Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is scared, and you together are that temple.-1 Corinthians 3:16-17
What does Paul mean when he writes that “you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst”? To fully understand what Paul is conveying to the Corinthians and to us, we have to understand the beliefs of those who practice Judaism. In Judaism God’s dwelling place on earth was the Tabernacle and later the temple in Jerusalem. What Paul is telling us here is that we don’t need a place built with human hands to be in the presence of God, because if you are a follower of Christ then the Spirit of God dwells inside you. Which means that we don’t have to visit some special sacred place to worship God and/or to make our requests to God. Now, because we are “the temple” or dwelling place of God does it not make sense that we should take care God’s dwelling place. Yes of course it does, but taking care of God’s dwelling place goes far beyond just what we eat and/or drink. It, also, involves what we feed our mind. That means we must be careful about what we watch, what we read, and what we listen to. Because it is those “bad” influences in our life that are the leading cause of the destruction of God’s dwelling place. Remember, if you are a follower of Christ, then you are God’s dwelling place and you should act accordingly.