In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
In Christ all believers are joined together as one building that keeps growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Christ himself is the living foundation, chief cornerstone, bond and center who holds every part together and gives life to all built upon him, with the building resting upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Those once strangers and foreigners, dead in trespasses, are made near by his blood and made fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, Jews and Gentiles gathered from every nation. Being fitly framed together means each one fills an appointed place with diverse gifts blended into a symmetrical and harmonious whole, while growing means continuing increase in Christian character by the Holy Spirit. So joined, the community becomes a habitation of God through the Spirit, sharing a common life from Christ within that gives peace, light, joy and strength against every tempest.
Building Imagery and Growth
In whom the whole structure is joined together and keeps growing into a holy temple in the Lord, with true believers built together in Christ upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as chief cornerstone. Those once strangers and foreigners are thereby made fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, brought near and reconciled to one another, with Jews and Gentiles alike gathered into one united building that becomes a dwelling place for God through the Spirit. Believers are joined together each fitting with the work of the others, and Christ's grace in the heart brings peace, light, joy, happiness and finally everlasting life. The building requires every member to take the place and do the work given by God, so that no one seeks to be first or treats another's work as less essential.
To be fitly framed together is for every consecrated person to have his own appointed place and to act his respective part in unity with the others, connected so as to make the church a perfect, complete whole with no human as head or foundation. As a building is composed of different materials and articles united together, including large timbers and other material fully as essential that must not be ignored, so the church is made of different people with different talents, dispositions, plans and ideas, and with diverse gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers blended together. The variety is necessary for success, for the parts of a building are not all the same nor made by the same process, and each worker is to fill the positions he can fill most successfully without blaming fellow workers, bringing the different parts of the work together piece by piece to make a symmetrical, harmonious and consistent whole rather than disproportionate through human feeling and private ways. This united working to one end grows toward unity of faith and of knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, with Christ as foundation, chief cornerstone, bond and center of attraction uniting all parts, and it requires self and selfish customs, habits and thoughts to be overcome, confidence in brethren with tenderness and sanctified love to be cherished, no feature of truth to be hidden or treated as unimportant, and care to be taken how to build. Growing is continuing increase in Christian character and spiritual-mindedness, worked in believers by the Holy Spirit and enabled in graceful proportions.
The temple is still incomplete and growing toward completion, with truth separating its living stones from the world and the Lord shaping each person so as to fill the exact place and give light to the world in readiness for a home in God's kingdom. God's cause is a building He erects under His guiding hand with a grand purpose running through it from first to last, its material tested, hewed and squared by His proving through every stroke of the chisel and blow of the hammer. Those who grow angry and resist the proving will not bear it and are laid aside while other tested material is brought in, and though the breaking away and loss of fragments is mourned as if it would ruin the building, the removal of those elements of weakness renders it stronger. It keeps growing steadily forward.
Christ Cornerstone and Foundation
Christ is the living foundation and chief cornerstone who unites all parts of the building, and no human being is its head or foundation. As different materials make one structure, so different consecrated people each have their own appointed place, connected with the others to make the church a perfect, complete whole in peace as the Master Builder and great Master Artist designs. He is the bond and center in whom the whole is joined together, imparting his own life to those built upon him so that by contact with Christ the living stone they themselves become living stones. The living church on earth is thus a spiritual temple built through the ages according to the divine pattern, with the beauty and dignity of a palace, supervised by Christ as Master Builder. Gentile believers are included in this building and help to build it, for Paul as a skillful architect laid the foundation in wisdom and labored in the Gentile quarry to bring out valuable stones and lay them upon Christ. Those built on Christ share the life of God and are one with the foundation, and this common life makes the building secure against every tempest. Growing into this holy temple requires self with selfish customs, habits and thoughts to be overcome, every member fitted to fill the place designed without being ignored as though less essential, even as large timbers are fully essential. The church must not be divided nor built according to human feelings, but with the variety of gifts God gives made symmetrical, with no feature of truth hidden or treated as unimportant, and the whole built and taught in a way that honors God.
The building rests upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord as a habitation of God through the Spirit. The union of the members with their leader is like a temple resting its whole weight on its foundation, without which it could not stand, and its power lies in individual dependence upon Christ joined with unity between the members. Through him there is access by one Spirit to the Father, so that those who were strangers and foreigners, dead in trespasses yet made alive by grace, are made near and become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Pressing together shoulder to shoulder in entire dependence on Jesus and sincere love for one another, of one mind as a unit with Christ, workers are to cease division and work together in harmony so that the work tells on the side of right. The building stands by faith that does not stagger at feeling and does not stop at the hellish shadow cast athwart the pathway to obstruct faith and eclipse light from Jesus the Sun of Righteousness, but cleaves through the shadow because faith rests in truth. Being rooted and grounded in love, believers are able to comprehend with all saints the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. The same building is individual, for in the human heart cleansed from all moral impurity dwells the precious Saviour, ennobling and sanctifying the whole nature and making the man a temple for the Holy Spirit. The verse thus reveals God's purpose for each person and what each may become in striving to fulfill that purpose.
