The Church Is God's Sacred Sanctuary For The Spirit of God Dwells In Them And They Are Hid With Christ in God. Let Divisive Teachers Therefore Beware (3:16-23).
Paul now applies his building analogy to the idea of the Temple. When men seek to establish a religion they build a Temple. Well this is what God is also doing. On the foundation of Jesus Christ He is building His Temple, and this Temple is His people. It is not quite the same illustration. Previously the building being constructed was a general one (although the Temple could well have been called to mind) for Paul wanted the Corinthians to think of buildings that they knew. That building was God's people (‘you are God's building' - 1 Corinthians 3:9) but the construction was pictured as being adorned with gold, silver, precious stones and so on. It was a picture of the church being adorned and established by the teaching and wisdom (either true or less true) of those who took responsibility for it. Now the building has become the whole people of God, established by God, in whom God has come to dwell by His Spirit.