ver. 15.], will not destroy the relation that subsists between him and them [Note: ver. 1215.]: but, if they be of such a kind as to affect the foundation of the Christians hope, or greatly to dishonour the superstructure, they will surely bring down the divine judgments on all who harbour them [Note: , must import such a degree of defilement as has a tendency to destroy; because the destruction menaced is also expressed by the word .]. This is declared respecting every kind of open immorality [Note: 1Co 6:18.]: but it is declared also, with very remarkable force and energy, respecting any departure from the principles of the Gospel, or any declension from a life of entire devotedness to God. St. Paul says to these very Corinthians, I fear, lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so any of you should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ [Note: 2Co 11:3. .]. Why does he use the term corrupted? Why does he not say, turned from the simplicity that is in Christ? Why does he use the very same word as in my text is translated by the terms defile, and destroy? No doubt he intended to shew us, that any great departure from Christian principles would corrupt, defile, and destroy the soul: and it is a fact, that such a dereliction of Christian simplicity does proceed from corruption in the soul, and will generate corruption in the life. This idea is strongly confirmed by what the Apostle elsewhere says of those who propagate specious errors, being vainly puffed by their fleshly mind [Note: Col 2:18.]. They do, in reality, the devils work [Note: The text.]; and him they serve under the semblance of an angel of light [Note: 2Co 11:13-14.]. Beware then of his devices, of whatever kind they be, lest ye bring upon yourselves destruction from the Lord.]
This denunciation is even founded on the privilege itself
[Why was God so jealous of the honour of his temple, but because it was his immediate residence? the more nearly it was connected with him, the more was he himself dishonoured by any pollutions introduced into it. Thus we also, instead of having any reason to hope for impunity on account of our relation to him, are taught to expect rather the heavier indignation, if we provoke the eyes of his glory [Note: Amo 3:2.]. He may not indeed depart instantly and at once; because he is long-suffering as in the days of old. In forsaking his temple at Jerusalem, he removed to the threshold of the temple first [Note: Eze 9:3; Eze 10:4.], and then to the court of the temple [Note: Eze 10:18.], and then to the door of the east gate [Note: Eze 10:19.], and then to the mountain [Note: Eze 11:23.], that very Mount of Olives, from whence Jesus, the brightness of his Fathers glory, and the express image of his person, afterwards took his departure from the midst of them. So he may be often grieved by us before he finally departs from us: but we may so resist his sacred motions as ultimately to quench them [Note: Gen 6:3. 1Th 5:19.]: and then he will abandon us to our utter ruin [Note: 2Ch 15:2. Eze 18:24. 2Pe 2:22.].]
Improvement
1.
Let us seek to possess this great privilege
[As to be visited by an earthly monarch would be a higher honour than to be admitted into his palace, so to have God dwelling in our hearts on earth is even a higher honour than to be admitted into his temple above. Shall we not then be solicitous to obtain it? when God has designed that we should even know ourselves possessed of it, and enjoy all the happiness arising from it, shall we treat it with contempt, as a mere phantom of a heated imagination? Let us open wide the doors of our hearts, that the King of glory may enter in [Note: Psa 24:7.]. With the Spirit of God dwelling in us, we shall have all good things [Note: Luk 11:13. with Mat 7:11.], peace, joy, strength, purity, yea, an earnest and foretaste of our heavenly inheritance [Note: Eph 1:13-14.]. Let us never cease from our importunity till we have obtained from our God this unspeakable gift [Note: 2Co 9:15.].]
2.
Let us be careful lest we abuse this privilege
[Doctrines arising from human systems, even though they be true in themselves, must never be pressed into the service of sin, or be brought to enervate the force of declarations, which, though apparently opposite, are equally clear and true.
If some truths are revealed for the confirming of our stability, others are intended to create within us a holy jealousy. Instead therefore of attempting to invalidate the declaration before us, let us flee from those defilements which alone can make it formidable. Let us maintain that purity of heart which God requires, and study to be holy as God is holy. Especially must we guard against abusing our privilege by enthusiastic conceits on the one hand, or presumptuous confidence on the other. The Spirits operations do not supersede our efforts, but rather encourage them, and work by them [Note: Php 2:12-13.]: yet are they not to be discerned, except, like the wind, by their effects [Note: Joh 3:8.]. Let your life, then, testify that God is with you of a truth. And I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be sanctified wholly, and preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [Note: 1Th 5:23.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(16) Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (17) If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (18) Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. (19) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. (20) And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. (21) Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; (22) Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; (23) And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
The Apostle is carrying on the same similitude of a building, in allusion to the Church of Christ, when he demands of the Corinthians, whether they knew not, that as a Church, founded in Christ, and united to Christ, they were the temple of God. And it must be confessed, that it is a beautiful similitude. For, as the human nature of Christ became the temple for his Godhead, and in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; so the divine nature may be said to have made the bodies of his people his temple, for his in-dwelling habitation, when by the gracious work of regenerating, illuminating, converting, comforting, sanctifying, and in short, all the operations of the Holy Ghost, the Lord dwells in them, and walks in them; manifests himself to be their God, and they his People. See Lev 26:11-12 ; Eze 37:26-27 ; 2Co 6:16 ; Eph 2:20 to the end; 1Pe 2:4-5 .
I do not think it necessary to offer any comment upon what the Apostle hath observed, on the sure destruction of the unregenerate, which defile the Lord’s temple, with their false doctrines, and will-worship. But I would beg the Reader to remark with me, how blessedly in the close of this Chapter, the Holy Ghost, by the Apostle, calls off the Church from everything, whether ministers or people, men or things, to fix the soul wholly on Christ. All are yours he saith, things present, or to come; all are yours, because ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. Reader! behold the security, the everlasting security of the faithful! As Christ is the sent, the sealed, the anointed of Jehovah, God’s Christ, God’s chosen, God’s salvation to the ends of the earth : so Christ and his Church being one, in the divine mind, will, and pleasure; all are the Church’s in Christ, being one with Christ, and deriving all from Christ. So that if Christ be mine, all is mine. His blood to cleanse, his righteousness to justify, his holiness to sanctify. Christ and his fulness, Christ and his all-sufficiency, lies at the bottom of all mercies. And, when it be considered, the greatness of his Person, and the glories of his salvation, the infinite nature of his blood-shedding and perfection, and the infinite merit of his work and righteousness; here is enough for a child of God to live upon, in time, and to all eternity. Jesus gives a fulness of blessedness, and a fulness of duration, to all that He is in himself, and to his Church and people forever. His presence sweetens all, sanctifies all, gives a blessedness to all; and makes all completely blessed. All are your’s, and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Ver. 16. Ye are the temple of God ] Not God’s building only, as1Co 3:91Co 3:9 , but his temple. A mud wall may be made up of anything, not so the walls of a temple or palace, that must have other materials.