Dwelling Place Through Spirit
In Christ true believers are built together and grow into a holy temple in the Lord, which is a habitation of God through the Spirit. The whole building is fitly framed together in Him upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone. In that union those who were strangers and foreigners become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, with access by one Spirit to the Father. Jews and Gentiles alike are brought into this one structure, joined together like stones into God's temple.
Together the joined community is formed into a dwelling place for God through the Spirit, fulfilling His purpose to dwell in created beings after sin had defiled the heart. The verse reveals God's purpose for each person and what each may become in striving to fulfill it. The cleansed heart is also a temple in which Christ dwells, ennobling and sanctifying the whole person, which instructs workers to cease division and work together in harmony. Pressing together shoulder to shoulder in entire dependence on Jesus and sincere love for one another, of one mind as a unit with Christ, its work tells on the side of right.
Those built on Christ the living foundation are one with the foundation because they share the life of God, and Christ dwelling within imparts His life to all who are built on Him. This common life gives vital energy for the church, supporting union with Christ and with one another as each fits with the work of the others. Christ's grace in the heart brings peace, light, joy, happiness, and finally everlasting life. Because they share God's life the building is secure and no tempest can overthrow it, resting its whole weight on its foundation without which it could not stand.
Strangers Made Fellow Citizens
Those who were dead in trespasses and sins have been quickened together with Christ and saved by grace through faith as his workmanship created unto good works, called away from the disloyalty of the world as his purchased heritage to build character in obedience in labor together with God. Made near by his blood and made one by his peace, they are reconciled to one another and are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Through him they have access by one Spirit unto the Father, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as chief cornerstone and only true foundation. In him the whole building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord and a habitation of God through the Spirit, like a temple resting its whole weight upon its foundation without which it could not stand. Its power lies in individual dependence upon Christ joined with unity among the members pressing together shoulder to shoulder in entire dependence on Jesus and sincere love for one another, of one mind as a unit with Christ so that its work tells on the side of right, and every converted soul receiving grace according to the gift of Christ is to bear the burden with Christ in personal effort to bring other souls dead in sin, as valuable as his own, to knowledge of the truth.
The building is raised on Christ as living stone, living foundation and chief cornerstone, and those who build on him become living stones joined together into one structure that grows into a holy temple and dwelling for God through the Spirit. Gentile believers are included in this building and help build it, for Jews and Gentiles joined to Christ are fitted together as one growing holy temple in the Lord. The stones are gathered from every nation and every kind of social and educational background, quarried from the world by truth and shaped and fitted for their places by the Lord as Master Builder. No person or nation is perfect in every habit and thought, so people and nations need one another's influence and must learn from one another and mingle to become one in judgment and purpose, making unity in Christ visible. When complete the temple will be perfect in every part with nothing wanting, having the beauty and dignity to be admired by angels and men because God is its Builder and Maker.
Those who accept Christ are enrolled as citizens of the heavenly country and subjects of the kingdom of heaven, joined together and growing into a holy dwelling for God in the Lord. As citizens they have the privilege of claiming the rights and privileges of the kingdom. Their behavior must be such as the gospel of Christ can approve, separate from the world, cheerful in service to God, and united in striving together for the faith without strife, selfishness, or impurity.
Branch Prophecy Fulfilled
The one whose name is the Branch builds the temple of the Lord, and that prophecy is fulfilled in Christ. By his sacrifice and his mediation as priest upon his Father's throne he is both the foundation and the builder of the church of God. As the chief cornerstone, he joins believers together in himself so that the whole building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. The temple he builds is the church, built together to become a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.
Quarrying Shaping Polishing Stones
People are taken as rough stones from the quarry of the world to become part of God's heavenly building. They are cut out and separated from the quarry by the great cleaver of truth, which is Bible truth received into the heart. Those brought to the knowledge of the truth in this way include workers for God and those gathered not from Judea only but from nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. When the truth is received the rough character is changed, and those who come into the truth ignorant are to learn and grow and not remain ignorant.
In God's workshop, which is this world during probation, the Lord as Master Builder and Lord of the temple brings the stones to be hewed and squared and polished and finished and framed together into a holy temple. Under the divine hand unsanctified ways and manners are separated as believers learn about Jesus, His great love, His meekness, His lowliness, and His self-denial. All rough edges, close dealing, worldliness, selfishness, pride, crookedness, defects of character, and sin are worked out of the heart and removed, until they become precious stones reflecting the character of Christ. This shaping is the office of the Holy Spirit to work the man, not for man to work the Holy Spirit. God Himself planes and polishes each piece under His supervision, preparing them to fit closely to one another in unity and harmony until the building is perfect and complete, wanting nothing, and He does this work in love for their eternal happiness, to restore rather than destroy.
