An image of the church
The Temple of the Holy Spirit
The church is not where God is visited but where God actually lives. Paul tells the Ephesians they are being built together into a holy temple, a dwelling where God resides by his Spirit. The old temple was a building of stone in one city. This one is made of people from every nation, joined together and still rising.
“In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”Ephesians 2:22
The image
A temple is not a meeting hall, it is the place a god is said to dwell. That is the weight of this picture. Paul says the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone, the stone that sets the line for the whole structure. On that foundation the building is fitly framed together, each part joined to the next, growing into a holy temple. And the point of a temple is what fills it. This one is a habitation of God through the Spirit, meaning God does not merely appear here on occasion, he lives here. The people are not the audience gathered before the sanctuary. They are the sanctuary, the stones of the very house where God has chosen to make his home.
What it teaches us
This teaches us that the church is holy because of who lives in it, not because of what it achieves. If God dwells here, then how we treat one another is not casual, we are handling the house of God. It teaches that we are built together, framed into one another, so no stone stands alone or serves its own purpose. A single stone is not a temple, it is rubble waiting to be laid. It also teaches that the building is unfinished and still growing, so we should expect to be joined to new stones, including ones we would not have chosen, from nations and backgrounds unlike our own. The temple is being assembled from the whole world, and God means to fill all of it.
How it centers on Christ
Christ is the chief cornerstone, and everything about the temple depends on him. In the old way of building, the cornerstone was laid first and set the direction and level for every wall that followed. So the whole structure is aligned to Christ, and a stone not joined to him is not part of the temple at all. He is what holds the building together, in whom the whole is fitly framed and rises. He is also the one who reconciled the far off and the near, breaking down the wall between them, so that Jew and Gentile could be built into a single house. Without him there is no temple, only scattered stones and a dividing wall. In him strangers become one dwelling, and God comes to live among them by the Spirit Christ poured out.
Questions people ask
What does it mean that the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit?
It means God actually dwells among his people, not just visits them. Under the old covenant God's presence filled a temple of stone. Now Paul says believers are being built together into a living temple where God resides by his Spirit. The church is holy not because of its programs but because the living God has made it his home.
Why is Christ called the cornerstone of the temple?
Because he is the stone that sets the line for the entire building. In ancient construction the cornerstone was laid first, and every wall was aligned to it. Paul says the church is built on the apostles and prophets with Christ as the chief cornerstone, so the whole structure holds together in him. A stone not joined to Christ is not part of the temple.