“Don’t you know” was a phrase I heard a lot during my middle school years when I lived in Minnesota. Actually, it sounded more like “Dontcha know.” It could be used a variety of ways, but one major use of this “Minnesota-ese” is less of a question and more of a statement that assumed affirmation or agreement with what was said.
While the Apostle Paul never traveled to Minnesota, he utilizes a very similar phrase a number of times in his letter to the Corinthians that we know as 1 Corinthians – 10 times by my count (3:16; 5:6; 6:2, 3, 9, 15, 16, 19; 9:13, 24). When he asks them that question of “don’t you know,” Paul isn’t seeking to find out whether or not they know something. Rather, he is assuming that they know this to be true, either in light of what they learned from him or from general knowledge. The implied and expected answer to this question is “yes, we know that,” so another way you could translate the Greek phrase used here is “you know, don’t you?”
Two of the times that Paul uses this phrase, he speaks about the temple of God (3:16; 6:19), reminding the Corinthians – and reminding us – how we should view both the church community and our own bodies as being God’s temple.
The Church as the Temple of God
In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul writes: “Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and that is what you are” (CSB). I suspect the use of the word “yourselves” here by the translations of the Christian Standard Bible is an attempt to reveal that the “you” here is not singular but rather plural (other translations, like the English Standard Version – ESV – will note the plural nature of this word in a footnote). Therefore, Paul is not telling Christians here that they are the temple of God as individuals but rather as a community; the church body is the temple of God.
The city of Corinth had a number of different temples dedicated to different gods. These were places of worship and sacrifice, filled with immoral practices but also places in which important people may connect with each other. Christians therefore were very different people from their neighbors because they would not go to these temples if they worshipped Jesus (though some still did – much to Paul’s dismay and something that he addresses in 1 Corinthians) and did not seek to build a temple to their god. Instead of building a place to go to worship and sacrifice, they were building a community of people who confessed and believed the same thing. Additionally, in the Jewish world the temple was the place where God’s Spirit dwells; it is no longer that God’s Spirit only dwells in this special way in one particular building but rather wherever God’s people gather together – in Corinth but also in other places where Christians were found.
These words about the church being the temple of God come in the context of Paul’s discussion about preachers and teachers in light of the way that affection and allegiance to various teachers was causing division in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 1:10-12; 3:1-9). Paul notes that these figures – himself, Apollos, Peter (whom he calls Cephas here) – were workers of “God’s building” (3:9) and that such workers were called to be faithful in their work, building on a foundation of Jesus (3:10-15).
Paul’s concern, though, does not appear to be the conduct of these teachers in particular, as he seems to affirm them and their work. Rather, it is upon the Corinthians whose evaluation of these teachers based upon the standards of their culture was causing division. Therefore, Paul’s warning about people destroying the temple of God here is certainly applicable to teachers and leaders (and one I take seriously) but is directed to all the people in the church; those destroying the temple of God were the ones sowing seeds of division through their desire to feel superior to others and placing people and preferences over the cross of Christ. In doing so, they were actually desecrating God’s temple, something that God would take just as seriously as those who dishonored his temple back in Jerusalem.
The Christian as the Temple of God
Paul uses this temple imagery again but with a different referent and application in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body” (CSB). Whereas earlier Paul described the temple as the Corinthian community, here the temple is each believer’s body.
This reference to the temple is in the context of his discussion about the sexual immorality that was happening in Corinth, as it seems that some in the church were visiting prostitutes. While that might be shocking to us, it was not a surprising thing in that city or culture because prostitution was prominent. Its prevalence came in part because there was a general cultural view that a man had a wife to produce heirs but could have relations with other women to fulfill other desires; prostitution could also be connected to various practices in the temples of other gods. They didn’t seem to believe that this bodily action had any deeper significance. Some Christians in Corinth seem to have adopted this view, justifying such behavior based upon the idea that the body was something that God will end up destroying, it does not matter what one does with it (see 1 Corinthians 6:13).
Paul confronts that misapplication of Christianity by affirming the reality of the resurrection, noting that God will raise our bodies just like he raised the body of the Lord Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 6:14; the connection between Christ’s resurrection and our hope of resurrected bodies like his is also found in 1 Corinthians 15). An additional point that Paul makes is that such actions effectively unite Christ with a prostitute since in light of God’s design for sexuality to “make the two” one and the Christian’s identity as part of the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 6:16-18); this was much more than a physical act. After making those points, Paul then goes on to make this remark about our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit, which means that we don’t belong to ourselves and should seek to have our bodies honor God. While those in Corinth might use the temples to other gods for immorality, Christians should view themselves as being the temple and seek to maintain holiness. Because the Spirit resides in us, we should no longer view our bodies for what we desire but rather for what God desires.
While the particular application behind this reference to our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit is in the realm of sexuality, the general principle would also have wider application in terms of showing that what we do with our bodies matters; our faith is not just “spiritual” but is also physical, impacting what we do with and to our bodies. We should not use it to engage in activities that conflict with His Word or compromise how God has set us apart through His Spirit. We should view our bodies as devoted to and dedicated to God and His purposes; we flee from sin but we then also pursue holiness.
Valuing the Body of Christ and our Bodies
Recognizing that the church community – which Paul later calls the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians) – and our bodies are “temples” means that we should value both of these bodies, something that the Corinthians seemed to struggle with and Christians continue to struggle with today.
This means that we should seek to keep the church a unified and holy place. We should fight against division, not seeking to divide the church through our actions or our attitudes. Leaders need to make sure that the church community grows and develops in accordance with God’s values rather than the world’s values, but it is also incumbent upon all the people in a church community to make sure that what they are valuing and seeking is in accordance with God’s way of working – which is often “foolish” in the eyes of the world – rather than their preferences or desires. Leaders are held accountable for their failure to lead well, but it would seem that God also will hold to account those whose influence destroys the church or leads it to compromise its holiness.
In addition to viewing the church community as a temple of God, we should each see our bodies as being a temple of God because the Holy Spirit takes up residence in it. This means that what we do and how we treat our bodies matters. We should not view our bodies as something that we need to escape from but something that God makes holy and will raise up. If the people of Israel treated the temple with great reverence and respect in light of what God has done – seeking to keep it undefiled from sin – then how much more should we. Holiness is not simply the avoidance of sin but also the dedication to what is good and pleasing to God.
The temple of God is no longer a building but the church (Christ’s body) and the Christian (our bodies), so we should value both of them and see both as dedicated to God’s purposes instead of our preferences – dontcha know.
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