As with the Jewish temple whose stones were cut from the mountain and fitted before being brought together without ax or hammer, so the ax and the hammer and the chisel prepare the rough, misshapen stones through polishing and refining so each may fill its exact place. The picture illustrates how God prepares each person, with the completed temple perfect in every part and reflecting God as its builder. The fitting must be done now in the day of preparation by dying to defects, confessing and repenting of sins so they go beforehand to judgment and pardon is written, becoming pure and holy and fashioned after the similitude of a palace, spotless and undefiled, patient, meek, Christlike, abiding in Christ with Christ abiding in the heart by faith. When Christ comes it is too late for wrongs to be righted or character to be changed, and each stone not hewn, squared, and polished to be fitted for its place will be discarded as unfit for a place in the temple.
The stones differ in size and shape, but each has its own distinct and exact place, and each must be perfect with no misshapen stone, so that in diversity there is unity making a complete whole. Every stone is a living stone that emits light to the world, showing love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, with its value measured by the light it gives and reflects. When complete, the temple will be perfect in every part and admired by angels and people, because God is its Builder and Maker, having the beauty and dignity of a palace built through the ages according to the divine pattern. By this God's people show they are preparing for their future inheritance in the kingdom of God.
God's grace refines defects of character so people can be fitted for a place in His glorious temple, and tests of time and circumstance reveal those defects, which must be worked away like roughness shaped and polished in God's workshop. Believers are like rough stones taken from the world and shaped by trials and tests for their place in the heavenly building, hewed and squared by God's proving through every stroke of the chisel and blow of the hammer. They remain precious to God even while being shaped, and the trials are in God's skillful hands, working toward each person's perfection rather than destruction. God reproves because He loves and wants well-balanced minds and symmetrical characters, so that they will be examples to the flock and lead others by precept and example nearer to heaven. Those who grow angry and resist the proving will not bear it and are laid aside, and other tested material is brought in, so that the breaking away and loss of fragments, though mourned as if it will ruin the building, renders it stronger by removal of elements of weakness as it keeps growing steadily forward. The temple's exact construction teaches that character building must also be careful, with no worthless material used and no careless or indifferent work done.
Unity Gifts and Common Work
In whom all the building is joined together, every member must take the place and do the work given by God, for the habitation of God is not complete if any person's work is neglected. The building is done unitedly rather than separately, with each stone serving and strengthening its home church, each filling the place designed and each task appointed and supervised to completion in harmony. No one is to seek to be first or treat another's work as less essential, but all are to work with Christ rather than independently.
No man is to hold himself as authority or be placed as supreme authority over a church, school, or sanitarium, for all superiority is invested in Jesus Christ Himself as chief cornerstone. Ministers and physicians and other workers are to blend, consult and counsel together, each acting from his own individual mind in prayerful dependence on divine wisdom while being fitly framed and built together.
Varied talents, dispositions, plans and ideas are different parts of one building, and their varied gifts combined are necessary for success, since the parts of a building are not all the same nor made by the same process and the lines of work are not all the same nor to be carried forward in exactly the same way. Each worker is to fill the positions he can fill most successfully without blaming fellow workers for not readily doing his special line of work, with the different parts brought together piece by piece to make a complete whole while unity prevails in all the work. People and nations need one another's influence, shaped and fitted for their places by the Master Builder, and must learn from one another and mingle to become one in judgment and purpose, so that unity in Christ is made visible and the completed temple is perfect in every part.
Growing into a holy temple requires self and selfish customs, habits, and thoughts to be overcome, with every part filling its appointed place as designed and united together in peace to make a complete whole, like large timbers and other material fully as essential that must not be ignored. This fitly framed building comes when each one begins with his own heart, humbles himself before God, yokes up with Christ and with all who know the truth, and comes into right connection with Him by yielding to the creating power of the Holy Spirit. Then faith is genuine because it works by love and purifies the soul, with hand to hand and heart to heart interest in building up the old waste places, whether superiors, inferiors, or equals, awake from deathlike slumbers and learning the simple lessons at the foundation of true godliness. Without that cleansing by purity and righteousness received through faith, growth is hindered when people cherish adverse attributes or hold truth in unrighteousness as mere theory unsanctified in soul and body, leaving families unhappy and churches polluted and unable to be properly joined together.
Believers are expected to grow up together as a holy temple by pressing together, being of one mind and of one judgment with God as leader, staying united to the body and submitting to the church and to advice and counsel instead of moving in independent judgment. Those who move independently of the body, despise counsel and reproof, depart from the faith and follow their own finite judgments and plans bring disaster and ruin of souls, coming under Satan as leader who constantly works to tear down what God is building up. The church is a whole framed together by God, not a complete work that individuals or groups can separate themselves from, so those receiving instruction should be taught to respect the church and work in connection with it, and the works of all must bear the test of the judgment.
Gospel workers and the new churches raised up by their labors are built together in Christ upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, fitly framed together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Faithful ministry in cooperation with God brings those once without God and without hope, once far off, near by the blood of Christ with access by one Spirit to the Father as fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, so that as they receive the faith they in turn preach the gospel they received. A solid foundation laid upon gospel plans is laid by workers putting on Christ and working harmoniously without making an idol of self, sowing seed and gathering harvest, making a center for missionary effort that serves as a training school and example, and after people embrace the truth educating them by solid, thorough labor for conversion of the whole being, body, soul, and spirit.
