In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
Parallel translations
- WEB in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
- BSB And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.
- NKJV in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
- NASB in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
- NLT Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.
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
Believers are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. It declares that the church corporately is God's temple indwelt by his Spirit.
Overview
Paul completes the temple image addressed to his readers: 'in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.' God no longer dwells in a building of stone but in his people, joined together in Christ. This corporate indwelling of the Spirit is the climax of the chapter's vision of one reconciled people of God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Pet 2:4–5To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
- 1 Cor 3:16Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
- John 17:21–23That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
- 1 Jn 4:16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
- John 14:17–23Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
- 1 Jn 4:13Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
- Rom 8:9–11But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
- 1 Cor 6:19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
- 2 Cor 6:16And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- 1 Jn 3:24And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
- Eph 3:17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Every spiritual blessing is 'in Christ,' the head over all things for the church, in whom Jew and Gentile are made one new man by his blood.
How Ephesians 2:22 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.