“Do you not know that you are a 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 that is what you are.”

Temples, the places where deities supposedly live, saturate human history. The Jews had their temple in Jerusalem, as the Lord commanded, where they met with God to worship Him. Jesus explicitly (Matt. 21:13) and implicitly (John 4:21-22) acknowledged this. Paul, inspired by the Spirit, progresses this further: now believers in Jesus Christ are individually and collectively the temple(s) of God (see Rom. 8:9, 1 Cor. 6:19, 2 Cor. 6:16, Eph. 2:21-22). Yet Solomon’s insight as seen in his prayer dedicating the first Jewish temple still ring true:

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! Yet have regard to the prayer of Your servant … listen to the cry and to the prayer which Your servant prays before You today; that Your eyes may be open toward this house …” (1 Kings 8:27–29)

We believers are now the temple of God. From a Trinitarian perspective, the Holy Spirit is the one residing in us spiritually. Solomon’s prayer is most certainly realized in us in that the Lord does “regard” our prayer, He “listens” to our cry, and His eyes are “open toward” us. Yet through sinfulness we damage God’s present dwelling on earth, namely, His people.

As we read through Paul’s letter, we can see that greed destroys individual believers by desiring to take away from someone else to build oneself up. Does that not work to destroy the other person by lessening them and their blessings in the world? Lawsuits cause damage to others for our benefit, be that revenge or justice. Exalting my giftedness over another’s lessens the appreciation of the other person’s participation in the body, that is, the temple, of Christ.

God takes seriously our damaging behavior toward one another. Why? Because we are His temple, and therefore we are holy. And we each individually are temples, those for whom Christ died and in whom the Holy Spirit has taken up residence. God speaks in severe terms; He will “destroy” (which can also be translated as “corrupt”) that person. We take this to mean that sinful behavior in the church will corrupt our testimony, our ministry, and our relationships. Paul doesn’t speak of losing one’s salvation, for the Corinthians are indeed holy (“that is what you are”), but does warn of becoming corrupt and ineffective.

Lord, forgive me for damaging Your temple through my sinful behaviors.