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Someone asked me:
“Would you please write a few thoughts on 1 Corinthians 3:16-17?
Does this mean individuals or the church? How does one defile the
temple? Paul seems to indicate that a Christian could do this.”
Looking at this passage in its
context, we may start with 1 Corinthians 3:1-8; there Paul teaches
us that we should trust in the Lord and not in the human instruments
through whom he chooses to work in our lives. Paul uses an
agricultural metaphor to get across his point.
In verse 9, he changes the metaphor
from one of agriculture — “you are God’s field” — to one of
architecture — “you are . . . God’s building.”
Also, he contrasts those through whom God chooses to work — “we
are God’s fellow workers” — with those in whom the work is done —
“you are God’s field, God’s building.”
In verse 10, Paul talks about the
work that he does as a “an expert builder” of the Temple. (Cf. my
brief article, “Does
God Want the Temple Rebuilt?” and Edmund P. Clowney’s eloquent “The
Final Temple,” Westminster Theological Journal, Vol. 35, Fall
1972, Page 156.) Of course,
Paul is not only a builder of the Temple, he is also a part of the Temple,
one of its “living stones,” to use Peter’s analogy. (Cf. 1 Peter
2:5, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual
house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ.”) Two
temples came before this one:
The First Temple was completed by
Solomon in 966 B.C. and destroyed in 586 B.C.
Like the Tabernacle before it, it was immediately filled with the
Shekinah Presence of God:
When Solomon finished praying,
fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the
sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests
could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD
filled it. (2 Chronicles 7:1, 2)
Then Moses set up the courtyard
around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance
to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the
LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting
because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled
the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:33-35)
The Second Temple was completed in
516 B.C., over twenty years after the Exile ended.
Desecrated under Antiochus Epiphanes and cleansed in 165 B.C., it
underwent massive remodeling beginning in 19 B.C., under Herod the Great,
but it remained the Second Temple. There
is no record of any kind of Shekinah Glory coming on it, and tradition
tells us that the Ark of the Covenant was lost during the Exile and never
inside the Holy of Holies of the Second Temple.
To those who had seen the First Temple, the Second seemed to be but
a paltry imitation, but Haggai foretold:
Who of you is left who saw this
house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem
to you like nothing? . . . This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a
little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea
and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all
nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the
LORD Almighty . . . ‘The glory of this present house will be greater
than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in
this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty. (Haggai
2:3-9)
The Second Temple was destroyed in
A.D. 70, on the ninth day of the Jewish month Ab, the same day of the same
month as the destruction of the First Temple.
How was Haggai’s prophecy fulfilled?
Malachi gave the answer: ‘“Then
suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger
of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.’
(Malachi 3:1)
The Lord Jesus himself was anointed
with the Shekinah Glory of God:
And he said to them, “I tell you
the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they
see the kingdom of God come with power.” After six days Jesus took
Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where
they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes
became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them
. . . Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from
the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” (Mark
9:1-7)
In his glorious person, the LORD
came to the Second Temple. He
walked on its pavement, and drove out those who made merchandise of the
souls of men. But who could abide his coming?
He authorized the destruction of the Second Temple and the building
of the Third Temple. He
prefigures this in his own death and resurrection.
‘“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days”
. . . But the temple he had spoken of was his body.’ (John 2:19-21)
As in the Consummation, the Lord himself is the Temple (Revelation
21:22), but we are built into this same Spiritual House, united with him
and resting on the Foundation.
It is in a very public way, the
Third Temple is filled with the Shekinah Glory of God:
When the day of Pentecost came,
they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing
of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they
were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated
and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
(Acts 2:1-4)
The apostles performed many
miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers
used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join
them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. (Acts 5:12,
13)
It is the Church, not individual
Christians, that Paul has in view in 1 Corinthians.
As with the agricultural analogy (3:6, “I planted the seed,
Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.”), so with the architectural
(3:10, “I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is
building on it.”) — it is always God’s sovereign work, and the Lord
Jesus is the Foundation: “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one
already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (3:11) Therefore, Christians who
are engaged in building the Temple must be careful how they build it, for
it must be built on the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Furthermore, one must build
according to God’s building plans; then the Temple will be adorned with
gold, silver and costly stones. After
all, the Church, the Bride of Christ, is the Holy City, adorned with all
manner of exquisite and beautiful things. Revelation 21:9-21 makes it very clear that the Bride is the
City:
“Come, I will show you the
bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he . . . showed me the Holy City,
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory
of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like
a jasper, clear as crystal . . . The wall was made of jasper, and the
city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls
were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation
was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth
emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh
chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase,
the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were
twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the
city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
This picture of the City as a
person, as over against persons simply inhabiting the City, is found in
other passages, too, such as Galatians 4:26 (“But the Jerusalem that is
above is free, and she is our mother.”).
It is through the gathered people of God that we hear the gospel
and come to believe; as many have said, “The Church is the mother of
believers.”
Hebrews 12:22-24 makes it plain that
when we gather with believers on earth, we are already united with the
City that is above:
But you (he is writing to flesh
and blood humans who physically live on earth.) have come (Greek perfect
tense, indicating past action with present, continuing results) to Mount
Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have
come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the
church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have
come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made
perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled
blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
After all, God has already “raised
us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ
Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6) Pondering
this, undoubtedly, was what inspired Samuel J. Stone to write:
Yet she on earth hath union with God
the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.
The process of the sanctification
and beatification of the whole earth under the New Covenant is foretold in
Zechariah:
On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will
be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the
LORD’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar.
Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty, and
all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them.
(Zechariah 14:20-21)
All of life is sacred; every calling
is a priestly calling to worship God, whether I am preaching in public
worship, crafting furniture, teaching little children or changing diapers.
But this sacralization of earthly life is moving toward the consummation:
at the Return of Christ, when the City comes down to earth, the
Building is complete and the Third Temple is God himself: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” (Revelation 21:22)
Yet we are united with Christ, who is the Head of the Body, and so
we continue as living stones in the consummated Temple.
It is in that context that we must
read the last half of 1 Corinthians 3.
It is not about individuals who don’t get enough exercise or who smoke
or eat too much sugar and fat or drink too much alcohol.
It is about how we are to be engaged in building the Temple.
Some truly build on the Foundation
of Christ and his Apostles, yet they use worldly methods to do God’s
work. Their edifice may be
large and grand, but it will not stand the test of eternity, because the
wood, hay and straw will be burned up.
Each builder’s “work will be shown for what it is, because the
Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire
will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives,
he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he
himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” (1
Corinthians 3:13-15)
All believers, in all ages, form but
one holy Temple, the Third Temple, the final temple, indwelt with the
Shekinah Glory of God: “Don’t
you (plural) know that you yourselves (plural) are God’s temple
(singular) and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”
(1 Corinthians 3:16)
True Christians can resort to
worldly methods to build God’s Temple, but what about those false
teachers who rob the Church of the gospel and by false teaching destroy
it? “If anyone destroys God’s
temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you
(plural) are that temple (singular).” (1 Corinthians 3:17)
As I ponder that dreadful passage, I
am grateful for God’s wonderful promise of preservation, and I look to
him alone for my salvation.
To him who is able to keep you
from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without
fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory,
majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all
ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24, 25)
Bob
Vincent |
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