“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV
When I read this verse for the first time and truly looked at it, it filled me with joy. We are God’s temple here on earth. We are what He dwells in. In the old testament He dwelt in the garden with Adam and Eve, He dwelt in a tabernacle, He dwelt in an ark, He dwelt on a mountain. In the new testament that all changed and God moved His presence from a place where we had to go to Him to a place where He came to us and now lives inside each and every believer. I love this, that God’s Spirit dwells inside us.
As we think of God’s temple or His dwelling place, a building usually comes to mind, but that is exactly how this verse encourages us to think differently. The same is true when we think of the Church as a whole, we also tend to think of a building but again, we are encouraged to think differently. God does not need a building to dwell in, He can dwell or ‘be’ anywhere He wants, so why not inside each and every believer.
What that means to me is that ‘We’, all the believers, are the Church. We are His dwelling place here on earth. He is everywhere because there are believers everywhere, all over the globe. My encouragement to all of us is to live life remembering we are God’s temple and to interact with everyone in a way that shows the world we are God’s temple.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for living inside each and every believer. Thank You for always being with us. Please help us to show the world that we, who are not deserving of such a great privilege and honor, are Your temple here on earth. In Jesus’s name, Amen.