Under Christ the Master Builder the church is joined as one building, and its members' teaching and example are to be pure, sound, and healthy as part of its growth. Peace established is believers joined together and growing into one united dwelling for God through the working of the Holy Spirit, which is God's doing in answer to earnest prayer and living faith, so that dissension is replaced by unity and love. With varied gifts finding proper places, the church is to be joined in unity and marked by brotherly love, kindness, and courtesy, with joint connecting with joint and selfishness dishonoring service. When workers stand far above selfish interests and conquer temptation in the communion of saints, filled with meekness and tenderness, heaven begins on earth in love and sweet fellowship, making a heaven below to prepare for heaven above.
Growth into a holy temple comes when each person experiences the converting, new-creating power of truth and grace in the heart and learns of Christ. Then men in positions of trust treat those under their direction as equals, study the interests of those associated with them, and exercise kindness and Christian love that is reflected back, making the church a living representation of Christ instead of encouraging ungodliness by holding truth in unrighteousness without daily conversion of heart and soul.
The joined community in the cornerstone grows as one shared dwelling for God, not as a structure built around one person's private claim to special light.
Professed carriers of the gospel charged with warning the world must grow up into a glorious temple, having heaven's mold upon the work. This requires humbling before God, refusing the ideas of men, speaking the words of God so the world may know they are sent, resisting the attempt to draw minds to trivial matters and to criticizing and condemning others, and instead dealing faithfully with their own souls, searching their hearts to be right in God's sight, and each doing his own appointed work.
God Himself planes and polishes each piece as material for His temple under His own supervision, preparing each to fit closely to the other until the building is perfect and complete, wanting nothing. This calls workers to press together in perfect harmony and communion, each acting his part, standing above selfish interests, conquering temptation, placing all faculties at His disposal to demonstrate the power of grace, so that God is honored and the progress of the work is not made difficult.
Holiness Light and Personal Application
Ephesians 2:21 teaches that the church is a building joined together in Christ and growing into a holy temple in the Lord, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as chief cornerstone for a habitation of God through the Spirit. The same building is individual, for the human heart cleansed from all moral impurity becomes a temple in which the precious Saviour dwells, ennobling and sanctifying the whole nature and making the man a temple for the Holy Spirit. Its holiness means it must be cared for and not defiled or neglected, and the cleansing of the temple announced Christ's work of cleansing the soul from sin and making His people holy. Church and family as God's building must be cleansed to be properly joined together and to grow, and that joining requires the purity and righteousness of Christ received through faith that works by love and purifies the soul by the creating power of the Holy Spirit. Without that cleansing, merely holding truth as theory in unrighteousness without being sanctified soul and body through the truth and made pure in heart leaves families unhappy and churches polluted and unable to be built into the temple.
Each believer has a place in this temple as a living stone, large or small, fitted closely together into one solid building in the place assigned, though the stones differ in size and shape. Each stone must be perfect and must give light and reflect light to the world, displaying God's character, and each stone's value is measured and shown by the light it gives. Their brightness amid surrounding darkness makes plain the contrast between righteousness and sin and between truth and error and tradition, so that faithful life reproves those who reject and disobey the truth. The whole church so united in holy lives and mutual service, endowed with the Holy Spirit and varied gifts for appointed duties, becomes a light that cannot be hidden, and valuing a place in the temple strengthens service to God and obedience to Christ's words.
To be living stones believers must be under Christ's rule and control and receive light from Him in order to shine. Professed Christians not under God's control merely take up room in the building and add nothing to the efficiency of the gospel, standing in the books of heaven as consumers, not producers, bearing no fruit to the glory of God so that the Lord cannot cooperate with them. Christians either do positive good or incalculable harm, and their influence is either a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. Men become a holy temple for the Lord by submitting to God's control and cooperating as laborers together with God in everything embraced in Christian activity. This includes building meetinghouses for God with God's glory as motive, using the skill and understanding God gives to men of His appointment and working in harmony with Him as He shows how to do His work.
Those purchased at infinite cost to heaven are God's building to grow into a holy temple unto the Lord, complete in Christ, with every provision made for perfect character and for coming off more than conqueror through the merits of Christ. Children trained for God from babyhood, with foundations of righteous character laid in their earlier years, grow into manhood and womanhood with lives that develop into beautiful temples for the Lord. The Lord's comparison of human beings to His building should be taught practically, as when a father who is a carpenter uses lessons in house building with tools to teach his boys both the trade and this Scripture truth and make the work interesting. Every converted soul who was dead in trespasses and sins and has been made alive together with Christ by grace and received grace according to the gift of Christ, made no longer a stranger but a fellow citizen of the household of God, is to bear the burden with Christ in personal effort to bring other souls dead in sin, as valuable as his own, to a knowledge of the truth.
