destructive divisions

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

The collective church is a very special and holy group of people. When believers gather together, God dwells in us by His Spirit in a unique way in that assembly. That is what Paul is instructing the church in Corinth to understand. The “you” is these two verses is plural. Paul is saying that “y’all” are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When individual Christians gather together for “church”, they are all a temple in which the Spirit of God lives. That is a very holy assembly, never to be entered into lightly.

The Corinthian church struggled to understand this. Paul would need to instruct them on a whole list of problems that they needed to correct so that they would stop destroying the beauty of this holy temple. They were in grave danger of God’s judgment. In order to right themselves and restore the correct picture of this holy temple, they would need to repent and change or they would face the discipline of God Who does not take lightly our light views of His holy church.

Divisiveness was a huge problem in Corinth. One of their first kinds of divisiveness was over leadership personalities. Some had taken pride in the fact that they were originally part of Paul’s initial evangelism in Corinth. Others were proud to have been disciples in the ministry of Apollos. A third group was influenced most by the ministry of Peter (Cephas in 1 Corinthians 3:21). But all of this fracturing was threatening to tear down the temple built on Christ. Divisiveness needed to be turned from at all costs.

And what needed to be loved, changed, and turned to was this commitment to the beauty of God’s holy temple, the church, as believers were gathered together. This is still important today. My heart grieves for the divisions that currently crumple God’s temple. 

Lord,

Deliver Christians from personality and celebrity divisiveness! We are so fleshly. Delivers us from minor theological bickering! We are so petty. Deliver us from racial or ethnic divisiveness! We are so prejudiced. Deliver us from political bickering! We are so idolatrous. Make us truly one, O Lord, a holy temple where we meet with You as You live in us. Lead us to turn from these things to Jesus! Build that temple strongly as we unite around the message and power of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, our only foundation!

Amen