‘Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.'
‘Do you not know.' A favourite expression to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1Co 5:6; 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1Co 6:15-16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Corinthians 9:13; 1 Corinthians 9:24). He is stressing that they do not appear to know, or are ignoring, what they ought to know. It is only used once elsewhere (Romans 6:16).
The thought of God's building leads on to the thought of His people being built together as His temple (compare Ephesians 2:20-22). The thought has been progressive - God's cultivated field, God's building, God's temple; growth, establishment in truth, indwelling by the Holy God. The temple has not specifically been in mind up to this point, or it would have been mentioned earlier, but the idea springs from the previous idea of God's building.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 are in fact an advancement and an added warning. We come back to the main point in 1 Corinthians 3:18-23. But as Paul contemplated God's building he was filled with awe at what the people of God, His ‘church', represented. They are the holy temple of the living God, His dwelling-place on earth, sanctified as belonging to Him. And he is filled with apprehension as to what would happen to those who sought to destroy it. As men who touched the holy Mount were to be immediately struck dead because the living God was manifested there (Exodus 19:12-13), how much worse it will be for those who seek to destroy the holy dwelling-place of God.
‘Do you not know that God's temple you are?' The word for temple is ‘naos', the sanctuary, the innermost and most holy part of the temple, the part where God was most seen as dwelling. For that is the thought that is being stressed, that they are the dwelling place of God through His Spirit. Just as God descended on the Tabernacle of old (Exodus 40:34-35), so has He descended on His people (Acts 2:1-2). It is thus needless to ask whether the whole temple is in mind, or just the inner sanctuary. For whichever it is the emphasis is the same. It is the personal dwelling-place of God that is in mind.
‘The temple of God.' Lack of the article does not indicate just one of many temples. This is indeed the only temple. But when the predicate is placed prior to the verb it is regularly without the article (compare ‘the Lord' in 1 Corinthians 4:5; John 1:1). It is the essential Temple of God, the temple not made with hands, but made by God Himself.
‘And that the Spirit of God dwells in you.' This is a reference to the presence of the Spirit in all who are His (Romans 8:9), but the emphasis here is different. Here it is less on what benefit we have received by receiving the Spirit, and more on the holy position we have been put in by His indwelling. We are God's holy, set apart and unique dwelling-place on whom God has descended in glory. We are sanctified by God. The earthly temple has been thrust aside and has been replaced by the temple which is God's people, wherever they are, and they are one and indwelt by the holy God. Thus they are precious and under God's specific protection. That is why those who minister to them must especially beware of how they minister. They are dealing with God's holy dwelling-place. ‘For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.'
‘The Spirit of God.' The Spirit is God in His fullness revealed as active on earth. We are in danger of so distinguishing the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son that we can overlook that He represents the fullness of the Godhead in spiritually manifested, visibly active form (as Jesus was the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form (Colossians 2:9)). He is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:20), the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6), the unique and ‘totally other' (in contrast to this world) ‘Holy' Spirit, God represented in person on earth.
‘If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him.' Again the thought has moved on. This is not a reference to the builders, whether adequate or inadequate, but to the preciousness and sacredness of God's people in His sight, and the assurance of full judgment on those who seek to destroy them, whether the persecuting Jews, the antagonistic Romans, belligerent peoples of other religions, or, worst of all, deceitful philosophers and the false preachers and teachers who have removed the heart from the Gospel and totally distorted it (for examples of the last see 2Pe 2:1; 1 John 2:18; 2 John 1:7; Jude 1:4).
Of course there is the hint of warning here. The teachers in Corinth must beware lest they turn out not only to be hindrances but actually destroyers. Let them take heed and ensure that they point their hearers to the true foundation. Then they will be able to be sure that the worst of all scenarios will not be theirs. Not all will necessarily turn out to have been truly saved.
It is noteworthy here, in view of what we have seen earlier, that Paul still sees the Corinthians as God's Temple. Lacking they may be, but they are His dwellingplace. They are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called His holy ones (1 Corinthians 1:2). He is not in total despair of them. But what he does dread is the terrible fate that awaits those among them who seek to lead them astray. For them he can only forecast the worst. The Greek is emphatic ‘if anyone the Temple of God destroys, destroy him God will'. He will receive what he has sown.
Having made the point the thought now moves back to those who are true ministers of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (the then Old and New Testaments, although the latter mainly at this stage in oral form).