In Christ all believers are joined together as one building that keeps growing into a holy temple in the Lord. Christ himself is the living foundation, chief cornerstone, bond and center who holds every part together and gives life to all built upon him, with the building resting upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Those once strangers and foreigners, dead in trespasses, are made near by his blood and made fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, Jews and Gentiles gathered from every nation. Being fitly framed together means each one fills an appointed place with diverse gifts blended into a symmetrical and harmonious whole, while growing means continuing increase in Christian character by the Holy Spirit. So joined, the community becomes a habitation of God through the Spirit, sharing a common life from Christ within that gives peace, light, joy and strength against every tempest.
Building Imagery and Growth
In whom the whole structure is joined together and keeps growing into a holy temple in the Lord, with true believers built together in Christ upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as chief cornerstone. Those once strangers and foreigners are thereby made fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, brought near and reconciled to one another, with Jews and Gentiles alike gathered into one united building that becomes a dwelling place for God through the Spirit. Believers are joined together each fitting with the work of the others, and Christ's grace in the heart brings peace, light, joy, happiness and finally everlasting life. The building requires every member to take the place and do the work given by God, so that no one seeks to be first or treats another's work as less essential.
To be fitly framed together is for every consecrated person to have his own appointed place and to act his respective part in unity with the others, connected so as to make the church a perfect, complete whole with no human as head or foundation. As a building is composed of different materials and articles united together, including large timbers and other material fully as essential that must not be ignored, so the church is made of different people with different talents, dispositions, plans and ideas, and with diverse gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers blended together. The variety is necessary for success, for the parts of a building are not all the same nor made by the same process, and each worker is to fill the positions he can fill most successfully without blaming fellow workers, bringing the different parts of the work together piece by piece to make a symmetrical, harmonious and consistent whole rather than disproportionate through human feeling and private ways. This united working to one end grows toward unity of faith and of knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, with Christ as foundation, chief cornerstone, bond and center of attraction uniting all parts, and it requires self and selfish customs, habits and thoughts to be overcome, confidence in brethren with tenderness and sanctified love to be cherished, no feature of truth to be hidden or treated as unimportant, and care to be taken how to build. Growing is continuing increase in Christian character and spiritual-mindedness, worked in believers by the Holy Spirit and enabled in graceful proportions.
The temple is still incomplete and growing toward completion, with truth separating its living stones from the world and the Lord shaping each person so as to fill the exact place and give light to the world in readiness for a home in God's kingdom. God's cause is a building He erects under His guiding hand with a grand purpose running through it from first to last, its material tested, hewed and squared by His proving through every stroke of the chisel and blow of the hammer. Those who grow angry and resist the proving will not bear it and are laid aside while other tested material is brought in, and though the breaking away and loss of fragments is mourned as if it would ruin the building, the removal of those elements of weakness renders it stronger. It keeps growing steadily forward.
Christ Cornerstone and Foundation
Christ is the living foundation and chief cornerstone who unites all parts of the building, and no human being is its head or foundation. As different materials make one structure, so different consecrated people each have their own appointed place, connected with the others to make the church a perfect, complete whole in peace as the Master Builder and great Master Artist designs. He is the bond and center in whom the whole is joined together, imparting his own life to those built upon him so that by contact with Christ the living stone they themselves become living stones. The living church on earth is thus a spiritual temple built through the ages according to the divine pattern, with the beauty and dignity of a palace, supervised by Christ as Master Builder. Gentile believers are included in this building and help to build it, for Paul as a skillful architect laid the foundation in wisdom and labored in the Gentile quarry to bring out valuable stones and lay them upon Christ. Those built on Christ share the life of God and are one with the foundation, and this common life makes the building secure against every tempest. Growing into this holy temple requires self with selfish customs, habits and thoughts to be overcome, every member fitted to fill the place designed without being ignored as though less essential, even as large timbers are fully essential. The church must not be divided nor built according to human feelings, but with the variety of gifts God gives made symmetrical, with no feature of truth hidden or treated as unimportant, and the whole built and taught in a way that honors God.
The building rests upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord as a habitation of God through the Spirit. The union of the members with their leader is like a temple resting its whole weight on its foundation, without which it could not stand, and its power lies in individual dependence upon Christ joined with unity between the members. Through him there is access by one Spirit to the Father, so that those who were strangers and foreigners, dead in trespasses yet made alive by grace, are made near and become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Pressing together shoulder to shoulder in entire dependence on Jesus and sincere love for one another, of one mind as a unit with Christ, workers are to cease division and work together in harmony so that the work tells on the side of right. The building stands by faith that does not stagger at feeling and does not stop at the hellish shadow cast athwart the pathway to obstruct faith and eclipse light from Jesus the Sun of Righteousness, but cleaves through the shadow because faith rests in truth. Being rooted and grounded in love, believers are able to comprehend with all saints the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. The same building is individual, for in the human heart cleansed from all moral impurity dwells the precious Saviour, ennobling and sanctifying the whole nature and making the man a temple for the Holy Spirit. The verse thus reveals God's purpose for each person and what each may become in striving to fulfill that purpose.
