The Temple of God Today

Next week in our Discovering Life Bible study, we’ll be talking about the days of the temple.  So I was wondering – what is the temple today?  Is there one?

There are three things that I could find in the New Testament that could be considered the Temple today.

  1. The Body of Christ in the whole world, made up of every true believer.  The Worldwide Church. (see Ephesians 2:21 and 2Corinthians 6:16
  2. The body of the individual believer, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. (see 1Corinthians 3:16, 6:19)
  3. Jesus Himself – His physical body. (see John 2:18-22)

You could, of course, argue that all three are "the Body of Christ".  So the Body of Christ is the temple today.  And if you’re a believer, you’re a part of it.

As you may know, nowhere is the place where believers meet called a "temple" (except, of course, for when they met in the physical temple in Jerusalem).  So I think we need to be very careful not to equate the Old Testament Temple with a church meeting place.  Today, the place we meet is not important (though meeting together is (Hebrews 10:24-25)) – we worship God "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:21-24).  In fact, we worship God in Christ.

Did I miss anything?  Is there anything else in the New Testament that could be considered a temple today?

Solomon dedicates the temple
Solomon Dedicates the Temple
Painting attributed to James Jacques Joseph Tissot