And that the Spirit of God, &c. ] Next to the love of Christ indwelling in our nature, we may wonder at the love of the Holy Ghost, that will dwell in our defiled souls. (Dr Sibbs on Eph 4:30 ) Let our care be to wash the pavement of this temple with our tears, to sweep it by repentance, to beautify it with holiness, to perfume it with prayers, to deck it with humility, to hang it with sincerity. Delicata res est Spiritus Dei; A sumptuous person is the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost will dwell in a poor, so it be a pure house. Religion loves to lie clean, as was a grave speech of an ancient saint.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
16 23. ] The figure is taken up afresh and carried further: and made the occasion of solemn exhortation, since they were the temple of God, not to mar that temple, the habitation of His Spirit, by unholiness, or by exaltation of human wisdom: which last again was irrelevant, as well as sinful; for all their teachers were but their servants in building them up to be God’s temple, yea all things were for this end, to subserve them, as being Christ’s, by the ordinance, and to the glory of God the Father .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
16. ] The foregoing figures, with the occasion to which they referred, are now dropped, and the recalled, to do further service. This building is now, as in Mal 3:1 , and as indeed by implication in the foregoing verses, the temple of God ( , with emphasis on , not ), the habitation of His Spirit .
Are ye ignorant that an expression of surprise arising out of their conduct.
= , , .
Meyer rightly remarks, that “ is the temple of God, not a temple of God: for Paul does not conceive (as Theodoret, al.) of the various churches as various temples of God, which would be inconsistent with a Jew’s conception of God’s temple, but of each Christian church as, sensu mystico, the temple of Jehovah . So there would be, not many temples, but many churches, each of which is, ideally, the same temple of God.” And, we may add, if the figure is to be strictly justified in its widest acceptation, that all the churches are built together into one vast temple: cf. , Eph 2:22 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 3:16-17 . However poor his work, the workman of 1Co 3:15 built upon Christ. There are cases worse than his, and to the alternatives of 1Co 3:14 f. the Ap. has a third to add in the of 1Co 3:17 . Beside the good and ill builders, who will gain or lose reward, there are destroyers of the house, whom God will destroy ; the climax of the , 1Co 3:10 . Gd [601] well explains the absence of connecting particles between 1Co 3:15-16 , a “brusque transition” due to the emotion which seizes the Apostle’s heart at the sight of “workmen who even destroy what has been already built”; hence the lively apostrophe and the heightened tone of the passage. The challenge ; is characteristic of this Ep. (see parls.), addressed to a Church of superior knowledge (1Co 1:5 , 1Co 8:1 ). For the form , of the , see Wr [602] , pp. 102 f. The expression (see parls.) accentuates the , expounded since 1Co 3:9 : “Do you not know that you are (a building no less sacred than) God’s temple? ” Not “a temple of God,” as one of several; to P. the Church was the spiritual counterpart of the Jewish Temple, and every Church embodied this ideal. For the anarthrous (predicative) phrase, cf. , 1Co 6:9 , and see note on 1Co 2:4 . (see parls.) denotes the shrine , where the Deity resides; (1Co 9:13 , etc.), the sanctuary , the temple at large, with its precincts. is not repeated with the second half of the question, , the two propositions being virtually one; God’s temple in Christian men is constituted by the indwelling of His Spirit: “and (that) the Spirit of God dwells in you?” cf. Eph 2:21 , also 1Pe 2:5 . The same relationship is expressed by other figures in 1Co 12:5 , Eph 4:4 , etc. So the O.T. congregation of the Lord had for its centre the Shekinah in the Holy Place: Isa 6 , Eze 37:27 ; cf. 2Co 6:16 ff. This truth is applied to the Christian person in 1Co 6:19 .
[601] F. Godet’s Commentaire sur la prem. p. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).
[602] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).
“If any one destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him” talione justissima (Bg [603] ). On the form of hypothesis, see 1Co 3:14 . signifies to corrupt morally, deprave (injure in character ), 1Co 15:33 , 2Co 11:3 , as well as to waste, damage (injure in being : see parls.) mutually implied in a spiritual building. This Church was menaced with destruction from the immoralities exposed in chh. 5, 6, and from its party schisms (1Co 3:1-3 ), both evils fostered by corrupt teaching. The figure is not that of Levitical defilement ( nowhere means to pollute a holy place); this is a structural injury, to be requited in kind. closes the warning, with awful emphasis ( cf. 1Th 4:6 , Rom 12:19 ); God is bound to protect His temple ( cf. Psalms 46, 48, 74, Isa 27:3 ; Isa 64:10 ff.). The injury is a desecration: “for the temple of God is holy, which (is what) you are ”. The added clause reminds the Cor [604] at once of the obligations their sanctity imposes (see notes on , , , 1Co 1:2 ; cf. 1Pe 2:5 ), and of the protection it guarantees (2Co 6:14 ff., 2Th 2:13 ; Joh 10:29 ; Isa 43:1-4 , etc., Zec 2:8 ). , the qualitative relative, refers to more than to , and is predicate (see Wr [605] , pp. 206 f.) with for subject.
[603] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.
[604]
[605] Winer-Moulton’s Grammar of N.T. Greek (8th ed., 1877).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 Corinthians
TEMPLES OF GOD
1Co 3:16
The great purpose of Christianity is to make men like Jesus Christ. As He is the image of the invisible God we are to be the images of the unseen Christ. The Scripture is very bold and emphatic in attributing to Christ’s followers likeness to Him, in nature, in character, in relation to the world, in office, and in ultimate destiny. Is He the anointed of God? We are anointed-Christs in Him. Is He the Son of God? We in Him receive the adoption of sons. Is He the Light of the world? We in Him are lights of the world too. Is He a King? A Priest? He hath made us to be kings and priests.
Here we have the Apostle making the same solemn assertion in regard to Christian men, ‘Know ye not that ye are’-as your Master, and because your Master is-’that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’
Of course the allusion in my text is to the whole aggregate of believers-what we call the Catholic Church, as being collectively the habitation of God. But God cannot dwell in an aggregate of men, unless He dwells in the individuals that compose the aggregate. And God has nothing to do with institutions except through the people who make the institutions. And so, if the Church as a whole is a Temple, it is only because all its members are temples of God.
Therefore, without forgetting the great blessed lesson of the unity of the Church which is taught in these words, I want rather to deal with them in their individual application now; and to try and lay upon your consciences, dear brethren, the solemn obligations and the intense practical power which this Apostle associated with the thought that each Christian man was, in very deed, a temple of God.
It would be very easy to say eloquent things about this text, but that is no part of my purpose.
I. Let me deal, first of all, and only for a moment or two, with the underlying thought that is here-that every Christian is a dwelling-place of God.
All creatures have God dwelling in them in the measure of their capacity. The stone that you kick on the road would not be there if there were not a present God. Nothing would happen if there were not abiding in creatures the force, at any rate, which is God. But just as in this great atmosphere in which we all live and move and have our being, the eye discerns undulations which make light, and the ear catches vibrations which make sound, and the nostrils are recipient of motions which bring fragrance, and all these are in the one atmosphere, and the sense that apprehends one is utterly unconscious of the other, so God’s creatures, each through some little narrow slit, and in the measure of their capacity, get a straggling beam from Him into their being, and therefore they are.
