Brethren, you are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.
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One of Paul’s key concerns was the stamping out of any ignorance amongst the early Christians. In calling yourself a Christian you claimed to be a follower of Christ. But consider this: in those days, but for the epistles of Paul, there were no writings setting out what it meant to be a Christian. In fact, the teaching of the early church was word-of-mouth. The problem of such a means of communicating the good news of Christ was that, like Chinese whispers, the message could be changed and hence the boundaries of faith altered, and significantly so. One of the early heresies, Gnosticism, owed its success to the fact there were all kinds of pagan religious thought – mix them with this new faith of Christianity and it could be channelled out as the new religion initiated by this person Jesus Christ. To make matters worse, Gnosticism varied from locale to locale in accordance with the prevailing pagan deity so that it changed colour, only adding more confusion as to just what the belief of the early Christian should be.
Now, for us today, that does not appear to be any problem. Today, we can access myriad materials, both primary and secondary, so that we can learn the boundaries of our faith and separate the dross from the truth. But in Paul’s time, there was no such capacity and unless someone stood up for the emerging church then it would sink under the waves of pagan thought and disappear from the face of the earth. Make no mistake: this was a huge problem. Indeed, Paul identifies it as being the sentence of death and the only way it could be overcome was through the hand of God. Paul confidently expects that he will in Corinth overcome this problem but he calls upon the faithful to help through prayer so that idolatry can be overcome.
Paul says that the beginning of a life in Christ means the breaking of communion with unbelievers. Indeed, as he puts it: what partnership have righteousness and iniquity, what fellowship has light with darkness and what accord has Christ with Belial. Belial is identified as the prince of demons, so what Paul is saying is that there is a distinct dualism in approach to religious life. Now, the Corinthians are called to open their eyes and mind and make a choice between good and evil, life and death, and virtue and dishonour.
You cannot be a believer and at the same time have false understanding of doctrine. You cannot be a little bit Christian. You’re either Christian or you’re not. There is no place for idols in the temple of God. In other words, idols and idolatry are anathemas to the Christian life. So, what does that mean? It means that you, as a Christian, are obliged to know the limits of your faith. Believing everything is the same as believing nothing. All roads do not lead to Rome when it comes to the Christian faith. If you are not on the correct journey ,you will not be saved. It is that serious. I have heard it said that it is acceptable to have faith and not question. Nonsense! You must question what it is you believe in. If you do not know what you believe in, you are doing no more than practising idolatry. Let me explain: I believe in Christ, I do not know what he stands for or what his teachings are. If I do not know these things, then how can I say that I am a follower of Christ? When Christ says “follow me”, what is it that I am supposed to follow? How can I have a personal relationship if I do not know with whom I am having that personal relationship? In other words, I believe in “something”, and in this case Jesus Christ, without knowing what Jesus Christ means. That is idolatrous belief.
To make this point clearer, Paul declares that each one of us is a temple of the living God. Now, the obligation of those who look after a temple is to ensure that it is pure and not tainted by anything that is unacceptable to God. The one thing that God finds anathema is lack of faith, or faith which is co-mingled or melded with heresy. It is for this reason that Christ, in the Gospels, makes clear that the only thing that is not forgivable is sin against the Holy Spirit. Indeed, Christ declares: “whoever says a word against the son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matthew 12:32). Let us stop and ask ourselves what is the role of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is understood as the medium of our restoration into union with Christ. It therefore follows that if we want true restoration and reconciliation then we need true understanding of Christ. So, when Christ was with us on earth and people were against him, then such actions were forgivable; however, once Christ ascended then it became the role of the Holy Spirit to lead humankind to all truth. This includes the boundary of faith. Therefore, transgressing the boundaries of faith is speaking against the Holy Spirit and as such, will not be forgiven.
Paul refers to and conflates several of the Old Testament prophecies to demonstrate that what has occurred was part of sacred history and preordained by God. For instance, God declares in several places that those true to God will be his people. Further, they will be separated and kept pure by God for they shall be the sons and daughters of God. That is the promise which is now fulfilled to the church. This places upon us the obligation to keep our part of the covenant and the solemn promise that we, as Christians, will cleanse ourselves from every defilement that leads us astray. Whether it be physical, as in the passions or whether the threat of defilement is through the spirit that causes us to doubt our faith, we will put on the armour of truth and love and we will overcome. In that way, we make the temple within us perfect for God to reside. Notice however that we do so in the fear of God. Why fear? Because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7) So it comes back to knowledge and now, as then, Paul’s message is applicable: to know your faith is to live your faith.
