God's Sacred Construction Zone Text: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Introduction: A Change in Metaphor
The Apostle Paul has been laboring to correct the carnal, worldly mindset that had taken root in the Corinthian church. They were behaving like infants, not spiritual men. They were divided into personality cults, rallying behind their favorite preachers, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos." Paul first addressed this arrogance using an agricultural metaphor. He planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. The preachers are nothing more than farmhands in God's field. You Corinthians are that field.
But now, in our text, Paul switches metaphors, and the stakes get much, much higher. He moves from the farm to the construction site, and not just any construction site. He is talking about the building of a temple. The church is not just God's field; it is God's house. And it is not just God's house; it is His sanctuary, His holy temple. This shift is designed to instill a sense of awe and holy fear. You don't treat a construction site for a holy temple the way you treat a muddy field. You don't bring your carnal squabbles, your prideful divisions, and your worldly wisdom into the Holy of Holies. Paul is telling the Corinthians, and by extension, us, that they are treading on holy ground, and they had better take off their shoes.
We live in an age where the church is treated as a consumer commodity. It is a place we go to get our needs met, to hear inspiring music, to find a good children's program. We evaluate it based on its amenities and its customer service. But Paul here demolishes that entire way of thinking. The church is not a vendor of religious goods and services. The church is the dwelling place of the living God. It is the place where heaven and earth meet. To trifle with the church, to divide it, to defile it, is not just a matter of bad manners. It is an act of high treason against the God who dwells there.
The Text
Do you not know that you are a sanctuary of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the sanctuary of God, God will destroy him, for the sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are.
(1 Corinthians 3:16-17 LSB)
Your Corporate Identity (v. 16)
Paul begins with a question that is not a request for information, but a sharp rebuke.
"Do you not know that you are a sanctuary of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16 LSB)
When Paul says, "Do you not know," he is saying, "How can you possibly be ignorant of this? This is basic Christianity 101." The Corinthians were proud of their knowledge, their wisdom, and their spiritual gifts, but they were utterly oblivious to the most foundational reality of their existence as a church. Their behavior revealed a profound theological amnesia.
And what is this reality? "You are a sanctuary of God." It is crucial that we get the grammar right here. The word "you" in this verse is plural. Paul is not writing an inspirational memo to individual believers about their personal devotional lives. He addresses that idea later in this letter, in chapter 6, when he speaks of the individual's body being a temple. But here, his focus is corporate. He is saying, "You all, together, as the assembled body of Christ in Corinth, you constitute the sanctuary of God."
The word for sanctuary is naos. This is not the general word for the entire temple complex (hieron). The naos was the inner sanctum, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, the actual dwelling place of God's presence. In the Old Testament, the glory of God, the Shekinah, descended and filled the Tabernacle, and later Solomon's Temple, in a visible, terrifying cloud. That glory was so intense that the priests could not even enter to minister. Paul is saying that this same reality, in an even greater way, is true of the local church. The gathered saints in Corinth, a messy and carnal bunch to be sure, were the place on earth where the living God had taken up residence.
How? "...and that the Spirit of God dwells in you." The Holy Spirit is not just a force or an influence. He is the third person of the Trinity, God Himself. And He has made the corporate body of the church His home. This is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament temple typology. God no longer dwells in buildings made with hands. He dwells in a building made of living stones, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. Your church, your local assembly, is the embassy of the kingdom of heaven, precisely because the Spirit of God has made it His dwelling. This is what makes a church a church. It is not the 501(c)(3) status, or the sign out front, or the quality of the coffee. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the gathered people of God.
A Symmetrical Judgment (v. 17)
Because the church is God's holy dwelling, a solemn warning follows. The logic is inescapable.
"If any man destroys the sanctuary of God, God will destroy him, for the sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are." (1 Corinthians 3:17 LSB)
The verb Paul uses for "destroy" here is phtheiro. It can mean to destroy, to ruin, to corrupt, or to defile. In the context of the Corinthian church, what did this destruction look like? It looked like their divisions. It looked like their jealousy and strife. It looked like their arrogance in following human leaders. It looked like their toleration of gross sexual sin, which Paul will address in chapter 5. It looked like their lawsuits against one another. Anything that shatters the unity of the church, corrupts its doctrine, or defiles its purity is an act of ecclesial vandalism. It is an attempt to tear down what God is building.
And the punishment for this crime is terrifying in its symmetry. "If any man destroys (phtheiro) the sanctuary of God, God will destroy (phtheiro) him." Paul uses the very same verb. This is the lex talionis, the principle of an eye for an eye. The punishment fits the crime perfectly. God says, "You lay a hand on my house, and I will lay my hand on you. You seek to ruin my church, and I will bring you to ruin." This is one of the most severe warnings in all of the New Testament. This is not talking about someone who has a minor disagreement with an elder or who prefers a different style of worship music. This is talking about the schismatic, the heretic, the fomenter of division, the one who sets himself up against the peace and purity of Christ's body. God takes the well being of His church personally. To attack the church is to attack Him.
Why is the punishment so severe? "For the sanctuary of God is holy." The word holy (hagios) means "set apart." The church is not common. It does not belong to us. It is not a social club to be arranged according to our preferences. It belongs to God, set apart for His purposes and for His glory. Its holiness is not grounded in the moral perfection of its members, the Corinthians are exhibit A of that. Its holiness is grounded in the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells there. He has consecrated this people for Himself.
And then Paul brings it right back to them, lest they think he is speaking in abstractions. He concludes, "...and that is what you are." The original Greek is even more emphatic. It could be rendered, "which temple you are." This is your identity. You Corinthians, you are this holy place. You must therefore stop treating it like a common playground for your carnal games. Your behavior must be brought into alignment with your identity.
Conclusion: Be a Builder, Not a Wrecker
The application for us is direct and searching. We must ask ourselves if we truly see our local church this way. Do we see this assembly, with all its flaws and all its quirky people, as the sacred dwelling place of the living God? When we speak about our church, do we speak with reverence? When we engage with our brothers and sisters, do we do so with the understanding that we are handling living stones in God's holy temple?
The sins that were destroying the Corinthian temple are the same sins that destroy churches today. The pride that leads to factions, the gossip that tears down unity, the worldliness that compromises purity, the refusal to submit to biblical leadership, the harboring of bitterness and unforgiveness, these are all forms of spiritual demolition. They are attempts to defile the temple of God.
Every one of us is either a builder or a wrecker in the house of God. There is no neutral ground. You are either mortaring stones together through love, service, forgiveness, and humility, or you are taking a sledgehammer to the walls through your pride, your complaining, and your division.
The good news is that we are not left to ourselves in this. The only reason we can be a temple in the first place is because of the great Temple, the Lord Jesus Christ. His body was the ultimate naos, destroyed by men but raised by God in three days. And now, through faith, we are united to Him. We are His body, and therefore we are the temple of God. The Spirit who dwells in us is the Spirit of Christ. He is the one who builds His church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. And He is the one who empowers us to live as what we are: a holy temple, a dwelling place for God, a pillar and buttress of the truth in our generation.