But high above all other ways in which creatures can lie patent to God, and open for the influx of a Divine Indweller, lies the way of faith and love. Whosoever opens his heart in these divinely-taught emotions, and fixes them upon the Christ in whom God dwells, receives into the very roots of his being-as the water that trickles through the soil to the rootlets of the tree-the very Godhead Himself. ‘He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.’
That God shall dwell in my heart is possible only from the fact that He dwelt in all His fulness in Christ, through whom I touch Him. That Temple consecrates all heart-shrines; and all worshippers that keep near to Him, partake with Him of the Father that dwelt in Him.
Only remember that in Christ God dwelt completely, all ‘the fulness of the Godhead bodily’ was there, but in us it is but partially; that in Christ, therefore, the divine indwelling was uniform and invariable, but in us it fluctuates, and sometimes is more intimate and blessed, and sometimes He leaves the habitation when we leave Him; that in Christ, therefore, there was no progress in the divine indwelling, but that in us, if there be any true inhabitation of our souls by God, that abiding will become more and more, until every corner of our being is hallowed and filled with the searching effulgence of the all-pervasive Light. And let us remember that God dwelt in Christ, but that in us it is God in Christ who dwells. So to Him we owe it all, that our poor hearts are made the dwelling-place of God; or, as this Apostle puts it, in other words conveying the same idea, ‘Ye are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth . . . for a habitation of God through the Spirit.’
II. Now then, turning from this underlying idea of the passage, let us look, for a moment, at some of the many applications of which the great thought is susceptible. I remark, then, in the second place, that as temples all Christians are to be manifesters of God.
The real revelation of God to our hearts must be His abiding in our hearts. We do not learn God until we possess God. He must fill our souls before we know His sweetness. The answer that our Lord made to one of His disciples is full of the deepest truth. ‘How is it,’ said one of them in his blundering way, ‘how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself to us?’ And the answer was, ‘We will come and make Our abode with him.’ You do not know God until, if I might so say, He sits at your fireside and talks with you in your hearts. Just as some wife may have a husband whom the world knows as hero, or sage, or orator, but she knows him as nobody else can; so the outside, and if I may so say, the public character of God is but the surface of the revelation that He makes to us, when in the deepest secrecy of our own hearts He pours Himself into our waiting spirits. O brethren! it is within the curtains of the Holiest of all that the Shekinah flashes; it is within our own hearts, shrined and templed there, that God reveals Himself to us, as He does not unto the world.
And then, further, Christian men, as the temples and habitations of God, are appointed to be the great means of making Him known to the world around. The eye that cannot look at the sun can look at the rosy clouds that lie on either side of it, and herald its rising; their opalescent tints and pearly lights are beautiful to dim vision, to which the sun itself is too bright to be looked upon. Men will believe in a gentle Christ when they see you gentle. They will believe in a righteous love when they see it manifesting itself in you. You are ‘the secretaries of God’s praise,’ as George Herbert has it. He dwells in your hearts that out of your lives He may be revealed. The pictures in a book of travels, or the diagrams in a mathematical work, tell a great deal more in half a dozen lines than can be put into as many pages of dry words. And it is not books of theology nor eloquent sermons, but it is a Church glowing with the glory of God, and manifestly all flushed with His light and majesty, that will have power to draw men to believe in the God whom it reveals. When explorers land upon some untravelled island and meet the gentle inhabitants with armlets of rough gold upon their wrists, they say there must be many a gold-bearing rock of quartz crystal in the interior of the land. And if you present yourselves, Christian men and women, to the world with the likeness of your Master plain upon you, then people will believe in the Christianity that you profess. You have to popularise the Gospel in the fashion in which go-betweens and middlemen between students and the populace popularise science. You have to make it possible for men to believe in the Christ because they see Christ in you. ‘Know ye not that ye are the temples of the living God?’ Let His light shine from you.
III. I remark again that as temples all Christian lives should be places of sacrifice.
IV. And, lastly, this great truth of my text enforces the solemn lesson of the necessary sanctity of the Christian life.
Hence, of course, follows the idea of purity, but the parent idea of ‘holiness’ is not purity, which is the consequence, but consecration or separation to God, which is the root.
And so in very various applications, on which I have not time to dwell now, this idea of the necessary sanctity of the Temple is put forth in these two letters to the Corinthian Church. Corinth was a city honeycombed with the grossest immoralities; and hence, perhaps, to some extent the great emphasis and earnestness and even severity of the Apostle in dealing with some forms of evil.
But without dwelling on the details, let me just point you to three directions in which this general notion of sanctity is applied. There is that of our context here ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? If any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, and such ye are.’
He is thinking here mainly, I suppose, about the devastation and destruction of this temple of God, which was caused by schismatical and heretical teaching, and by the habit of forming parties, ‘one of Paul, one of Apollos, one of Cephas, one of Christ,’ which was rending that Corinthian Church into pieces. But we may apply it more widely than that, and say that anything which corrupts and defiles the Christian life and the Christian character assumes a darker tint of evil when we think that it is sacrilege-the profanation of the temple, the pollution of that which ought to be pure as He who dwells in it.
Christian men and women, how that thought darkens the blackness of all sin! How solemnly there peals out the warning, ‘If any man destroy or impair the temple,’ by any form of pollution, ‘him’ with retribution in kind, ‘him shall God destroy.’ Keep the temple clear; keep it clean. Let Him come with His scourge of small cords and His merciful rebuke. You Manchester men know what it is to let the money-changers into the sanctuary. Beware lest, beginning with making your hearts ‘houses of merchandise,’ you should end by making them ‘dens of thieves.’
And then, still further, there is another application of this same principle, in the second of these Epistles. ‘What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?’ ‘Ye are the temple of the living God.’
Christianity is intolerant. There is to be one image in the shrine. One of the old Roman Stoic Emperors had a pantheon in his palace with Jesus Christ upon one pedestal and Plato on the one beside Him. And some of us are trying the same kind of thing. Christ there, and somebody else here. Remember, Christ must be everything or nothing! Stars may be sown by millions, but for the earth there is one sun. And you and I are to shrine one dear Guest, and one only, in the inmost recesses of our hearts.
And there is another application of this metaphor also in our letter. ‘Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?’ Christianity despises ‘the flesh’; Christianity reverences the body; and would teach us all that, being robed in that most wonderful work of God’s hands, which becomes a shrine for God Himself if He dwell in our hearts, all purity, all chastisement and subjugation of animal passion is our duty. Drunkenness, and gluttony, lusts of every kind, impurity of conduct, and impurity of word and look and thought, all these assume a still darker tint when they are thought of as not only crimes against the physical constitution and the moral law of humanity, but insults flung in the face of the God that would inhabit the shrine.
