Big Healing Book - 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

1 Corinthians 3:16-17:

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Notes on 1 Corinthians 3:16-17:

Ye and you in this passage are plural in the Greek. Paul told the Corinthians that they were collectively the temple of God. This is really a warning about church splitting and other actions that harm God’s church, not about tobacco or alcohol. There is no “thou shalt not smoke” scripture, though this verse is often mistakenly used as one. (However, the fact that the Bible does not declare a certain practice to be sinful does not mean that it is a good idea!) There is no way this passage could be talking about doing bad things to your physical body. You see, the Greek word translated defile (phtheiro) is the same word translated destroy. So God says literally that if you destroy God’s temple, God will destroy you. But if God’s temple means your body, He is saying that if you destroy your body, God will destroy your body. (He can’t mean destroy your spirit because smoking doesn’t send anyone to hell.) But you ALREADY destroyed your body, so God has nothing left to destroy when it comes to your body. That makes no sense. The person to be destroyed here is someone who tries to destroy God’s Church!

This being said, you still must wonder why God would want any part of His own temple to be run down and out of order. God was very picky about His temple in the Old Testament. Everything had to be in order. Because we are God’s temple – His dwelling place – surely God does not want His temple to be in disrepair today.