Baptists are clear in their understanding that the Holy Spirit dwells in the hearts of individual believers. Acts 2:38 teaches that the Holy Spirit of God comes into one’s life the moment that person accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
In fact, most of the focus of Baptists on the Holy Spirit relates to the actions of the Spirit in the life of the individual believer. The Holy Spirit is God’s guaranty of what is to come in the life of a believer (2 Cor. 1:21–22). The Holy Spirit provides assurance, helps us to pray, helps develop Christian character, instructs in righteousness, strengthens to resist sin, provides the power to love, supplies the power to witness and more.
What Baptists are not as articulate about is the work of the Holy Spirit in the fellowship of the church. Yet God considers the fellowship of the church so important that Paul writes, "If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. …" Then Paul adds, "You (plural) are that temple"
(1 Cor. 3:17).
Paul introduces the subject by scolding the believers in Corinth about the jealousy, quarreling and divisions that marred the church fellowship (1 Cor. 3:1–9). In 1 Corinthians 3:16, he asks, "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple?"
The "you" is plural. In this verse, Paul is not saying that each individual is a temple, although he will make that point later in the letter. Here Paul says the whole church at Corinth is God’s temple. English translators reflect the plural "you" by using the construction "you yourselves." It is a corporate reference.
The word translated "temple" is a special word that referred to the inner portion of the Jewish temple — the Holy of Holies. In the Old Testament, that is where God met His people through the mediation of the high priest who offered sacrifices for the forgiveness of Israel’s sin.
By referring to the corporate nature of the church as the special place where God meets His people through the mediation of the great High Priest, Jesus Christ, the apostle Paul stresses the importance of church fellowship.
To that point, he adds, "And the Holy Spirit dwells in you." Again the "you" is plural, a reference to the fellowship of the church. The fellowship of the church is important because God dwells in the fellowship.
The apostle Peter seems to support this understanding when he writes that Christians are "living stones" "being built into a spiritual house" (1 Pet. 2:5). This house is to be the home for the holy priesthood and a place where the congregation offers spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
The teaching is clear. The fellowship of the church is holy to God just as the inner portion of the temple was holy to Him. The fellowship is to be an instrument of God in the world. It is not to be characterized by jealousy, quarrelling, divisions and the like.
After reminding the Corinthian church of this truth, Paul says, "If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him." That was a direct threat against the troublemakers in the church. Those that desecrate the fellowship — fracture it or destroy it — will be destroyed by God.
Obviously God takes the fellowship of the church seriously because the Holy Spirit dwells in the corporate fellowship. If God takes it seriously, Baptists had better take it seriously, too.
Yet Baptists start more new churches out of splits that we start intentionally. Obviously there is something wrong in the fellowship of many Baptist churches. In many churches that do not actually divide, the fellowship is fractured. In some places, certain members do not speak to others. Prominent families vie for leadership and keep track of which family last had what position. Quarrels can be years old, but the hostility lives on and it saps the vitality from the church fellowship.
Relations between ministers and lay people can be rocky. That is why a record number of ministers continue to be dismissed by congregations year after year. Frequently there is no attempt to mediate or resolve differences. The minister is just fired. Make no mistake — every time that happens, it impacts the fellowship of the church.
We are not talking about agreeing on all things at all times. That is impossible. We are not even arguing about Christian family members going different directions. We are talking about Christians working against each other, belittling each other, even trying to destroy the influence and leadership of one another.
Such a spirit has no place in a church. It is the spirit that seeks to destroy "God’s temple," the fellowship of the church. The apostle Paul warns that "God will destroy" such a person.
All that these verses mean, we do not claim to understand. But one thing is clear. The fellowship of the local church is important to God, and it had better be important to us.
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