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1 Corinthians 3:16

Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Don’t you know that you are a temple of God, and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
  • KJV Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
  • NKJV Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
  • NASB Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
  • NLT Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The Corinthian church is God's temple, indwelt by His Spirit. Together they are the holy dwelling place of God.

Overview

Paul declares that the church corporately is 'a temple of God,' where the Spirit dwells. This astonishing truth elevates the local congregation to the place of God's special presence, once located in Jerusalem's temple. It grounds the warning that follows: to harm the church is to assault God's own dwelling.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 20

  • 1 Cor 6:19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
  • Ezek 36:27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.
  • 2 Cor 6:16What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
  • Rom 8:11And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.
  • Eph 2:21–22In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
  • Rom 8:9You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
  • John 14:17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
  • 1 Pet 2:5you 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.
  • 2 Tim 1:14Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
  • 1 Jn 4:15–16If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
  • Heb 3:6But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.
  • 1 Jn 4:12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
  • Rom 6:3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
  • 1 Cor 9:24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize.
  • 1 Cor 9:13Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings?
  • 1 Cor 6:2–3Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
  • 1 Cor 6:16Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”
  • 1 Cor 6:9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
  • 1 Cor 5:6Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?
  • Jas 4:4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

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Christ at the center

Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.

How 1 Corinthians 3:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.