And in regard to sins of this kind, which it is so difficult to speak of in public, and which grow unchecked in secrecy, and are ruining hundreds of young lives, the words of this context are grimly true, ‘If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.’ I speak now mainly in brotherly or fatherly warning to young men-did you ever read this, ‘His bones are full of the iniquities of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust’ ? ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?’
And so, brethren, our text tells us what we may all be. There is no heart without its deity. Alas! alas! for the many listening to me now whose spirits are like some of those Egyptian temples, which had in the inmost shrine a coiled-up serpent, the mummy of a monkey, or some other form as animal and obscene.
Oh! turn to Christ and cry, ‘Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest, Thou and the ark of Thy strength.’ Open your hearts and let Christ come in. And before Him, as of old, the bestial Dagon will be found, dejected and truncated, lying on the sill there; and all the vain, cruel, lustful gods that have held riot and carnival in your hearts will flee away into the darkness, like some foul ghosts at cock-crow. ‘If any man hear My voice and open the door I will come in.’ And the glory of the Lord shall fill the house.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Co 3:16-17
16Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
1Co 3:16 “Do you not know that you are a temple of God” There is no article with “temple” (i.e., naos, the central shrine itself). The pronoun “you” is plural, while “temple” is singular, therefore, in this context “temple” must refer to the whole church at Corinth (cf. 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:21-22), which may have involved several house churches.
The focus of Jewish faith developed into the Temple ritual and liturgy (cf. Jeremiah 7) instead of personal faith in YHWH. It is not where or when or how one worships, but Who one is in relationship with, God. Jesus saw His body as the temple of God (cf. Joh 2:21). Jesus is greater than the OT Temple (cf. Mat 12:6). God’s activity has moved from a sacred building into a sacred (i.e., redeemed, holy) body of believers. The focus of God’s activity in the world is people! Jesus’ body is now a place, both corporately and individually.
“that the Spirit of God dwells in you” “Dwells” is a Present active indicative. “You” is plural. The concept of the temple as the unique dwelling place of YHWH in the OT is paralleled here with the concept of the church as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.
The concept of indwelling deity is recurrent in the NT. All three persons of the Trinity are said to indwell believers.
1. the Spirit (cf. Joh 14:16-17; Rom 8:9; Rom 8:11; 1Co 3:16; 1Co 6:19; 2Ti 1:14)
2. the Son (cf. Mat 28:20; Joh 14:20; Joh 14:23; Joh 15:4-5; Rom 8:10; 2Co 13:5; Gal 2:20; Eph 3:17; Col 1:27)
3. both the Son and the Father (cf. Joh 14:23 and 2Co 6:16)
1Co 3:17 “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him” This is a first class conditional sentence, which assumes the reality of unspiritual believers damaging the work of the church (i.e., leaders or the factions). Here the emphasis is on the actions of the individual believer. This does not affect their salvation, 1Co 3:15, but their longevity and reward.
The supreme tragedy of believers living selfish, fruitless lives is the potential of the resources at their disposal. They know the gospel; they have the Spirit, yet they and the church are damaged by their actions. This is where Luk 12:48 speaks loudest! Is it speaking to you?
The term phtheir (destroy) has several uses in the NT.
1. spoil or corrupt physically (i.e., rotting fruit or decaying meat, even metaphorically of spoiling financially)
2. spoil or corrupt morally (i.e., breaking the rules of an athletic contest or seducing someone sexually)
3. destroy
a. physically
b. spiritually
c. eternally
Only the immediate context can determine its meaning. Here it is used in parallel clauses, but it is uncertain if it has the same meaning in each clause because the first refers to the church and the second to a person. This term in context is referring to saved, but immature, believers who are causing a factious spirit to develop in the church at Corinth. See Special Topic at 1Co 15:42.
It is hard to define what “destroy” means in this context (cf. Mat 18:6; Luk 17:1-2; Rom 14:15; 1Co 5:5; 1Co 8:11; 1Ti 1:20).
While I am on this subject, I personally do not believe this term (and related terms) can legitimately be used to prove the physical annihilation of lost persons (Fudge, The Fire That Consumes), but rather their conscious, eternal separation from God (i.e., hell, cf. Dan 12:2; Mat 25:46; Act 24:15).
It is even possible that what Paul is referring to here relates to 1Co 5:5 and 1Ti 1:20, where the church disciplines one out of their fellowship (but always with the hope and prayer of restoration following repentance).
“the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are” This is a corporate concept. The related and logical implication is that the individual believer is also a temple of God (cf. 1Co 6:19). Christians are called to holiness (cf. Mat 5:48; Eph 1:4).
SPECIAL TOPIC: HOLY
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Know ye not. This expression occurs twelve times in Paul’s epistles. Elsewhere, 1Co 5:6; 1Co 6:2, 1Co 6:3, 1Co 6:9, 1Co 6:15, 1Co 6:16, 1Co 6:19; 1Co 9:13, 1Co 9:24. Rom 6:16; Rom 11:2. One other occurance is in Jam 4:4. It conveys a delicate reproach.
Know. App-133.
Temple. Greek. naos. See Mat 23:16. There is no art. because naos is the predicate.
Spirit. The Holy Spirit. App-101.
in = among. App-104. The Spirit dwells in the shrine formed by the collective body of believers. Compare Eph 2:22.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
16-23.] The figure is taken up afresh and carried further: and made the occasion of solemn exhortation, since they were the temple of God, not to mar that temple, the habitation of His Spirit, by unholiness, or by exaltation of human wisdom: which last again was irrelevant, as well as sinful; for all their teachers were but their servants in building them up to be Gods temple,-yea all things were for this end, to subserve them, as being Christs, by the ordinance, and to the glory of God the Father.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 3:16. , the temple) The most noble kind of building.-, ye are) the whole of you together.- , the Spirit) The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and that of God, are held in the same estimation [are equivalent]: therefore the high honour due to the Holy Spirit is the same as that due to God, 1Co 6:19.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 3:16
1Co 3:16
Know ye not that ye are a temple of God,-Solomon erected a temple in Jerusalem, that was recognized as the house of Jehovah, the house of God, and Jehovahs house. In it was Jehovahs name recorded; in it was the mercy seat; in it must the offering of prayer or praise be presented. The temple itself, with its corner and foundation stones and comely stones of its walls, was typical of the spiritual temple, the church, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone (Eph 2:20), of which every Christian is a living stone builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. [The lessons of care and sanctity and reverence taught concerning the temple of God in Jerusalem are examples to teach how reverential and careful we must be in reference to the spiritual temple and how we should make it after the pattern given. It must not be neglected; it must not be defiled; it must not be made secondary to anything in the world.]
