Of the Temple, and of Wisdom

It has been quite a long time since my last blog post. I had some personal things I have needed to work through, but I'm back again. :) 

1 Cor. 3:16-23  "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?  (17)  If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.  (18)  Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  (19)  For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their craftiness,'  (20)  and again, 'The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.'  (21)  So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,  (22)  whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,  (23)  and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

To continue on the series that I was working on going through 1 Corinthians, I will go through my thoughts about 1 Corinthians 3:16-23.

It somewhat seems like a bunch of random thoughts thrown together, however, all Scripture is God-breathed and I did my best to connect the different concepts. However, some of them I struggled to find the connection, therefore I suggest you read the passage and study it on your own (and really the rest of the chapter) to find any context I didn't provide.

1 Cor 3:16 "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"

It used to be that God resided above the Ark of the Covenant and His presence was always there:

Exod. 25:21-22 "And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you.  (22)  There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel."

However, now that we have entered into a new covenant and the Holy Spirit resides in us and Christ is our mediator and we have constant access to the Father.

Heb. 9:24  "For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf."  

Christ’s death has given us the Holy Spirit, and wherever God dwells is holy and is a temple of God. The word “dwell” refers to living someplace with permanence. Therefore, the Holy Spirit lives in us and we are his habitation. The fact that He dwells in a place makes it His temple. Now, knowing that we are the temple of God, how are we to live? We are supposed to live pure and holy lives that are representative of the person who lives inside us. We are supposed to let the light of God shine through our lives. For he is a pure and holy God, and if we don’t live that way, it is evidence that the Holy Spirit doesn't live in us.

1 Cor. 3:17 "If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."

Paul just finished discussing and posing the notion that we are God’s temple, and here he goes on to say what we need to do with that information. It says that if anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. The word “destroyed” means to defile, to ruin, or to spoil. It doesn't necessarily mean the word “destruction” in the sense of a building being completely destroyed, so much as it could mean graffiti, or bringing something unholy into the temple, or vandalism.  God destroyed any who did those things to his temple in the Old Testament. An example is when the Philistines captured the ark and attempted to keep it in their pagan temple. First God destroyed their idol, and then He gave the people of Ashdod tumors, killing some. Therefore, how much more should we be careful of our own bodies, and of the temple of God? I believe this warning is spoken mostly to apply to ourselves, but also others. For we need to respect our bodies, we need to take care of them, we need to try to keep them pure and holy, free from sin, free from all bondage. We also need to keep others who are the temple of God, holy and pure, and we need to respect their bodies and respect them because of the holiness that God gave them through His presence within them.

1 Cor. 3:18-19 "Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.  (19)  For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their craftiness.'"

Back in chapter one, Paul described those that are chosen by God, and God chooses those that are humble. 1 Cor. 1:26-29 "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  (27)  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; (28) God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, (29) so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." God chooses the foolish, the weak, the low, and the despised to be His servants. In order for us to become His perfect servants, we must become humble, we must acknowledge our own foolishness, and in so doing, we become wise. It is a paradox, yet it’s what God has instituted for us as His perfect plan. We need to realize that although worldly wisdom or knowledge can be useful for surviving here on earth, it doesn't save us, and it can lead us into a prideful state that is very dangerous. As it says in verse 19, the wisdom of the world is folly with God, and it warns in Col. 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” It’s very easy to be taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit which are based in human tradition. An example of this is evolution, those that believe in macro-evolution and try to mix it with the Bible have been taken captive by empty deceit, and they have chosen to believe worldly wisdom over the “foolishness” of the Bible. The Bible is clear about what is true, and yet people try to twist it and say “well that’s just poetry” or they say “that’s not what it really means.” They are trusting scientists that are not believers to interpret the evidence for them without the lens of the Bible and then they take their word for it even if it contradicts what the Bible says. To the world, the Bible is foolish, and if we don’t renounce our worldly wisdom, we will never gain true wisdom for we will be taken captive by empty deceit and philosophy.

1 Cor. 3:20  "and again, 'The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.'"

The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; He knows what they are thinking (He also knows what we are thinking). It says here that their thoughts are futile. The word means it’s vain - they are pointless thoughts. Why are they pointless? Because they are worldly wisdom, and though “wisdom,” they are worldly which makes them corrupt and also fruitless. An interesting note of this word is that it can be used to indicate idolatry (empty worship) and vanity (somewhat relating to pride in one’s accomplishments, or character). Therefore it leads me to believe that this is also referring to people who take pride in their wisdom (therefore they are an idol to themselves). Although they are “wise,” their wisdom is in vain due to their pride in themselves, and their wisdom will avail nothing. God, as it says in verse 19, will catch the wise in their craftiness.

1 Cor. 3:21-23  "So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,  (22)  whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,  (23)  and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."

Men are flawed and nothing they do on their own will be fruitful or pure or godly. Anything that is good will be from God, not men. Rom. 7:18 "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." As Paul is clear to tell us, there is nothing good within us, and anything that is “good” is from God, not ourselves. Therefore, they shouldn't put themselves under the banner of “I follow Paul” or “I follow Apollos” or “I follow Cephas” because although they have been made great by God, they are still only His creations, and it’s only to God’s credit that they are to be lifted up.

The phrase “for all things are yours” indicates that the previous statements are important to the following statement. The previous statement shows that men aren't worthy to boast in because their wisdom is folly in God’s eyes. This means that one shouldn't boast in men, because all of God’s creation was given to man. Moreover, we should realize that all of these things are given to us by God. Furthermore, we were given to Christ and Christ was given to God. So all of those things were given to us by God, yet they belong still to God. But we shouldn't boast in them because they are God’s not ours. We should be united because they are given to all of us by God for our benefit.