In 1 Corinthians 3:17, Paul warns, "If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple." (ESV)
This verse is often brought up often in discussions about suicide; but does it actually refer to that or what does it really mean? What constitutes "God's temple" in this passage? Is it the church or individuals within the church? And what does it mean to "destroy God's temple?"
Reading from the preceding section in the same chapter, the temple cited in verse 17 is referring to the collective body of believers (amplified in 1 Cor 3:10-14), and therefore not to our individual bodies as temples of God (which is mentioned later in 1 Cor. 6). The following words in Greek (highlighted in bold) are in the plural form, which substantiates that the "temple" is a collective in the immediate context, and not in reference to any one person.
1 Cor 3:16-17 (Greek)
16 οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ναὸς θεοῦ ἐστε καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν; 17 εἴ τις τὸν ναὸν τοῦ θεοῦ φθείρει, φθερεῖ τοῦτον ὁ θεός: ὁ γὰρ ναὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἅγιός ἐστιν, οἵτινές ἐστε ὑμεῖς.
Paul therefore was speaking in this immediate about the divisions among the Corinthians within the body collective (plural), which is pointing to destroying the temple of God (collective body of believers). The problems in Corinth were literally "de-constructive."
As noted on other postings ont his website, the matter of God's building structure in the Bible (temple) is an important biblical topic. Thus to address the question on what constitutes "destroying" thus places emphasis on not building with gold, silver and precious stones. In other words, when you fail to build with gold, silver, and precious stones, you are building with "wood, hay, and stubble" (de-construction, or weakening God's temple).
According to 1 Cor 3:12, the proper building materials for the Temple of the Lord are gold, silver, and precious stones. Gold is incorruptible, and brings the reader to consider the gold used in the Hebrew Bible within the tabernacle and later the Temple. Silver is another precious metal that does not rust or corrode, and therefore is also incorruptible, and so again we return to the sanctity and purity of God's dwelling (temple). Precious stones are created through heat and pressure, and therefore echoes the transforming and constituting Spirit of Christ (2 Cor 3:18). We are all men of clay (Gen. 2:7; Romans 9:21). When we were saved, we became a stone in God's building (Matt. 16:17-18; 1 Pet. 2:5). Through pressures and refining fires in our environment, the Lord performs his transforming work on the stone transforming us "from glory to glory" (2 Cor 3:18); thus we become those precious stones in the collective temple of the Lord.
Based on 1 Cor 3:9-15(the preceding verses) God's temple is the church. In particular, v. 9 says that "You are God's field, God's building."
The idea is a logical continuation of Paul's thought from vv. 1-9. Paul is the "master builder" who laid the foundation v. 10. In v. 6, Paul says "I planted, Apollos watered...". Apollos is one who built on the foundation which had been laid by Paul (the foundation being Christ v. 11).
The immediate context shows that this passage is about the church and not about individuals.
John Gill says on 1 Cor. 3:12 that the wood, hay, and straw which will be tested by fire are not referring to heresies because if they were, the person building with that material would be condemned. V. 17, however, does seem to be speaking about false teachers (who don't merely build with substandard materials but rather actually destroy God's temple) because it says that God will destroy them.
Vv. 18ff are not an unrelated thought. The wisdom of this age is opposed to the wisdom of God. This section of chapter 3 seems to be referring back to the apparent foolishness of preaching "the word of the cross" in 1 Cor 1:18ff. In fact, 1 Cor. 1:19 says that God "will destroy the wisdom of the wise". Paul is quoting from Isaiah 29:14. He doesn't use the same future verb Ἀπολῶ (fr. 1:19) in 3:17 (φθερεῖ), but their meanings are very similar.
Based on the similarity of these words and the connectedness of the thoughts in chapters 1-3, the destroyer of the temple of God is one who is wise in the world's sight and thus one who does not preach the foolishness of Christ crucified (and also raised--Paul is speaking synecdochally which is made clear in chapter 15).
The reward in view is the reward of the pastor seeing believers being truly edified as they are founded upon Christ. This can be seen from 1 Cor 3:8. The wages or reward in view is seeing believers being so built up in Christ that they appear as precious stones or gold and silver. It is possible for a teacher to be saved and yet teach in such a fashion that their followers are not saved. Paul is warning against this in verse 15. His instructions on preaching are necessarily in view.
Almost all the insights here are leading to the temple as the sanctuary, shrine, a holy place of worship. But we are also God's temple because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. So if we do not take care of our body, the scripture says he will destroy us. I believe it is not God who will destroy us, for He has no control of how we take care of our body. He has given us a free will on what we want to do. My insight here is that God is telling us we will suffer the consequences of our choice.
To me, a non denomination believer, this verse also applies to defiling someone else's temple. To defile/destroy the temple brings the wrath of God (the Father). The Greek word for "will be destroyed" is used in 2 Cor 7:2
Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have "corrupted" no one, we have exploited no one. This may be a mild interpretation. Using 1 cor 3:17 the verse would read, Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have destroyed no one, we have exploited no one. So this seems to me, upon much meditation and prayer time, the wrath would work thru believers or at the minimum Apostle Paul and the others with him. So instead of calling out the bears (2 Kings 2:23), Paul suffered the wrongs. With this background I believe the defile must be horrible to incur destruction. Such as genetic engineering. Tissue manufacture way beyond the image of God. I also believe the destroy wrath is along the lines of using the key to the Abyss. That brings the question, if someone is destroyed will that person meet judgement?