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?-Gods Spirit in the beginning had dwelt upon the earth with man. Man sinned, the earth was defiled, and his Spirit ceased to dwell with man. Altars were built and consecrated where he met the worshipers. Then the tabernacle, then the temple in Jerusalem, now the spiritual temple or the church of God. In this spiritual temple he makes his permanent dwelling place among men. (See 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Heb 3:6; 1Pe 2:5).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Know: 1Co 5:6, 1Co 6:2, 1Co 6:3, 1Co 6:9, 1Co 6:16, 1Co 6:19, 1Co 9:13, 1Co 9:24, Rom 6:3, Jam 4:4
ye are: 2Co 6:16, Eph 2:21, Eph 2:22, Heb 3:6, 1Pe 2:5
the Spirit: Eze 36:27, Joh 14:17, Rom 8:11, 2Ti 1:14, 1Jo 4:12, 1Jo 4:15, 1Jo 4:16
Reciprocal: Exo 26:24 – and they shall be coupled together above 2Ch 29:5 – sanctify the house Psa 93:5 – holiness Zec 14:20 – HOLINESS Mat 15:20 – which Joh 2:21 – temple Rom 8:9 – if so be 1Co 3:9 – ye are God’s building 1Co 6:13 – but for 2Co 3:8 – the ministration 2Co 13:5 – Know 2Co 13:14 – the communion Phi 2:1 – if any fellowship Col 1:27 – Christ 1Th 1:5 – in the 2Ti 2:20 – in a 1Jo 3:24 – dwelleth 1Jo 4:13 – General Rev 7:15 – dwell Rev 11:1 – Rise
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE TEMPLE OF GOD
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and than the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:16
Not only does the Holy Ghost come to convict of sin, not only does He come to lead us into the path of righteousness, but He dwells in us. And, therefore, the tremendous fact is this, that the Holy Ghost within me speaks to the Holy Ghost within you, and that both of us will have to render an account before the judgment-seat of God.
I. In one sense the earth itself is the temple of the Holy Ghost.Half our difficulties in faith arise from forgetting that the earth itself is an expression of the Holy Spirit. The world is not a dead, pagan, unholy thing. That sunshine is an expression of His being; He lingered over that glorious lily; those roses He thought of; He is the Spirit of order Who made the world. And it is not only that the idea of the earth as the temple of the Lord is an inspiring thought, but it is so helpful. Have you never felt any difficulty about the Incarnation? Have you never thought it was almost too good to be true, that the Son of God came down and took human flesh? But what if it is Gods world to start with? What if human flesh is a holy thing, which it is? There is no such thing as the purely secular when we understand the world. It is Gods world. Gods in His heavenGod is in His earthalls right with the world. And, therefore, it helps me with the Incarnation. He came into His own world; and so, when the Holy Spirit came, He came down upon the earth which He had made. It is most striking to-day, and I like to help the thinking men who may be among us and who study these things. Have you ever noticed how the philosophers and thinkers of the world are coming round to this truth to-day? I can remember when the fashionable philosophy of the day was what is called materialism; materialism is out of date to-day. Even though they have not reached our full truththat the Holy Spirit is the centre of everythingyou find advanced thinkers (I could mention some of their names) to-day who begin to tell us that spirit is the only reality; that matter is a form of spirit, and that the spiritual world is the only real world. How the children of God come to their own, if they only wait! It is what we said years ago. And therefore the thoughtthe first thought before we get to even more intimate truthsthat the earth itself is an expression of the Spirit of God wonderfully helps the spiritual life. Are we surprised that the dead body of Jesus Christ was raised from the dead? But what if the flesh itself, what if the body itself, was a spiritual thing?
II. The Church is a body which the Holy Spirit fills.Ye are the temple of Godthe whole of you. Do you remember how the waiting Church waited as silently as you waittimid, irresolute, coldwhen with tongues of fire and sudden rushing wind down came the Holy Ghost upon that waiting Church, and has never gone back? And while we are accustomed to the thought that the Church exists for you and me, have you never thought that you and I exist for the Church? That the Holy Spirits great office is to prepare a bride for Christ?
III. The Spirit of God dwelleth in you.Do you see what it means? That behind the outer court of the temple, which is your body, behind even the holy place, which is your soul, in the inner holy of holies of your being, the Holy Ghost livesexcept ye be reprobate. The Holy Spirit is in you, says St. Paul, except ye be reprobate. Have you never felt some still, small voice speaking within you? That was the Holy Spirits voice pleading with your conscience. You know that the flesh lusteth against the spirit, but do we all realise that the spirit lusteth against the flesh? that we cannot be quite happy if there is an impulse uncrushed yet within us that cries aloud for good, that draws us towards better things, that stirs us up, which prevents us being really happy in our sin? Oh, for Gods sake do not choke it down. That is the Holy Dove of God struggling, pleading still within you.
IV. What effect, if this is so, ought the Holy Ghost to be having over spirit, over mind, and over body, as He dwells in the holy of holies behind the body, behind the mind, and behind the spirit?
(a) What effect upon the body? The body is a holy thingthere is nothing wrong in the body. Jesus Christ wore the body without a touch of sin. Do not lay the blame on the body. Passions, instincts of the body, are planted there by God. The body is a holy thing, but there is all the difference between a man on a horse with the reins in his hands and the bit in the horses mouth and that same man with the reins round his feet dragging him in the dust. That is the difference between the man or woman whose body is ruled by the Spirit and the man who has let his passions master him and drag him into the dust. The body, like the horse, is a splendid servant, but a terrible master.
(b) What effect will it have upon the mind if the Spirit dwells within us? You cannot indulge those bad and wicked thoughts; you cannot harbour that jealousy which you brought to church with you; you cannot go back and carry on that bitter quarrel if the Holy Spirit is going to rule your life. Yield to those better, gentler feelings; to whatsoever things are pure, lovely, and of good report. Let your mind dwell on these alone; that is what the Spirit is putting into your mind; not the wicked, jealous, angry, bitter thoughts.
(c) What effect will it have upon the spirit? How earnest will be our prayers if, in the holy of holies, our spirit dwells with God. There will be no forgetfulness of prayer; no cold, half-hearted petitions. If the Holy Spirit of God dwells in the holy of holies with my spirit, then how I shall pray for others! Then how earnest will be my prayers; then I shall say, Come, Holy Ghost, my soul inspire, pray with me, give me the words, the thoughts, to pray. That will be the effect of the Holy Spirit dwelling within me.
Bishop A. F. Winnington-Ingram.
Illustrations
(1) Here is one of those inspirations about the earth which that wonderful poet, Browning, has put into the lips of a little maiden, Pippa, as she Passes in the early morning:
The years at the spring
And days at the morn;
Mornings at seven;
The hill-sides dew-pearled;
The larks on the wing;
The snails on the thorn;
Gods in His heaven
Alls right with the world!
That maidens spring song is full of a glorious truth. Our earth, our world, is part of the mind of the Spirit.
