Don’t You Know that You are God’s Temple?

“We are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16), Paul wrote to the Corinthian church. But how could the people be a temple when a temple was a building? His readers were very familiar with temples as sacred places for worship.

The Bible mentions pagan temples where people worshiped idols; they sometimes accommodated many gods in one place. However, the temples we’ll focus on are the two buildings in Jerusalem where the Jewish people worshiped only Yahweh.

The first one, known as Solomon’s temple, was completed in 960 B.C. and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. After the exile, the second temple was built. It was sometimes referred to as Zerubbabel’s temple because he led the rebuilding. Work was completed on it in 516 B.C. Hundreds of years passed. Then Herod the Great, the king of Judea, thoroughly renovated and expanded the temple from 20 B.C. to 64 A.D. This was the temple Jesus and the first century Christians were familiar with. A few years later in 70 A.D., the Romans completely destroyed this second temple. It was never rebuilt.

Two Greek words are used for temple in the New Testament. Hieron refers to the entire temple complex. “It embraces both the sanctuary itself and the surrounding courts, porticoes, and colonnades.” [1] Naos is used only for the Holy of Holies, the most sacred area of the temple, the place where God dwelled.

The naos was so holy that it could be entered only one day a year, the Day of Atonement, to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the Israelites. Only the high priest was permitted to do this. He had to make special preparations, wear specific clothing, and do everything precisely as God outlined or he would die. That sounds extremely harsh until we consider how the animal sacrifices were a foreshadowing of Jesus’ sacrifice.

One day Jesus would come to earth and offer himself as the final sacrifice for our sins. He was the only one who could do it because he was the only perfect, sinless man. If there had been any hint of sin in him, his death on the cross would have accomplished nothing for us.

When the priest entered the Holy of Holies each year on the Day of Atonement with the blood from an unblemished lamb, it represented Jesus’ future sacrifice. If there had been any trace of sin in the priest, the slightest error in following God’s instructions, the Israelites would have remained in their sin. So it was paramount that the Holy of Holies not be defiled in any way.

At times in their history the Israelites built other temples of worship, but the one in Jerusalem was the only place where sacrifices were performed. It housed the only Holy of Holies, where God manifested his presence among his people. The Holy of Holies was the most sacred spot on earth.

Now, back to Paul referring to our bodies as “the temple of the living God”—and to a most amazing truth. The word he uses for temple is naos! He says our bodies are the sacred Holy of Holies where God chose to live on earth. Again, we might ask how that could possibly be.

Paul wrote this letter around 55 A.D. Jesus had already become our final sacrifice. At the moment he died on the cross, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27: 51). That curtain was not only what separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple; it was the barrier between a holy God and a sinful people. And God totally destroyed it, giving us incredible access to him.

Before Jesus ascended to heaven, he promised he would send us the Holy Spirit. ¹⁵“If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—¹⁷the Spirit of truth…you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17).

When a person makes the decision to follow Christ, Holy Spirit enters into him. Peter told the crowd at Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

God’s dwelling place on earth is no longer in a building. When the curtain was torn, he moved out of the man-made temple and began taking up residence in the bodies of his followers. Now his presence is manifested all over the world in his disciples. If you are a follower of Christ, Holy Spirit has come to dwell in your body making it naos, the sacred dwelling place of God. Take some time to let that sink in.

If we truly embrace this truth, how might our lives and the larger body of believers be different?

The church would be a more unified body because we would be more determined to work together with other believers rather than against them. ¹⁶“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

Although here, and in the next verse, Paul referred to the local assembly of believers as God’s temple, a body of people can only be the dwelling place of Holy Spirit if Holy Spirit dwells in the individuals. So it follows that whatever instruction is given to the larger body must be applied to each individual member.

Paul was addressing divisions in the church at Corinth. There was jealousy and quarreling because they were following the teachings of different men. Paul wanted them to see that they couldn’t act independently with competing ideas and still be the unified assembly they were meant to be.

They were forgetting or ignoring the truth of Holy Spirit living in them. [2] Paul had to remind them they were God’s temple and they were all servants of God, not of men. We also need to be reminded of this so we will work together to accomplish God’s work instead of splintering God’s temple with our divisiveness.

We would be more diligent in ridding our lives of idols. ¹⁶“What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God…  ¹⁷‘Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord’” (2 Corinthians 6:16-17).

Paul is again referring to the local Corinthian church as the temple when he says there can be no alliance between the living God and dead idols. As individuals we also are not to place anything above our Holy God. “Christ must be everything or nothing! Stars may be sown by millions, but for the earth there is one sun.” [3] With the words of the Lord, Paul urged the Corinthians, and us, to separate ourselves from the world that worships everything but God and to honor God alone.  

We would treat our bodies more as the possessions of God they are. ¹⁹“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Now Paul speaks of our individual bodies being the temples of Holy Spirit, and he exhorts us to use them to honor God. The longer we live in our bodies, the more they may “feel” like they belong to us. But the truth is, they don’t. They belong to God.

First of all, he created them. Secondly, if we are believers, he has “bought us at a price.” This refers to purchasing a slave at an auction. Jesus purchased us when he died for us. He freed us from being a slave to Satan and sin, and he became our new master when we accepted his precious gift of redemption. He owns us, and we are now obligated to serve him and honor him.

The above verse is in a passage about living sexually moral lives. This is certainly one way we honor God with our bodies. We also honor him by the things we speak, the activities we participate in, how we dress, and how we use our talents and resources. And we honor him by keeping these temples healthy to the degree we are able, such as watching what and how much we consume, what we fill our minds with, and how much sleep we get.

“God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” God has chosen to manifest himself in this world by taking up residence in the bodies of his followers. When Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our bodies become God’s sacred temple. If we know, and embrace, this truth, it will lead to changes in every aspect of our lives. And everywhere we go, people will have the opportunity to see the One who lives in us.

Feature image by Jeremy Park, Bible-Scenes.com 

[1] Topical Lexicon       

[2] Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers    

[3] MacLaren’s Expositions                           

Commentary notes are from Bible Hub. See Resources.

Scripture quotations are from NIV.