The Human Body as the Temple of God
By George I. Butler
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile [margin, “destroy”] the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Cor. 3: 16, 17. There are three things spoken of in the Bible as temples of God:— 1. His temple in heaven. “The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” Rev. 11: 19. This scene takes place in connection with the closing work of Christ just before he comes. 2. The sanctuary erected in the wilderness. The direction was, “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Ex. 25: 8. A sanctuary is a sacred or holy place, a dwelling-place for the Most High, a temple of God. Indeed, the word “temple” is one of the definitions of sanctuary. The sanctuary in the wilderness was but a movable temple, carried from one place to another in the wanderings of the children of Israel. After they were located, the children of Israel built the temple of Solomon, constructed on the same general plan as the movable sanctuary; viz., with two apartments, the holy and the most holy. The temple of Zerubbabel was built in like manner. These structures constituted the “worldly sanctuary” here on earth, made after the pattern that the Lord showed Moses and David. Ex. 25: 9; Heb. 8: 5; 1 Chron. 28: 12, 19. 3. As the text quoted at the beginning of this article demonstrates, the bodies of God’s true people are called a “temple of God.” Webster’s International Dictionary defines “temple,” “Any place in which the divine presence specially resides,” quoting 1 Cor. 3: 16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?” It would, therefore, seem to be absolutely demonstrated that all men are not “temples” of the living God, but only such as the Spirit of God resides in. As there seems to be some little confusion in the world to-day as to who are “temples of God,” it seems to the writer to be worth while to make some effort to elucidate this question. It certainly should be settled beyond all doubt in every reasonable mind as to who are entitled to this most honorable appellation, “temple of the living God.” Having quite a deep interest in settling this question in harmony with Scriptural teaching, the writer took Young’s large concordance, and closely followed every use of the word “temple” through the long list of instances where it occurs in our English version. They nearly all refer to the temples built by Solomon, Zerubbabel, or Herod. The first instance where the use of the word “temple” can be found applied to the human body is in John 2: 21: “But he spake of the temple of his body.” This occurs in connection with the Jews’ statement, “Forty and six years was this temple [Herod’s] in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?” It must be evident that the use of the word “temple” in Christ’s previous statement, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” was one to which his hearers were not accustomed. It was a new way of using the term. Indeed, in the Old Testament the writer can not recall a single instance where the human body is ever called a temple. But our Saviour in this text plainly speaks of his body as a “temple.” On what grounds does he so call it? Evidently because the divine Spirit and power tabernacled in that body in a wonderful way. In the writer’s best judgment, there can not be found a single instance in which the human body is spoken of as a temple in all the canon of Scripture, unless the indwelling Spirit of God resides in that human body, not one text in which an unconverted, worldly man or a wicked man is ever spoken of as a temple of God. The Spirit of Christ is promised to the church in a special sense, as it was never before in the world’s history. Beginning with John 14, and in several following chapters, Christ enlarges upon the special gift of the Holy Spirit. “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” John 14: 16-23. Here is the special promise of Christ of the Spirit, the representative of the Father and the Son, which enables the human being who receives that Comforter to become a temple of God and the Holy Spirit. In no other way does the Bible ever promise any one to become such a temple. 1. This special gift from the Father and the Son is called the Comforter, because it gives that comfort to the believing disciple that nothing else will. 2. The Lord says distinctly and positively that the world can not receive this Spirit. It can not, till the worldling repents of his sins and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he is no longer of the world, but belongs to Christ. Therefore worldlings can not be “temples of God.” They must first become true Christians. 3. This gift of the Spirit of God is to remain with his true people throughout the whole Christian dispensation. All the various manifestations of that Spirit in miracles, healings, prophecies, etc., come in consequence of the gift of this Spirit, which Christ promised. 4. It is by means of the coming of the Comforter that we become temples of the Most High. The Lord’s representative comes unto us and makes his abode with us. “Abode,” according to Webster’s third definition, is the “place of continuance, or where one dwells; abiding-place; residence; a dwelling, a habitation.” Surely where the Lord has his habitation, there is a “temple of God.” And in no other way can there be a temple of God.—Geo. I. Butler, in Southern Watchman.