(2) There was a poor girl lying on her back, said the Bishop of London, whom I used to visit every week in my first curacy, and it used to puzzle her and those who watched her, why she was allowed to lie like that for over fifteen years, I think it was. (I was only there for a year or two, she lay years before I went and years after I left.) Why was she allowed to lie there year after year, month after month, in constant pain? I found a reading which comforted her more than anything in Bishop Walsham Hows book Pastor in Parochia. It was about the stonemasons shop; how the stonemason takes his chisel and works away at the stone day after day, with very little apparent result at first, but he is getting it ready for a place in his building, and the more time he spent upon the stone the more beautiful a place it is going to have. That taught her that she existed for the Church, for the temple; that it was not waste of time, her years of suffering and patience. She loved to think that the Master Builder was working away at her, and refining her, to make her more fit for a beautiful place in His temple.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE POWER OF THE INDWELLING SPIRIT
The first visible fruit of the coming of the Holy Ghost was in the gift of tongues. It was the extraordinary, and not the ordinary, gift of the Holy Ghost, and we make a great mistake when we think that the extraordinary must of necessity be of more value, of greater worth, than the ordinary. The extraordinary gifts which appear from time to time in the New Testament have passed; do not envy them. The ordinary gift of the Holy Ghostthat remains with us, and that is of much higher value than the extraordinary.
What is the ordinary gift? It is the gift of spiritual power. Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. That is the Masters promise, and they were to wait for it. Of this other gift of languages He said nothingonly of the more precious gift, the gift of the power from on high.
I. It is the power of the Holy Spirit which takes hold of our understanding.The Holy Spirit entering into our soul, making the body and the soul His temple and dwelling within us, comes as an added strength to our understanding, raising our understanding, so that it can not only deal with the things that it sees, but rise to the height of faith, giving a new power of faith, and opening our eyes to see the true bearing and meaning of the words of the Lord, and of the acts of the Lord. All that He has done and said for our own soul needs a key. There the words lie on the page, and they are like a locked room. It is the Holy Spirit Who can come and open those words for our understanding, according to the promise of the Lord: When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. Remember, the words of the Lord are only to be understood by the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
II. The Holy Spirit comes and brings power or brings strength to our own heart and to our own affections, and teaches a man, and helps a man to hate what is hateful, and to love what is good and what is true. The Holy Spirit dwells within our hearts and puts in them that double faculty of the appreciation of what is good, the love of what is good, and the renunciation and hatred of what is evil.
III. The Holy Spirit, entering into our hearts, finds His way into our willour will which has been weakened by self-indulgence and self-pleasingand puts new strength into that will, and gives to us what He gave to the Apostles at that timenew heart and new courage to face the difficulties before them. The coming of the Holy Ghost made of these men, who were cowards, heroes and martyrs. One after another, these men who had denied their Master, after the coming of the Holy Ghost, laid down their lives. The strength of the martyrs is the witness of the power of the Holy Ghost, just as all the most beautiful things which have been written and thought are the gifts of the Holy Ghost. And all true love of God and man is an outcome of that Holy Spirit Who has made the soul His temple and resting-place.
Rev. E. F. Russell.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
THE SUBJECTION OF THE BODY
There are fallacies by which men often deceive themselves into luxurious life. God made my nature, they say; God made my passions, my instincts, my body; God spread this fair world around me, and may I not use it? There is something so plausible in that that it is the fallacy by which again and again men deceive themselves. God made my natureyes, but
I. He impressed a law on my nature, the same law that He has impressed upon the whole of His creation, and that is the great law of sacrifice. I am to use the material world in which He placed me, I am to use my body, with all its capacities and powers, but I am to use them in obedience to that law, seeing that I never make the material thing, the dead piece of matter, an end, an object of pursuit in itself, but always make matter the obedient minister of spirit, and seeing that it is ever rising up through me to God. And so stamped upon creation, when we look it in the face, is this great law of sacrifice; and when we are bidden remember that our bodies are the temples of God, that is no arbitrary command laid on us; we are only thereby bid to remember that we are part and parcel, and the crowning part and parcel, of the whole material creation, that part of it through which it rises into articulate expression in the spirit of man, and is able to praise the God Who made it. And it is in that deep sense that we are the priests of creation, we gather the lower world into ourselves, and through ourselves we raise it up and offer it back to God Who made it. And through us the whole family of the material world is capable of becoming the minister of spirit.
II. That then is why luxury, the misuse of the material world, is wrong; it is a counterworking of the laws of creation, it is using matter down, down to the dust, instead of to lift us up to God; it is misusing the whole of this creation in which God has placed us. And the thing which you can see to be the misuse and contravention of the Divine law is surely a very terrible thing. By looking at luxury in this way I do not minimise its dangers; no, you see rather how deeply rooted in the very nature of the world this will be if it is a contravention of the law of God.
III. And its results are commensurate with the deepness of its evil.Think of what luxury does for men; think how it blinds the spirit; take luxury in its lower forms, the deliberate life of pleasure lived on year after year, the deliberate pursuit of money for its own sake, any of those grosser forms of the life of luxury, see what they do for the spirit. Let a man live in them for years, and he can no longer see God; he no longer believes that there is a God; gradually but certainly they darken the spiritual vision till at last the luxurious life ends in blindness. And possibly there is even a worse thing than blindnesshardness of heart. And think what love is in human life, think what it can do for human life, think how it glorifies human life; and is there any one thing that man can do which more kills love than to lead the life of luxury? Slowly as it grows upon you it hardens the heart, it lowers love from its spiritual down to an earthly nature, and gradually it kills it out of the heart; all the finer feelings and sensibilities and emotions die, and love passes over into its own deadly opposite of cruelty.
When luxury and the life of luxury has had its perfect fruit, it is then the contravention of Divine law stamped upon the world; it blinds the spirit, it hardens the heart, it destroys the temple which should be the temple of the Spirit of God.
Rev. Canon Illingworth.
Illustration
Consider the principle upon which the sinfulness of luxury rests; people often rest it upon inadequate principles; they think that they may be luxurious, for example, if it does not hurt other people, and so forth; but all those imperfect reasons do not root the thing out from your heart. There is a deep principle in the very creation which makes luxury a sin. Luxury is the misuse of the material world; and in what does that consist? We misuse the material world directly we make it an end in itself, an object of pursuit for its own sake, instead of a minister and a means to something higher.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Verse 16. Ye are the temple of God means them as a congregation, which was built upon the foundation laid for them by Paul when he preached Christ to them. The church is the spiritual building in which the Holy Spirit dwells (Eph 2:22).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 3:16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?a sudden transition, apparently, from the teachers to the taught; yet this is more in appearance than reality. For the transition is simply from warnings against a dangerous pandering in teachers to the corrupted taste of their hearers to warnings directed to those vitiated hearers themselves.
