1. The temple of God is the place where God is willing to be dwelling (Genesis 28:16-17)
When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and lived in the wilderness, God asked Moses to create the tabernacle (sanctuary) because God wanted to live among them in this sanctuary (Exodus 25: 1-9). Moses used to set the tent outside the camp at a distance and called this tent the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who calls on God goes to the tent of meeting outside the camp.
In the era of the kings, King David had determined to build the holy temple for God, so he prepared all the building materials for the temple. However, it was not until his son Solomon succeeded to the throne that the construction work of the holy temple had commenced and completed. The priests can then enter the sanctuary to perform rituals to worship God. As for the Most Holy Place, only the high priests enter the inner room alone once a year, and never without blood which he offered for himself and for the sins the people have committed in ignorance (cf. Heb. 9 1-7).
2. Our body is the temple of God
In the New Testament era, the temple of God that Jesus and the apostles placed great emphasis on is actually our body. God is spirit, and the fullness of Him fills all things in every way, not only in the physical temple or synagogue. The Lord Jesus said, "Again I tell you that, if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done by my Father in heaven. For where two or three people come together in my name, there am I with them.”(Matthew 18:19-20). Therefore, God is not only listening to the prayers happening in the physical church, as long as we worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, the omnipresent God will be listening to our prayers.
As was said by apostle Paul, "Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies. ”(1 Corinthians 6:18-20).
3. Conclusion
In short, what we should regard as highly important today is the holiness of our own body, because our body is the temple of God - after we have been saved by God through water baptism of rebirth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. A leaky house is tough for people to live in and a collapsing house turns people away. By the same token, how can the body of the temple of God and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit be weak and frail? We know that a sound spirit resides in a sound body. Would the spirit of God be willing to live in an unsound body? Since our body is the temple of God, we must glorify God with our bodies. We should strive to keep our bodies healthy and even more importantly, holy. As for the physical church building, it would suffice as long as it provides a convenient gathering space for worship. If no physical church is available, holding the family services at home (cf. Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Col. 4:15, the Bible also refers it as “the church that meets at their house”) is also acceptable and pleasing to God.
The Christian believers have been blessed by God's grace with growing affluence and thus we can see magnificent church structures erected everywhere. However the magnificence of building does not necessarily glorify the name of God. For instance, a church without the presence of the Holy Spirit can also have a splendid and stunning appearance. However we should never ignore that most importantly, the real temple of the one true God is within our bodies, which must be holy and healthy. In addition to glorifying God with the magnificent church, we should glorify God with the pursuit of holiness in our own bodies
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