Welcome to the Come to Jesus Daily Devotional. Today, as we continue our ‘God’s vision for the church’ series and how as God’s holy temple, the church is to seek to repent of all sin and pursue holiness.
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‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.’ (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
It’s easy to forget important things. Here, Paul is urging the church at Corinth to know and remember that they are God’s temple. Identity is important. Who we think we are will have a massive impact on us. Some at the Corinthian church had forgotten who they were and were destroying God’s temple by participating in sexual immorality and other serious sin. We can damage and destroy God’s temple in a number of ways:
i. Poor understanding and ignorance
A very common way that the church is damaged is through poor teaching. We fail to understand that the church is God’s holy people. We teach through words and practice that the ‘holy temple’ is the building or holy places. We can rob ourselves of faith and expectation because God has promised to fill us and be with His people who meet in His name.
ii. The wrong foundation
Linked to the previous point, If we build on poor foundations, as with parable about building on rock or sand, we will experience subsidence and collapse. Likewise, building the church on the wrong foundation is very common. We build a church on social action, dead traditions, false teaching, prosperity, healing, gifts of the Spirit, evangelism… even good things must not be made the main thing and become a shaky foundation! Paul tells us
‘By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 3:10-11)
Jesus, and the gospel, are the church’s foundation! All good and important things must never take the priority over this! When thinking if a church is good or not, the first thing to ask is, ‘Is this built on the foundation of Christ - the gospel?’ Everything else flows from this. This is the foundation - it’s not the only thing - but it’s the most vital thing.
iii. Sin
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul is warning of how sin damages God’s holy temple. He urges them to repent and live in light of their being God’s holy temple. They were to strive to remove all sinful attitudes and practices, which damage the church. There has always been a tension in regard to how much the church is to interact with ‘the world’ and what things to accept and what to reject. This is complex but of this we must be sure, choosing to embrace sinful practices in order to look like the world in order to reach the world is out of step with God’s vision for the church as His holy temple.
iv. Unforgiveness
Linked to the previous point, unforgiveness and division is a particularly damaging sin. A vision of the church as God’s holy temple does not sit well with allowing broken relationships to be unresolved. The ‘living stones’ cannot be ‘built together’ if we have broken relationships.
v. Unfaithfulness
If we are not devoted to our community and worshipping with our church community, we are hindering the health of the church. Too many, sometimes through a poor understanding of grace, are very poor in faithfully meeting with the church. We may have good reasons but if something is a priority to us, as God’s holy temple should be, it will mean that we say no to lesser important things rather than being so ready to miss meeting with the church in favour of other things.
Response
In response, let’s recall our text:
‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.’ (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
Rather than destroying God’s temple, they are urged to remember who they are as ‘God’s holy temple’ and to build with wisdom:
‘By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.’ (1 Corinthians 3:10)
Do we know that we are God’s temple and are we building with care? As ‘living stones’ in God’s building are we seeking holiness? Are we encouraging holiness in others? Jesus reveals His zeal for the holiness of His temple when He cleared the temple courts:
‘In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’’ (John 2:14-17)
As Jesus overturned the tables of those who were using the holy temple as a market, so He wants us to join Him in driving out all sin from our lives. May it be said of us, as it was said of Him: ‘Zeal for your house consumes me’!
'Together' meeting notes
Over the next two 'Together' evenings, we will briefly reflect on our 'God's vision for the church' vision series. This week, we reflect on the promise of God to build His church and the temple metaphor.
1. God has promised and the enemy is opposing
We need to have faith in God’s vision for the church because God has promised to build His church and this is under demonic assault:
‘And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.’ (Matthew 16:18)
Pray together: Pray for one another regarding our involvement in building His church. Pray for the church to be built and protected. Specifically, pray for our Community Groups.
2. The church is God’s Chosen people and His temple
The word ‘church’ (ekklēsía) in our text, means to be ‘called out from’, and ‘called to’. The church is all the people ‘called out from the world’ in order to belong to God - we are those chosen by God to be holy for Him and serve Him in this world.
One of the metaphors that’s used for the church is of her being God’s holy temple:
‘Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.(Ephesians 2:20-22)
Discuss:
What is our ‘foundation’ and ‘cornerstone’ and what does this mean?
What is meant by ‘joined together and rises’ and ‘built together’?
What does it mean to be a ‘holy temple in the Lord’?
What does it mean to be ‘a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit'?
How should God’s vision of us being His holy temple be reflected in our various meetings for worship and prayer?
How does is this metaphor to be applied in our individual lives?
Specifically, how should God’s vision for the church as a holy temple affect our vision for our Community Group meetings?
Pray together: Pray for the church and your Community Group to better reflect her identity as God’s holy temple and dwelling place.
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