We are the temple of the living God, Paul says (2 Corinthians 6:16), and he supports the claim with a string of quotations. God says, \u201cI will dwell in them and walk among them\u201d (Exodus 29:45). He says, \u201cI will be their God and they shall be My people\u201d (Genesis 17:8).<\/p>\n
In order to be the temple of the living God, it\u2019s necessary to separate from the unclean, and so Paul goes on (v. 17) to quote Isaiah 52:11 (\u201ccome out from their midst and be separate\u201d and \u201ctouch nothing unclean\u201d).<\/p>\n
Then he adds that God has said, \u201cI will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me\u201d (v. 18). Two problems arise: First, that statement is not found anywhere in the Old Testament and, second, it\u2019s not clear what this has to do with being the temple of the living God.<\/p>\n
Take the first problem first: Paul quotes a modified form of 2 Samuel 7:14. That passage is a promise to David that the Lord will be Father to David\u2019s son, the future king, and that the king will be a son to him. Behind this promise is the designation of Israel as \u201cMy son\u201d (Exodus 4:23). Paul expands the promise so that it includes not only a Davidic line but the entire people of God, not only sons but daughters. Together, they constitute the new Israel, a new Israel conceived of as a thoroughly royal <\/em>people, a Davidic family, sons and daughters of the heavenly Father, brothers and sisters of the Davidic king Jesus.<\/p>\n This clarifies the second problem. The temple was the house of the divine king, as the palace was the house of the human king. Already in the Old Testament, temples symbolized the people of God as well as serving as dwelling places for Yahweh. Temple and people were mutually interpreting. In the New Testament, there is no architectural temple, and the household of brothers and sisters becomes fully identical with the house of the living God. To say that the church is a temple of the living God is thus not only to say that God dwells in our midst but that He dwells as King in the midst of His family of princes and princesses.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are the temple of the living God, Paul says (2 Corinthians 6:16), and he supports the claim with a string of quotations. God says, \u201cI will dwell in them and walk among them\u201d (Exodus 29:45). He says, \u201cI will be their God and they shall be My people\u201d (Genesis 17:8). In order to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-nt-2-corinthians"],"yoast_head":"\n