Foundation Text

1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6:16

Greek Key Terms

  • G3485 ναός (naos) - temple
  • G4983 σῶμα (soma) - body
  • G1392 δοξάζω (doxazo) - to glorify
  • G1704 ἐμπεριπατέω (emperipateo) - to walk among

Context: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Do you not know that your body is a temple (ναὸς) of the Holy Spirit who is in you... You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body." 2 Corinthians 6:16: "For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: 'I will dwell (ἐνοικήσω) with them and walk among (ἐμπεριπατήσω) them.'"

OT-to-OT Development

  • Corporate temple (1 Cor 3) → individual bodies as temples
  • Walking among (Gen 3:8; Lev 26:12) → walking in believers
  • Temple holiness demands personal holiness
  • The "bought at a price" language connects the temple-body theme to the redemption/purchase motif — the body is sacred space because it has been redeemed

Connections

Christological Connection: These texts extend the temple theology from the corporate (1 Cor 3:16, the church as temple) to the individual (1 Cor 6:19, the believer's body as temple), and both applications are grounded in Christ's redemptive work. The declaration "you were bought at a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20) is the theological basis: Christ's blood is the purchase price that consecrates human bodies as sacred space for the Spirit's indwelling. Without the cross, the Spirit could not inhabit sinful humanity — the OT consistently demonstrated that unauthorized approach to holy presence brought death (Nadab and Abihu, Leviticus 10:1-2; Uzzah, 2 Samuel 6:7). Second Corinthians 6:16 quotes Leviticus 26:12 — "walk among them, and I will be their God" — and applies it to the new covenant community. The verb ἐμπεριπατήσω ("I will walk among") recalls God's walking in Eden (Genesis 3:8), the Levitical covenant promise (Leviticus 26:12), and the tabernacle presence where God dwelt "among them" (Exodus 25:8). The escalation: God walked in Eden but Adam hid; God dwelt in the tabernacle but behind a veil; God filled the temple but priests could not stand; now, through Christ, God walks within believers by His Spirit — the most intimate divine-human union since Eden, and surpassing it. The ethical implication — "glorify God with your body" — flows directly from temple theology: if the body is a temple, it must be treated with the same holiness demanded of the OT sanctuary. Already, the Spirit indwells every believer, making the body sacred space. Not yet, the bodily resurrection will complete the temple's glorification when mortal bodies are raised imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

Connection Method(s): Typology (Institutional, Backward-Looking), Promise-Fulfillment — the OT temple type finds its antitype in Christ, the true temple (John 2:21); the believer's body as a temple of the Holy Spirit is the derivative application of that antitype — a temple only in Him, made sacred space by His redemptive purchase, never a second standalone antitype — while 2 Corinthians 6:16 applies the Leviticus 26:12 promise of God walking among His people to the new covenant community. ANTI-DEFAULT CHECK: Typology and Promise-Fulfillment work together — the Leviticus 26:12 promise is explicitly cited and fulfilled in the new covenant community, and the temple-body identification is backward-looking and derivative: believers' bodies are temples because they are united to Christ, in whom what the stone temple prefigured is fulfilled.

Trajectory: Temple Ecclesiology

Trajectory Table: 158 - Temple Ecclesiology (Church as God's Dwelling)

Linked Mentions 1
Trajectory Tables 1
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