1 Corinthians 3:16-23·~1 min

God’s Temple and God’s Wisdom

Paul asks whether they know that they are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in them. Because the temple is holy and they are that temple, anyone who destroys it will answer to God himself.

D¹⁶o you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Paul tells them not to deceive themselves about wisdom and says that anyone who wants to be wise in this age must become a fool in order to become truly wise. The wisdom of the world is foolish before God, as Scripture itself says when it speaks of the wise being caught in their craftiness and their thoughts being shown futile.

¹⁸Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise. ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” ²⁰And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

Therefore Paul tells them to stop boasting in men, because everything already belongs to them: leaders, the world, life, death, the present, and the future. All these things are theirs, yet they belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

²¹Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours, ²²whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you, ²³and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Section summaryPaul reminds the Corinthians that together they are God's temple and that his Spirit dwells among them, which makes harm to the church a grave matter. He then returns to the theme of wisdom, urging them to stop deceiving themselves and stop boasting in men, because all things already belong to them in Christ.

Role in the chapterThis closing section gathers the chapter's warnings into the strongest possible terms. It shows that boasting in human leaders and damaging the church are not small errors, because the church belongs to God and lives by a different wisdom.