(EDITORS NOTE: This originally posted as an incomplete study, excluding 6:19 and now after further investigation has been reworked to better reflect the truth.)
This verse is almost exclusively used to speak of a persons literal physical body. As if our bodies are the temple. In light of 1 Corinthians 6:19 it seems to be true. Let's say for a minute that this is true. Then if I destroy my body am I injuring it? Tattooing it? Overeating in it? Or worse...killing it?
Which best describes destroying? I'd say killing. If that is true then we have a major problem!
1. If I kill myself God will destroy me!
Now if God destroys me it can't be my physical body because I took care of that myself. So I'm left with only my spirit to be destroyed. That would mean the second death/lake of fire or the actual elimination of my soul.
Now I don't think the rest of scripture supports the later in anyway and if it did that would actually give a suicide victim everything they wanted. To not exist. No, this verse is used to teach that suicides go to hell. Which can't be true in the case of the Christian.
Here is what I never see...this verse used in the context Paul was writing. In the passage Paul is talking to the church in Corinth about the future judgment seat of Christ and the rewards gained and the losses suffered. He establishes the fact that the Corinthians were baby Christians doing very little of the holy things that are demonstrated in a spiritual man's life. (vv 1-8)
Starting in verse 9 Paul calls each believer a building of God. (One could call it a temple) In verses 10-11 it's revealed that the foundation of the building is Jesus Christ. This leads us to believe he is talking only to believers. Now these buildings are constructed out of gold, silver, precious stones, hay, wood, or straw.
These materials are not our physical body but rather our 'body of work'. The things we do for Christ in Christ through Christ (the shiny), and the things we do for self (hay, wood, straw). So to reiterate the building is NOT our body it is our 'body of work' done on the foundation of Christ.
Now on the Day (Day of the LORD future) our 'body of work' will be tested by fire to discover it's quality. The things in our 'body of work' that survive the fire will be rewarded, and the things that burn away will be lost forever as if they never existed, but because the foundation of the building is Jesus they remained saved as through fire.
Interestingly the word saved there is the Greek word sozo which means healing. Perhaps after losing some of ourselves we need restored and God provides this service.
The very next verse is our passage (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) in question. Why wouldn't the temple be the same building that will be tested? Why wouldn't the temple be our 'body of work' instead of our physical person? Does the Spirit of God indwell the physical Christian? Yes. But the Spirit of God also indwells our 'body of work' if the foundation is Christ, which is also me.
Now then destroying the temple look different if it is to destroy the positive work of God in you. Or do build nothing upon the foundation.
In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 destroying the temple then has nothing to do with fast food, tattoos, or suicide but everything to do with building poorly (destructively) upon the foundation of Jesus.
So how will God destroy me if I destroy my temple? Paul has already explained that in the passage that it is destroyed and done away with in the fires of testing.
Our 'body of work' is to be a holy thing, a holy project. Under positive construction.
Is our physical body a temple as well? YES! According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19 it is. But the meaning of 3:16-17 is not about our physical body.
Conclusion: Overeating, cutting yourself, sexual immorality, or suicide are not justified. 6:19 states our physical body is the temple and we are to keep it holy. But suicides will NOT be destroyed by God. While suicide is as bad as anything you can do to yourself according to 3:16-17 it cannot remove the foundation of Jesus Christ if in fact that foundation is present in a person. The blood of the cross can remove all sin.
Looking for the groom...
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