Apostles & Prophets: Their Roles in the Past, the Present, and the Last DaysSample

You Are God’s Dwelling Place

In First Corinthians 3:9, Paul concluded the illustration of the Church as a vineyard and moved to a new metaphor to describe the Church. It was almost as if he said, “Hey, I know another illustration that is even better” — then added, “…Ye are God’s building.”

To understand what kind of “building” Paul was alluding to in this verse, we must look at the conclusion of this passage in First Corinthians 3, where he wrote in verse 16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

The “building” Paul refers to is the Church, which he notably calls the “temple” of God. The word “temple” is a translation of the Greek word naos, a word that was used by Greeks in the ancient world to describe a temple where a god dwelled.

By using this same Greek word naos over and over throughout his epistles, Paul imparted the apostolic vision that God is building a body of believers into a temple for the habitation of the Holy Spirit in the earth. Paul importantly used the word naos to depict the Church as a temple where God today dwells by His Spirit. In fact, naos is a very commonly used metaphor that Paul employed in the New Testament to depict who and what the Church is.

This illustration comparing the Church to a building or a temple can also be found in Jesus’ first depiction of the Church in Matthew 16:18 (ESV), where He said, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

The words “I will build” are translated from a form of the Greek word oikodomeo, a word that is emphatically a construction term used to depict the building of a structure — in this case, the Church, which Jesus pictures as the new temple of God. This word oikodomeo is extremely important as Paul, Peter, and John often metaphorically compared the Church to a building or a temple in their inspired writings.

Paul specifically described the ministry of Christ-given apostles to assist in building the new “naos” Temple of God in the earth today. Tomorrow we will look at what a true apostle is.

Questions to Discuss:

In First Peter 2:5, we read that God is building the Church to become a Temple that is composed of “living stones.” What does it mean that God is building the Church to be a Temple in the earth? And what or who are the “living stones” He is using to construct it?