Temples - 1 Corinthians 3:16-23

I really wanted to finish out chapter 3 before I head out of town for the weekend. Paul has just compared sharing the gospel with constructing a building or growing plants, it takes a lot of work from different people, but ultimately, it is not any of the people who convert others, it is through the Spirit of God that others may be converted. Paul then makes an interesting statement, one that is popular among Christians but also doesn’t seem to fit this train of thought. He says, “know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

This is a well known quote among Christians, but it is usually in terms of our physical bodies. The IM explains, “in this verse, Paul used ye, a plural pronoun, to refer to the Corinthian Saints collectively as God’s temple. Paul’s point was that the congregation of the Church functioned as temples where the Spirit of God could dwell. This analogy is subtly different from the one that Paul used later in 1 Corinthians 6:19, in which he compared a person’s physical body to a temple.”

This is an interesting difference and can really give some insight into just how powerful a group of people can be when they gather together in God’s name. Temple ordinances are essential to salvation, which might imply that a group of people together in one purpose to fulfill God’s will might be essential to salvation as well. I’ve always struggled with the concept of church because honestly, it can be so boring, and I hate Relief Society mostly because of all the crying. Eventually I came to accept that taking the sacrament is very important, but to be completely honest, I usually don’t very much out of church in general.

I usually sit in the foyer during sacrament meeting, because it’s more comfortable and I usually just zone out for RS, (actually I play on my phone a lot.)  I definitely could be doing more to make church a positive spiritual experience for me, and if I consider that the power within a righteous church meeting can be just as strong as the power within the temple, that might give me a little bit more perspective on making an effort for my church meetings.

It in important while considering all the aspects of sharing the gospel and strengthening each other within, not to get too caught up in ourselves and remember that this is God’s work and we must do it his way if we want to participate. Paul says that we must reject the “wisdom of this world” because it “is foolishness with God.” This can be a hard statement to really comprehend because we know that God knows everything and encourages learning, so “wisdom” and “foolishness” can be loaded terms. But I guess it comes down to who’s standard we uphold, or even just adhere to. I’m going to have to think about this more because I understand it, but I’m just having trouble wording it correctly.