Dwelling Place Through Spirit
In Christ true believers are built together and grow into a holy temple in the Lord, which is a habitation of God through the Spirit. The whole building is fitly framed together in Him upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone. In that union those who were strangers and foreigners become fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, with access by one Spirit to the Father. Jews and Gentiles alike are brought into this one structure, joined together like stones into God's temple.
Together the joined community is formed into a dwelling place for God through the Spirit, fulfilling His purpose to dwell in created beings after sin had defiled the heart. The verse reveals God's purpose for each person and what each may become in striving to fulfill it. The cleansed heart is also a temple in which Christ dwells, ennobling and sanctifying the whole person, which instructs workers to cease division and work together in harmony. Pressing together shoulder to shoulder in entire dependence on Jesus and sincere love for one another, of one mind as a unit with Christ, its work tells on the side of right.
Those built on Christ the living foundation are one with the foundation because they share the life of God, and Christ dwelling within imparts His life to all who are built on Him. This common life gives vital energy for the church, supporting union with Christ and with one another as each fits with the work of the others. Christ's grace in the heart brings peace, light, joy, happiness, and finally everlasting life. Because they share God's life the building is secure and no tempest can overthrow it, resting its whole weight on its foundation without which it could not stand.
Strangers Made Fellow Citizens
Those who were dead in trespasses and sins have been quickened together with Christ and saved by grace through faith as his workmanship created unto good works, called away from the disloyalty of the world as his purchased heritage to build character in obedience in labor together with God. Made near by his blood and made one by his peace, they are reconciled to one another and are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Through him they have access by one Spirit unto the Father, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as chief cornerstone and only true foundation. In him the whole building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord and a habitation of God through the Spirit, like a temple resting its whole weight upon its foundation without which it could not stand. Its power lies in individual dependence upon Christ joined with unity among the members pressing together shoulder to shoulder in entire dependence on Jesus and sincere love for one another, of one mind as a unit with Christ so that its work tells on the side of right, and every converted soul receiving grace according to the gift of Christ is to bear the burden with Christ in personal effort to bring other souls dead in sin, as valuable as his own, to knowledge of the truth.
The building is raised on Christ as living stone, living foundation and chief cornerstone, and those who build on him become living stones joined together into one structure that grows into a holy temple and dwelling for God through the Spirit. Gentile believers are included in this building and help build it, for Jews and Gentiles joined to Christ are fitted together as one growing holy temple in the Lord. The stones are gathered from every nation and every kind of social and educational background, quarried from the world by truth and shaped and fitted for their places by the Lord as Master Builder. No person or nation is perfect in every habit and thought, so people and nations need one another's influence and must learn from one another and mingle to become one in judgment and purpose, making unity in Christ visible. When complete the temple will be perfect in every part with nothing wanting, having the beauty and dignity to be admired by angels and men because God is its Builder and Maker.
Those who accept Christ are enrolled as citizens of the heavenly country and subjects of the kingdom of heaven, joined together and growing into a holy dwelling for God in the Lord. As citizens they have the privilege of claiming the rights and privileges of the kingdom. Their behavior must be such as the gospel of Christ can approve, separate from the world, cheerful in service to God, and united in striving together for the faith without strife, selfishness, or impurity.
Branch Prophecy Fulfilled
The one whose name is the Branch builds the temple of the Lord, and that prophecy is fulfilled in Christ. By his sacrifice and his mediation as priest upon his Father's throne he is both the foundation and the builder of the church of God. As the chief cornerstone, he joins believers together in himself so that the whole building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. The temple he builds is the church, built together to become a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.
Quarrying Shaping Polishing Stones
People are taken as rough stones from the quarry of the world to become part of God's heavenly building. They are cut out and separated from the quarry by the great cleaver of truth, which is Bible truth received into the heart. Those brought to the knowledge of the truth in this way include workers for God and those gathered not from Judea only but from nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. When the truth is received the rough character is changed, and those who come into the truth ignorant are to learn and grow and not remain ignorant.
In God's workshop, which is this world during probation, the Lord as Master Builder and Lord of the temple brings the stones to be hewed and squared and polished and finished and framed together into a holy temple. Under the divine hand unsanctified ways and manners are separated as believers learn about Jesus, His great love, His meekness, His lowliness, and His self-denial. All rough edges, close dealing, worldliness, selfishness, pride, crookedness, defects of character, and sin are worked out of the heart and removed, until they become precious stones reflecting the character of Christ. This shaping is the office of the Holy Spirit to work the man, not for man to work the Holy Spirit. God Himself planes and polishes each piece under His supervision, preparing them to fit closely to one another in unity and harmony until the building is perfect and complete, wanting nothing, and He does this work in love for their eternal happiness, to restore rather than destroy.
