Indwelt Temples
Paul says to Corinthian Christians that each of their bodies is a “temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you.” (1Corinthians 6:19) Should we conclude that the physical body of each Corinthian was a temple—literally rather than metaphorically? I’m pretty sure that the vast majority would say “temple” is a metaphor. The truth Paul speaks—whatever else it is—is clearly a spiritual truth but that has nothing to do with “literal versus spiritual”. Literal stands over against metaphorical and not over against spiritual.
Earlier he has said that each Corinthian was a part of/member of “Christ himself” (6:15). Most of us would go in either of two directions. We would say “member of” is metaphorical because Jesus himself is not made up of a vast number of people—he is himself and no-one else. Or we would take “Christ” (as most students do) to mean the “corporate” Christ and not the historical person, Jesus Christ. We would say it was the “corporate” Christ because Christ in this passage is said to consist of many people and this would lead us on to the phrase “the body of Christ.” Here Paul doesn’t say “the body of Christ” because he wants to drive home not only their oneness with Christ but the horror of amalgamating Jesus Christ with temple prostitutes. (He has dealt with “run-of-the-mill” fornication in the previous chapter and here deals with prostitutes who serve the temple of the hill.)
In one way or another, the spiritual union of the Corinthians with Christ is expressed in a metaphor. The spiritual union is real and actual but it isn’t described in literal terms; it’s described in metaphor. If we make “Christ” stand for a corporate reality rather than the historical Jesus we employ metaphor. If we make Christ the literal and historical Jesus Christ then “members of” becomes a metaphor.
When we come to the Holy Spirit who indwells a Corinthian temple or temples we rightly take temple to be metaphorical. We don’t want the one temple to be made up of many little temples. I think it’s a mistake to break the phrase into two independent notions. To say, “You are temples in which the Holy Spirit lives or dwells” and then to say “temple” is figurative and “dwell” is literal is surely a mistake. At least, it needs justification rather than simple assertion. To hold that “in you” or “dwell in you” must mean that the Spirit takes up bodily residence in each Corinthian is to reach into a section filled with metaphor and insist on one literal understanding, even in a single phrase.
Body, parts (members), bought, “one spirit” (6:17), temple all figuratively tell a non-spatial spiritual truth but “dwell” is literal and tells a spatial truth? We need more than an assertion that that is true.
"Christ himself, that not literal."
"Body, that's figurative."
"Members, that's figurative."
"Temple, that's figurative."
"Bought, that's figurative."
"One spirit, that's not literal."
"Dwell in, that's literal."
Hmmm.
I believe that these are metaphors and speak of actual spiritual truths in non-literal speech. The phrase “temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you” is not telling us where the Spirit can be located but how the Corinthians relate to the Holy Spirit (and to the Christ) and the Spirit to them.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.