The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 116

Vers. 16, 17.-The temple of God. Paul again takes up the idea of a building and gives it a new direction. The noblest of all edifices is a temple in which architecture finds its highest and worthiest employment. Under this figure the apostle sets forth sometimes the collective Church of Christ, sometimes the individual believer (eh. vi. 19; Eph. ii. 21). Man was created to be a sanctuary of God, but this sanctuary was overturned by sin. It lay in ruins till the Lord Jesus came as the Restorer, whose work it is to rebuild the ruined walls; and now the temple is seen rising in its fair proportions in the hearts of the regenerated, and in the spiritual house built of these living stones (1 Pet. ii. 5). I. BELIEVERS ARE GoD's TEMPLE. 1. God dwells in them. The temple at Jerusalem was Jehovah's dwelling-place. There he had bis Shechinah in the cloud above the mercy-seat and between the cherubim, and there he was worshipped. Even so "the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." '!'he Father and the Son make their abode with the man who loves and obeys the Son (John xiv. 23), and this is effected by the Spirit. This indw11lling is the culmination of the work of grace within us. The heart must first be quickened, renewed, purified, ere the Holy Spirit can dwell in it. How wonderful a truth is this! God in me! It is not the dream of the pantheist, who calls me a spark from the eternal fire-Gou. dwelling in me because I am only a mode of the one universal existence. It is not the raving of the mystic, whose imagination has betrayed him into a hazy confusion of ideas regarding bis relation to God. It is the utterance of sober truth. In me the creature-the new creature-God the Creator makes his abode; not, indeed, in the infinity of his being, as if our tiny vessels could contain the ocean, yet really. The little flower-cup has the sun dwelling in it all the day, though he dwells in thousands besides; and his presence is made known by the colour and fragrance and growth of the flower. '!'he same Spirit of God who abides in the Church abides in every true member of it; and this abiding is revealed in the love shed abroad in the heart, in the odour that breathes through the life, and in the gracious bending of the nature to all that is righteous. 2. They are holy. As the place where Jehovah dwelt, the Jewish temple was holy--consecrated to him, and to him alone. None but an Israelite could tread the outer court; none but the priests could serve in the holy place; none bnt the high priest could enter the holy of holies. Believers are holy, set apart for God and his fervice. They are not a public street or common, which the ~H. m. 1-23.] 'l'.HE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 11'.l