John 2:20 informs us that Herod the Great's remodeling program had been going on for 46 years, from 19 B.C., putting Jesus' first cleansing of the Temple around A.D. 26-27, at the beginning of his ministry.
The Lord Jesus refers to his own physical body (John 2:21) when he declares: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). Yet as is often the case, Jesus' words are a double entendre: He is talking about his human body, but there is a deeper meaning: By his death and resurrection, he replaces the shadow of the Old Covenant Temple with the substance of the Temple of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:1-5; 9:1-10:22.
Peter declares that the LORD Jesus Christ is the living Stone (1 Peter 2:4). Jesus is the Rock who traveled with Israel in the Wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4). We, too, are built on this solid foundation (Ephesians 2:19-22). We, too, are living stones of the Temple that God is continuing to build (1 Peter 2:5).
Individual believers are living stones in the Temple of the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 3:9-17). These stones are not lying here and there along the road; they are being fitted into the ever increasing Temple of the New Covenant (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:20-22; Revelation 21:16, where this structure is a cube over 1,300 miles on each side).
Believers cannot be lost, but they can lose rewards (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
First Corinthians 3:16-17 is not about taking care of our bodies; it is about people who destroy God's Temple by false doctrine. Jim Jones of the so-called Peoples' Temple destroyed God's Church and is in hell (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
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After serving Grace Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Louisiana, Bob was honorably retired on Sunday, September 27, 2015, and given the title "Pastor Emeritus." This was forty years to the day after he became their pastor.
He now works for the Presbytery of the Gulf South as...