if a man destroys the temple, Cod will destroy him. I see this as a reference to those who encourage Christians to follow man rather than Cod Himself. They are en couraging the believers at Corinth to turn their backs on the leading of the Spirit, on the instruction that is coming from holy men of Cod, and they are simply saying: "Look, why do we not follow some man made philosophy as our religion?" If a person begins to talk like that, Cod says, he is destroying the very nature of His temple because it is a spiritual building and must re main pure. Cod alone is to be praised; never man. Under such circumstances* Paul says that God will remove them. Keep in mind that these were the early days of the church. Cod was establishing a body of believers that would have far-reaching ef fects upon the world. We today who know the Lord Jesus Christ are the recipients of those who taught faithfully and earnestly the message of salvation and Christian living. Now some people in the very early days were seeking to destroy this instrument, the Church, that God was going to use in such a mighty way. It may be that as God dealt with the children of Israel He would have to deal with the Cor inthians and remove those who would destroy this work. These defilers were probably not Christians but natural men, as Paul calls them. At best they were car nal Christians who were more hin drance than help. Later in I Cor inthians 11, we will see that, to protect the testimony of this early church, some at Corinth were sick and others had died. Tampering
is emphasizing the unity of all be lievers. And he says that these people (this is plural) are a temple (temple is singular). Even though individual Christians may be, as it were, little temples. A temple specifies the purpose of a building by showing that it is the residence of a god. Let me go back in history to illustrate. The Creeks built the Parthenon on a hill in Athens as a temple for the worship of Athena, a Creek god dess. In the inner part of this tem ple was placed a statue of Athena. This was Athena's temple; it was for her worship. But in reality, both the statue and the Parthenon itself were man-made and monu ments to man's ability. The same word that is used for that special inner court of that temple in the Parthenon, where the statue was placed, is the word for temple that Paul uses here. But here it is not a court for a monu ment of man. Here it is not the temple that houses some special man-made artifact. Here the temple is the body of believers, and the Holy Spirit alone resides within. What a contrast! If a building is to be used properly, its purpose or nature must be understood. And we are Cod's temple, not the tool of any man or the followers of anyone, save God. We are wholly His. But this building and its purpose can be endangered. Its use can be perverted. I Corinthians 3:17 says the temple can be defiled, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall Cod destroy." Two key words are used in our English translation — "defile" and "destroy." But actually, they are the same word. It simply says that
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