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? The word rendered temple here means, classically, the dwelling-place of a deity. In the New Testament, when applied to the temple of Jerusalem, it denotes the holy of holiesthat most sacred part of it where of old the Shechinah, or visible symbol of the Divine Presence, was manifested. As applied to believers under the new economy, it means that they are a habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph 2:22).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle here, in the judgment of some interpreters, makes use of a farther argument to convince the Corinthians of the evil of their divisions. They are the church and temple of God, therefore not to be profaned by divisions; Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?
As if the apostle had said, “You Corinthians, by being converted to Christianity, are become a Christian church, an holy temple, in which the Spirit of God doth dwell, and where the spirit of division ought not to dwell; for if any man defile the temple of God by dividing the church into factions and parties, him will God destroy; for the temple of the Lord is holy, and not to be profaned by your dividing lusts: which temple ye are.”
Learn hence, 1. That the people of God met together to worship him, are the church or spiritual temple of God.
2. That the Spirit of God dwells in the church, or temple of God; and this dwelling implies propriety, familiarity, authority, residency, and fixedness of abode.
Learn, 3. That such as defile the holy temple of God, either by factious divisions or erroneous doctrines, do provoke God to destroy them; that is, to punish them with temporal destruction, and, without repentance, with eternal damnation. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Beware of Defiling God’s Temple
In 1Co 3:9 , Paul described the church at Corinth as God’s building ( Heb 3:6 ; 1Pe 2:5 ). The church is God’s temple and the Spirit’s dwelling place on earth. “Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit” ( Eph 2:20-22 ).
Those dividing into sects ( 1Co 1:12 ) needed to see the greatness of their sin. By breaking the church into pieces, they were defiling God’s dwelling place. Those who did such things made themselves subject to swift judgment from God ( 1Co 3:16-17 ; 2Pe 2:1 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
1Co 3:16-17. Know ye not, &c. As if he had said, You should also lake heed what doctrine you deliver, lest by teaching what is false, unimportant, or improper to be taught, you should defile or destroy the temple of God; that ye True believers, genuine Christians; are the temple of God Whether considered collectively as a church, (Eph 2:21; 1Ti 3:15,) or as individuals and members of one, (1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:22; Heb 3:6; 1Pe 2:5,) being set apart from profane uses, and dedicated to his service, among whom, and in whom, he manifests his gracious presence by his Spirit. See on Rom 8:9. If any man defile, corrupt Or destroy rather, (as it seems the word should be rendered,) that is, should divide and scatter a Christian church or society, by schisms or unscriptural doctrines, or leaven with error, and lead into sin, a real Christian; him shall God destroy Punish with eternal condemnation and wrath; so that he shall not be saved at all, not even as through fire: for the temple of God is holy Consecrated to him, separated from all pollution, and to be considered as peculiarly sacred; and therefore it is an awful thing to do any thing which tends to destroy it. Which temple ye are Called and intended to be such.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 16, 17. Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17. If any man destroy the temple of God, him will God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
The asyndeton between 1Co 3:15-16 is to be remarked; it is as if, on occasion of what the apostle has just said about bad workers, a sudden view took possession of his heart, that of the gravity of the act of those workmen who not only build badly, but who destroy what is already constructed. Everything in this abrupt transition betrays emotion; the interrogative form: Know ye not…? which appeals to the conscience of the Church and to the livelier feeling which it should have of its own dignity; the phrase, temple of God, forming a step higher than the simple building (1Co 3:9); finally, the two analogous gradations, that of the first , destroy, rising above the act of bad building thereon, and that of the second , denoting the punishment, rising above the simple fact of , suffering loss (of reward).
We must avoid translating, the temple of God. The Church of Corinth is not the universal Church. The absence of the article before , temple, makes this word the indication of a simple quality: Ye are a temple of God; ye partake of the sacred character of such a building! This applies to every believer at Corinth, and at the same time to the Church as a whole. And how do they all possess such a dignity? The following proposition explains: God dwells in Christ, and Christ by the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer. The Father and the Son, according to the promise of Jesus, thus make, by the Spirit, their abode in him (Joh 14:23). The same figure: Eph 2:19-22; 1Pe 2:4-5.
The adjunct , in you, may signify within you or in the midst of you. The context speaks rather in favour of the second meaning, since Paul is addressing the Church as such. But as God dwells among believers only on condition of dwelling in them, the second meaning implies the first. Is the apostle thinking of the temple of Jerusalem, for which henceforth the Church, the true spiritual temple, is to be substituted? Possibly. Now if it was a sacrilege to profane the shadow, what will it be to do violence to the body (Col 2:17)!
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Know ye not [a touch of amazement at their ignorance] that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? [In verse 9 he had called them God’s building; he now reminds them of what kind the building was, and how exalted were its uses. The Jerusalem temple was honored by the Shechinah, but the church by the very Spirit of God.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
16. Do you not know that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? The Holy Spirit dwells in every sanctified human spirit. As He is holy, He is unwilling to dwell in anything which is unholy. Hence He will never make you His temple until you let Him sanctify you wholly. Solomons temple beautifully symbolizes the sanctified heart. While they were felling the trees in Mount Lebanon and hewing out the cedar timbers, there was heard a great noise, roar of axes, clangor of saws and crash of the falling trees. All that symbolized the stir and commotion produced by the conviction of the Holy Ghost in the unregenerate heart. Then the temple was built without the sound of a hammer or the clangor of a saw, thus symbolizing the silent lightning of the Holy Ghost in regeneration. After the temple was built, King Solomon, who emblematizes Christ, slaughtered twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep, thus quantity for quality typifying the blood of Jesus, which sanctifies the heart. After the dedication, i. e., the sanctification of the temple, by this enormous effusion of blood, God came down and filled it with His presence, manifesting His glory. So your heart, convicted amid the thunders and earthquakes of the Sinai gospel, regenerated by the silent interior work of the Holy Ghost, and sanctified by the precious blood of Jesus, then becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. He comes in to abide. As your spirit, now the temple of the Holy Ghost, fills your whole body, therefore your body also becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost. If you would have the Holy Ghost take your body for His temple, move in and abide forever, you must cleanse yourself from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (1Co 7:1).
Your tobacco, opium, beer, whisky, gluttony, and slovenliness must all go, and go forever. Oh! what a glory to be the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
1Co 3:16-17. Do you not know: common phrase of Paul: 1Co 5:6; 1Co 6:2 f, 1Co 6:9; 1Co 6:15 f; 1Co 9:13; 1Co 9:24; Rom 6:16; Rom 11:2. Its frequency in this Epistle was a rebuke, probably undesigned, of the boasted wisdom of the Corinthian Christians. The suddenness and evident astonishment of this question suggest that 1Co 3:15 had reminded Paul of something at Corinth which implied forgetfulness of the solemn teaching of this verse. The searching test to which all Christian work will be subjected recalls to his mind some who were not building at all, but were pulling down or defacing the good work of others. And, that Paul appeals to his readers generally, suggests that the church as a whole tolerated them. Cp. 1Co 5:2. He clothes his appeal in a metaphor suggested by the preceding one. The injury these men are inflicting reminds Paul of the dread solemnity, and the solemn relation to God, of the building which he and others are erecting. He asks whether his readers are ignorant of this: and his question implies that they have no excuse for ignorance.