As with the Jewish temple whose stones were cut from the mountain and fitted before being brought together without ax or hammer, so the ax and the hammer and the chisel prepare the rough, misshapen stones through polishing and refining so each may fill its exact place. The picture illustrates how God prepares each person, with the completed temple perfect in every part and reflecting God as its builder. The fitting must be done now in the day of preparation by dying to defects, confessing and repenting of sins so they go beforehand to judgment and pardon is written, becoming pure and holy and fashioned after the similitude of a palace, spotless and undefiled, patient, meek, Christlike, abiding in Christ with Christ abiding in the heart by faith. When Christ comes it is too late for wrongs to be righted or character to be changed, and each stone not hewn, squared, and polished to be fitted for its place will be discarded as unfit for a place in the temple.
The stones differ in size and shape, but each has its own distinct and exact place, and each must be perfect with no misshapen stone, so that in diversity there is unity making a complete whole. Every stone is a living stone that emits light to the world, showing love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, with its value measured by the light it gives and reflects. When complete, the temple will be perfect in every part and admired by angels and people, because God is its Builder and Maker, having the beauty and dignity of a palace built through the ages according to the divine pattern. By this God's people show they are preparing for their future inheritance in the kingdom of God.
God's grace refines defects of character so people can be fitted for a place in His glorious temple, and tests of time and circumstance reveal those defects, which must be worked away like roughness shaped and polished in God's workshop. Believers are like rough stones taken from the world and shaped by trials and tests for their place in the heavenly building, hewed and squared by God's proving through every stroke of the chisel and blow of the hammer. They remain precious to God even while being shaped, and the trials are in God's skillful hands, working toward each person's perfection rather than destruction. God reproves because He loves and wants well-balanced minds and symmetrical characters, so that they will be examples to the flock and lead others by precept and example nearer to heaven. Those who grow angry and resist the proving will not bear it and are laid aside, and other tested material is brought in, so that the breaking away and loss of fragments, though mourned as if it will ruin the building, renders it stronger by removal of elements of weakness as it keeps growing steadily forward. The temple's exact construction teaches that character building must also be careful, with no worthless material used and no careless or indifferent work done.
Unity Gifts and Common Work
In whom all the building is joined together, every member must take the place and do the work given by God, for the habitation of God is not complete if any person's work is neglected. The building is done unitedly rather than separately, with each stone serving and strengthening its home church, each filling the place designed and each task appointed and supervised to completion in harmony. No one is to seek to be first or treat another's work as less essential, but all are to work with Christ rather than independently.
No man is to hold himself as authority or be placed as supreme authority over a church, school, or sanitarium, for all superiority is invested in Jesus Christ Himself as chief cornerstone. Ministers and physicians and other workers are to blend, consult and counsel together, each acting from his own individual mind in prayerful dependence on divine wisdom while being fitly framed and built together.
Varied talents, dispositions, plans and ideas are different parts of one building, and their varied gifts combined are necessary for success, since the parts of a building are not all the same nor made by the same process and the lines of work are not all the same nor to be carried forward in exactly the same way. Each worker is to fill the positions he can fill most successfully without blaming fellow workers for not readily doing his special line of work, with the different parts brought together piece by piece to make a complete whole while unity prevails in all the work. People and nations need one another's influence, shaped and fitted for their places by the Master Builder, and must learn from one another and mingle to become one in judgment and purpose, so that unity in Christ is made visible and the completed temple is perfect in every part.
Growing into a holy temple requires self and selfish customs, habits, and thoughts to be overcome, with every part filling its appointed place as designed and united together in peace to make a complete whole, like large timbers and other material fully as essential that must not be ignored. This fitly framed building comes when each one begins with his own heart, humbles himself before God, yokes up with Christ and with all who know the truth, and comes into right connection with Him by yielding to the creating power of the Holy Spirit. Then faith is genuine because it works by love and purifies the soul, with hand to hand and heart to heart interest in building up the old waste places, whether superiors, inferiors, or equals, awake from deathlike slumbers and learning the simple lessons at the foundation of true godliness. Without that cleansing by purity and righteousness received through faith, growth is hindered when people cherish adverse attributes or hold truth in unrighteousness as mere theory unsanctified in soul and body, leaving families unhappy and churches polluted and unable to be properly joined together.
Believers are expected to grow up together as a holy temple by pressing together, being of one mind and of one judgment with God as leader, staying united to the body and submitting to the church and to advice and counsel instead of moving in independent judgment. Those who move independently of the body, despise counsel and reproof, depart from the faith and follow their own finite judgments and plans bring disaster and ruin of souls, coming under Satan as leader who constantly works to tear down what God is building up. The church is a whole framed together by God, not a complete work that individuals or groups can separate themselves from, so those receiving instruction should be taught to respect the church and work in connection with it, and the works of all must bear the test of the judgment.
Gospel workers and the new churches raised up by their labors are built together in Christ upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, fitly framed together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Faithful ministry in cooperation with God brings those once without God and without hope, once far off, near by the blood of Christ with access by one Spirit to the Father as fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, so that as they receive the faith they in turn preach the gospel they received. A solid foundation laid upon gospel plans is laid by workers putting on Christ and working harmoniously without making an idol of self, sowing seed and gathering harvest, making a center for missionary effort that serves as a training school and example, and after people embrace the truth educating them by solid, thorough labor for conversion of the whole being, body, soul, and spirit.
