We Honor God When We Take Care of His Temple
In the post “Take Care of God’s Temple,” we talked about honoring God with our bodies because the Holy Spirit lives in us. But there is more to this idea of our bodies being God’s temple. Collectively the church is God’s temple too.
That is, all who follow Jesus comprise God’s temple.
Paul first writes that each one of Jesus’s followers is individually God’s temple. He uses the word you (1 Corinthians 3:16).
But he later switches pronouns to the inclusive language of we. Then he writes “We are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16, NIV). That is, Jesus’s church is God’s temple.
How can each of us be God’s temple when the church is God’s temple too? Is Paul’s metaphor morphing into something else? Is Paul switching up his imagery?
No. Both uses align.
When we follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives in us. Because he lives in us our bodies then become God’s temples.
But we don’t live our faith in isolation; we live in community—or at least we should. The early church modeled this (Acts 2:44) and Scripture commands it (Hebrews 10:24-25).
When we follow Jesus, our bodies become temples; when we then meet in community, our individual temples in effect merge so that the church is God’s temple.
Peter addresses this in his discussion of living stones. Jesus is the living Stone. When we follow him, we likewise become his living stones. Our individual living stones come together. In doing so, we are built into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:4-5).
Doesn’t a spiritual house sound like a temple? Yes! Our individual living stones coming together confirm that the church is God’s temple.
If the church is God’s temple, we don’t need to go to a physical place (a church building) on Sunday. Though we can meet on Sunday and probably should, we don’t have to.
This is because we are the church. Wherever we go, we take God’s temple with us—both individually and collectively. Wherever we are, God’s temple is there.
Just as we must take care of our bodies as the temple of God, we must likewise take care of our Christian community, the church, as God’s temple.
Since the church is God’s temple, we must respect and reverence it. We must build it up and not tear it down. We must seek unity and not cause division.
We honor God when we take care of his temple.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo Christianity and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.
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