你们是神的殿 You Are God’s Temple
哥林多前书 1 Cor 3:10–15
Remember these points
I put these points at the top of my sermon-prep template to remind myself every week:
- Show that main point of passage relates to Jesus and his saving work
- (1 Cor 1:18) A truly gospel-centred message will not be acceptable in a synagogue or mosque
- Did I proclaim the gospel as the headline news of the sermon, rather than as a “by the way…”?
- Unbelievers are called to repent, believe, and be saved
- Believers are encouraged to abandon their old self, renew their minds, put on the new self in Christ
- Preach simple sermons, so that God’s people can see Christ more clearly and love him more dearly
News
The 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, international hockey tournament
12–20 Feb 2025
Canada, Finland, Sweden, United States
In the finals, Canada defeated USA 3–2! Yay!
Hook
Herod’s Temple
This is a model of what Herod’s temple would look in 1st century Jerusalem.
Jesus and Paul would have seen something similar.
The model is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, 1:50 scale, covering 2,000 square-metres.
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This is the temple mount today.
It’s occupied by 2 Muslim mosques. Jews are not allowed up there.
Another view of the temple.
You can see the Court of the Gentiles (the large white checker-board area), the “fence” that separates the Gentile area from the Jewish area, then the temple precinct (enclosed by walls).
Inside the temple precinct is the Women’s Court, up the semicircular steps going further inside is the Jewish Court (only men can go in), and further in is the Priests Court (only priests can go in).
Inside the tall structure is the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.
Passage
Paul used this phrase “Do you not know” 10x in 1 Corinthians.
He uses a similar phrase 6x in 1 Thessalonians, “You know” or “You yourselves know.”
What’s the difference between the two?
In (1), the Corinthians should know, but they don’t.
In (2), Paul is simply affirming what the Thessalonians knew.
Paul is not being gentle to the Corinthian church!
Left blue box:
The “you” is plural. It’s obvious in Chinese, but not so in English translations.
So this verse (1 Cor 3:16) is not about each individual Christian; it applies to a group of Christians.
What do we call a group of Christians gathered together?
The church!
The church is God’s temple.
Right blue box:
“Temple” translates to different Greek nouns, depending on the passage.
ναὸς (Naos): The sanctuary of a temple, the Holy Place or Holy of Holies
ἱερόν (Hieron): The temple precinct itself, including the sanctuary
In today’s passage, Paul used ναὸς (Naos), so he’s saying the church is where God dwells!
In 1 Cor 6:19, Paul does refer to individual Christians. Here in today’s passage, it’s the church.
This would be very surprising to the Jews, who couldn’t give up the idea that their to temple is done.
The ναὸς (Naos) is where God comes down to be with the people.
“God’s spirit dwells in you” should more properly be translated “God’s spirit dwells in your midst.”
Only the NIV translates it “in your midst,” while all other English translations (and all Chinese ones as well) has “dwells in you.”
These are serious words.
The church is God’s treasure, and God will exact judgement on anyone who tries to destroy it.
Who is destroying God’s church in Corinth?
It’s the Corinthian Christians themselves!
God’s temple is holy (separate). Thus we also are holy.
We are separated (holy), different from the world.
We don’t belong to the world.
与我有什么关系? So What?
- A Christian can’t be isolated from the community (the church).
“I can just worship on my own” is an oxymoron. - When we gather together, God is in our midst:
- Thus worship in church is a serious matter, we can’t be too casual about it.
- Serving in the church is just as serious, and we definitely can’t be casual in serving the church (or God).
- Outside the church, there are many who would want to destroy it.
The scariest thing is Christians inside the church, destroying the church from the inside (like the Corinthians are doing). - The church is Jesus Christ’s bride! Be careful how we (as a church) behave, and how we treat the church.