Ramblings on What We Share: A Dwelling Place

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. Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. I Corinthians 3:16-23

In the Old Testament, the temple was the place where God met men. The Ark of the Covenant was called the mercy seat (Ex. 25:17 KJV), a seemingly empty throne that could only be sat upon by the invisible, all-powerful Yahweh. God called the temple His dwelling place (Lev. 15:31) and the Apostle Paul makes that connection here with how God relates to the followers of Jesus.

In this passage, He emphasizes that the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst opens up the entire world to us. All things are yours. It is a humbling thought that the apostles, the world, time, and life itself belong to those who are of Christ. Everything before existed to this end – that God may dwell among men.

This is a pearl of wisdom the world does not comprehend. Let us not be deceived by the lies the world tells us about all things being random and chaos. All things have been for us, Brothers and Sisters, and are ours to embrace.