By Editor Bob Terry
Most Baptists understand that God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is a personal gift. Speaking at Pentecost following the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the apostle Peter told the inquiring crowd that each one needed to “repent” (Acts 2:38). Whoever repented would be forgiven of his sin and would receive the Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians 1:13–14, Paul, the apostle, not only indicated the individual nature of the gift of the Holy Spirit but also emphasized the type of individual work done by the Spirit in the life of a believer. Paul wrote, “In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a down payment of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
The individual who believes not only receives the Holy Spirit but the Holy Spirit is also a “down payment” of what is to come — namely the eternal redemption of our being by God. The word translated as “down payment” is also translated as guarantee, pledge or earnest in other versions of the Bible. All mean the Holy Spirit is God’s first installment in anticipation of final consummation.
The Holy Spirit does so much more for the individual. God’s love is poured out on the believer through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). The presence of the Holy Spirit in the Christian’s life provides assurance of salvation (1 John 4:13). The Holy Spirit provides power to witness (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit teaches the believer about Christ (John 14:26), provides power to resist sin (Rom. 8:2) and helps the believer pray (Rom. 8:26–27).
This emphasis on the individual gift of the Holy Spirit has numbed awareness to the clear teaching of Scripture that the gift of the Holy Spirit is also collective and that God takes seriously the fellowship of His church. If God takes the fellowship of His church seriously, then so should we.
1 Corinthians 3:16 asks, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” The “you” in the verse is a plural you. The writer’s emphasis is that the Holy Spirit dwells in the church just like the Spirit dwells in individuals. The reference is to the fellowship and unity of the church.
The original language makes the point more strongly. The word translated in English as “temple” actually refers to the inner portion of the Jewish temple. In Old Testament times, the inner portion of the temple was where God met His people through the mediation of the priests who offered sacrifice for the sins of Israel.
The apostle Paul wrote that in the New Testament, the church was the inner place where God met His people (believers) through the mediation of Jesus Christ. The church was like the inner part of the temple. Just as the inner part of the temple was holy so was the church to be holy in its fellowship and unity. God’s Holy Spirit is in the church.
The apostle Peter addressed this issue in 1 Peter 2:5, writing, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Individual Christians, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house — the church. That spiritual house is to be the place that provides home for a holy priesthood. It is also to be the place where the congregation offers spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God. The imagery of the innermost part of the temple is unmistakable.
Paul leaves no doubt in the last words of 1 Corinthians 3:17. He declared, “God’s temple is sacred and you (plural) are that temple.” The fellowship and unity of the church is sacred.
Paul also tells the Corinthians, and us, how seriously God takes the unity and fellowship of the church. Verse 17 firmly states, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.”
Fellowship and unity were an important issue in Corinth. The congregation was divided over leadership. Their behavior was selfish. Morality was confused. Their understandings were immature. The congregation was on the verge of disintegrating. That was why the apostle Paul almost screamed at them in his letter about the importance of the fellowship and unity of the congregation.
God’s Holy Spirit dwells in the church, and if anyone destroys the church — its fellowship and unity — then God will destroy him.
The verses do not mean that all in the church must agree on everything. Even the apostles Paul and Peter did not agree at all points. The verses do mean that a Christian must not work against the fellowship and unity of the church or, by words and actions, try to destroy the church’s fellowship and unity.
God’s Holy Word is clear. God takes the fellowship and unity of His church seriously because God’s Holy Spirit dwells in the church. All of us would do well to remember that before we repeat the patterns of the Corinthians and allow power plays, selfishness, immaturity and confusion to threaten the fellowship and unity of the church of which we are a part.
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