Under Christ the Master Builder the church is joined as one building, and its members' teaching and example are to be pure, sound, and healthy as part of its growth. Peace established is believers joined together and growing into one united dwelling for God through the working of the Holy Spirit, which is God's doing in answer to earnest prayer and living faith, so that dissension is replaced by unity and love. With varied gifts finding proper places, the church is to be joined in unity and marked by brotherly love, kindness, and courtesy, with joint connecting with joint and selfishness dishonoring service. When workers stand far above selfish interests and conquer temptation in the communion of saints, filled with meekness and tenderness, heaven begins on earth in love and sweet fellowship, making a heaven below to prepare for heaven above.
Growth into a holy temple comes when each person experiences the converting, new-creating power of truth and grace in the heart and learns of Christ. Then men in positions of trust treat those under their direction as equals, study the interests of those associated with them, and exercise kindness and Christian love that is reflected back, making the church a living representation of Christ instead of encouraging ungodliness by holding truth in unrighteousness without daily conversion of heart and soul.
The joined community in the cornerstone grows as one shared dwelling for God, not as a structure built around one person's private claim to special light.
Professed carriers of the gospel charged with warning the world must grow up into a glorious temple, having heaven's mold upon the work. This requires humbling before God, refusing the ideas of men, speaking the words of God so the world may know they are sent, resisting the attempt to draw minds to trivial matters and to criticizing and condemning others, and instead dealing faithfully with their own souls, searching their hearts to be right in God's sight, and each doing his own appointed work.
God Himself planes and polishes each piece as material for His temple under His own supervision, preparing each to fit closely to the other until the building is perfect and complete, wanting nothing. This calls workers to press together in perfect harmony and communion, each acting his part, standing above selfish interests, conquering temptation, placing all faculties at His disposal to demonstrate the power of grace, so that God is honored and the progress of the work is not made difficult.
Holiness Light and Personal Application
Ephesians 2:21 teaches that the church is a building joined together in Christ and growing into a holy temple in the Lord, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as chief cornerstone for a habitation of God through the Spirit. The same building is individual, for the human heart cleansed from all moral impurity becomes a temple in which the precious Saviour dwells, ennobling and sanctifying the whole nature and making the man a temple for the Holy Spirit. Its holiness means it must be cared for and not defiled or neglected, and the cleansing of the temple announced Christ's work of cleansing the soul from sin and making His people holy. Church and family as God's building must be cleansed to be properly joined together and to grow, and that joining requires the purity and righteousness of Christ received through faith that works by love and purifies the soul by the creating power of the Holy Spirit. Without that cleansing, merely holding truth as theory in unrighteousness without being sanctified soul and body through the truth and made pure in heart leaves families unhappy and churches polluted and unable to be built into the temple.
Each believer has a place in this temple as a living stone, large or small, fitted closely together into one solid building in the place assigned, though the stones differ in size and shape. Each stone must be perfect and must give light and reflect light to the world, displaying God's character, and each stone's value is measured and shown by the light it gives. Their brightness amid surrounding darkness makes plain the contrast between righteousness and sin and between truth and error and tradition, so that faithful life reproves those who reject and disobey the truth. The whole church so united in holy lives and mutual service, endowed with the Holy Spirit and varied gifts for appointed duties, becomes a light that cannot be hidden, and valuing a place in the temple strengthens service to God and obedience to Christ's words.
To be living stones believers must be under Christ's rule and control and receive light from Him in order to shine. Professed Christians not under God's control merely take up room in the building and add nothing to the efficiency of the gospel, standing in the books of heaven as consumers, not producers, bearing no fruit to the glory of God so that the Lord cannot cooperate with them. Christians either do positive good or incalculable harm, and their influence is either a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. Men become a holy temple for the Lord by submitting to God's control and cooperating as laborers together with God in everything embraced in Christian activity. This includes building meetinghouses for God with God's glory as motive, using the skill and understanding God gives to men of His appointment and working in harmony with Him as He shows how to do His work.
Those purchased at infinite cost to heaven are God's building to grow into a holy temple unto the Lord, complete in Christ, with every provision made for perfect character and for coming off more than conqueror through the merits of Christ. Children trained for God from babyhood, with foundations of righteous character laid in their earlier years, grow into manhood and womanhood with lives that develop into beautiful temples for the Lord. The Lord's comparison of human beings to His building should be taught practically, as when a father who is a carpenter uses lessons in house building with tools to teach his boys both the trade and this Scripture truth and make the work interesting. Every converted soul who was dead in trespasses and sins and has been made alive together with Christ by grace and received grace according to the gift of Christ, made no longer a stranger but a fellow citizen of the household of God, is to bear the burden with Christ in personal effort to bring other souls dead in sin, as valuable as his own, to a knowledge of the truth.