Gods temple is within us

Corinthians 3:16 - Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you?”

Pauls letter to Corinthians gives us a radical new perspective to contemplate

Gods temple is within us. 

The New Testament uses the Greek phrase Naos Theou which we translate as ‘temple of God’. This word 'Naos' describes not only the temple but the inner part of the temple, the most sacred part where God was said to dwell, an area known as the holiest place

This wording is significant and draws us back to Moses building the tabernacle in the wilderness, a place where God would dwell among the israelites during their journey

Exodus 25: 8 - Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.

They built a sanctuary that was divided into subsections of increasing holiness

Exodus 26:33 - Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the covenant law behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Access to these inner areas were not permitted to the average person, instead only priests could enter the holy place, and for the most holy place, only the high priest could go through the veil once a year to atone for the sins of the Israelites 

Symbolically and literally this separated the sinful people from God. The holiest place was an area of God, yet it was not open for everyone to partake. Then everything changes with the death of christ 

Mark 15:37-38 - “With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom”

This marked the removal of the barrier between humanity and God and these lessons demonstrate our developed spiritual reality, where each believer is the dwelling place of God. The holiest place transitions from a hidden chamber guarded by ritual hierarchy to a revelation that we, as believers, are the holy place

The spirit is no longer locked away and Paul reminds us what Christ has done for us, and what he wants us to know, to understand and to embody 

Luke 17:21 - ‘Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you’