Temple; represents in the Auth. Version two entirely different Greek words, viz. the sanctuary, or sacred enclosure, open (cp. Lev 12:4) to all Jews, 1Co 9:13, Act 2:46; Act 3:1 ff, Act 3:8; Act 5:25; Act 5:42, etc.; and the temple proper, the sacred house into which (Heb 9:6) only the priests went and containing the holy and the most holy place, 1Co 3:16 f; 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:21; 2Th 2:4; Luk 1:9; Luk 1:21 f; Act 19:24 A.V. and R.V. shrines. Same distinction among pagan writers: e.g. Herodotus, bk. i. 183, There is belonging to the sanctuary in Babylon another temple below; where there is a great statue of Zeus. The corresponding Hebrew and Aramaic word is rendered (A.V.) palace in 1Ki 21:1; Dan 1:4; Dan 4:1; Dan 5:5; Dan 6:18.
Temple of God: not temples. So 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:21. Cp. Philo, On Monarchy bk. ii. 1: Since there is one God, there must be only one sanctuary. Just as in the Old Covenant there was but one temple, the place which (Deu 12:5 ff) God chose, where alone (Lev 17:8 f) sacrifice could be offered, so now there is but one temple, of which the one church throughout the world is the holy place and the church within the veil the holy of holies. Of this one church, each visible community of Christians is a miniature representative. And each separate building (Eph 2:21) on the one foundation is growing up into, and when completed in glory will form, one holy temple.
[The above distinction of and is marked in the R.V. by the note Or, sanctuary, wherever the latter is found; except that in the Book of Revelation, by unpardonable parsimony, one marginal note is made to suffice for sixteen places. But, whatever be its origin, the rendering temple suggests now the sacred house; and therefore ought not to be used for the sacred enclosure. Moreover, the distinction should have been made in the text. Much better and everywhere available (even in Act 19:24, which should be temples) is my rendering sanctuary and temple. The R.V. a temple is a serious error. For it suggests other temples; an idea utterly opposed to the whole Mosaic Covenant. The anarthrous substantive (cp. 1Co 6:9; 1Th 5:2) looks at the one temple not as a single definite object of thought but in its abstract quality.]
The Spirit of God etc.: a restatement of Doctrine 5, (see under Rom 8:4,) viz. that God’s purpose that we be holy is realized by the agency of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Now, if this doctrine be true, as Paul confidently assumes, believers are the temple of God. For the central idea of a temple was, to Jews and heathens, a dwelling place of God. Cp. Exo 25:8; Exo 29:45 f; 1Ki 8:27; 2Co 6:16. Just as under Moses God erected a building of earthly materials by the hands (Exo 31:3) of men filled with the Spirit of God, that it might be His one dwelling place on earth, the one spot of earth nearest to heaven, and in which He might show forth His glory; so in the New Covenant, by giving His One Spirit to dwell in the hearts of His people, He unites them into one, raises them above the earth, and makes them His one dwelling place on earth, that He may fill them with His presence, cover them with His glory, and in them show forth His glory to the world. Cp. 1Co 6:19; 2Co 6:16; Eph 2:21.
The Spirit of God (as bearer of the presence of God, Rom 8:10) dwells: rather than God dwells, (as in the Old Testament,) because in us God is present as an animating Spirit, the source of divine life and activity. Not as such can He dwell in a temple made with hands.
1Co 3:17. If any one etc.; evidently introduces the matter which caused the astonishment of 1Co 3:16. From this we infer that at Corinth there were men actually injuring the church.
The temple of God: a general term including the temple made with hands and the living temple.
Injuries: by pulling down (Rom 14:20) or defacing. The context suggests that Paul refers to those who prompted the church-parties, and to the injury they thus did to the church.
Will injure; includes the loss, damage, and destruction, bodily and spiritual, present and future, which comes by the just punishment of God to all who pull down or deface what He has set up. Paul then gives the reason why God will injure etc., viz. because the temple of God stands in special relation to Him, as erected for His purposes and glory. See note on holiness, Rom 1:7. Therefore, to injure the temple, is to rob and insult God.
Which you are: viz. holy. In other words, the foregoing general principle applies to Paul’s readers.
1Co 3:16-17 appeal to ideas almost universal in the ancient world, but vanished now. Both Greeks and Jews believed that the place which God had chosen to reveal Himself to men, belonged to Him in a very special sense, and was guarded by Him with infinite jealousy; and that damage or insult to the holy place would be followed by divine vengeance. Paul reminds his readers that the very name, saint, or holy person, by which they designated themselves, implies that the sacredness of the temple belongs to the church; and rightly so, for in its members, by His Spirit, God dwells. Therefore, whatever injury is done to the church will be avenged by its Great Inhabitant.
This warning contains a metaphor well worthy of study. If, as all admitted, the Spirit of God dwells in His people, His presence makes them a temple, erected by human hands, but of materials more precious than gold or costly marble. The builders may therefore tremble lest, even without design, they injure the building they profess and endeavor to be erecting.
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
3:16 {9} Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
(9) Continuing still in the metaphor of building, he teaches us that this ambition is not only vain, but also sacrilegious: for he says that the Church is as it were the Temple of God, which God has as it were consecrated to himself by his Spirit. Then turning himself to these ambitious men, he shows that they profane the Temple of God, because those vain arts in which they please themselves so much are, as he teaches, many pollutions of the holy doctrine of God, and the purity of the Church. This wickedness will not go unpunished.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
A warning against destroying the church 3:16-17
This is perhaps the strongest warning in the New Testament against taking the church lightly and destroying it with the world’s wisdom and division.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Corinthian church was a temple that God’s Spirit indwelt. Paul was not speaking here of individual believers being temples of God, though we are (1Co 6:19), or of the church universal as the temple of God, though it is (Eph 2:19-22; 1Pe 2:5). He meant the collective body of believers that made up the local church, as is clear from his use of the plural "you" in the Greek text and the singular "temple." The local congregation was not just any building (1Co 3:9) but a sanctuary (Gr. naos) that God inhabited. The presence of the Spirit alone marked them off as God’s sanctuary in Corinth. Ten times in this epistle Paul asked, "Do you not know?" (cf. 1Co 5:6; 1Co 6:2-3; 1Co 6:9; 1Co 6:15-16; 1Co 6:19; 1Co 9:13; 1Co 9:24) and each time the question introduces an indisputable statement.
The New Testament writers spoke often of the church (a group of believers) as God’s temple. They did not usually make the distinction between the holy place and the holy of holies that existed in the Israelites’ physical temples. They viewed the temple as a whole. However here Paul did distinguish the place of God’s dwelling, the temple building itself (naos), from the temple precincts that surrounded and included the sanctuary (Gr. hieron).