3-D Church

And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Ephesians 2:22 TNIV).

There is an interesting principle laid out for us in Scripture regarding the dwelling place of God.  In the one sense – as in our verse today – it deals with the collective body of Christ.  We are all knit together as living stones into a temple not made with human hands –

you 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 (1 Peter 2:5 NIV).

Yet in another area of Scripture, it is clear that we are each individually a temple of the Holy Spirit:

¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV)

And, to add even one more layer to the concept, the Bible tells us that as much as He is in us, we are in Him:

for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ (Acts 17:28 NKJV).

This is the 3-D design of a God’s temple – God, the church, and us.  We need one another.  Without the accountability of others, we can fall prey to deception. Sin is deceitful and has a temporary pleasure that allures.  When we lack the input of someone outside our own thinking, we are able to go a good way down the path of sin, thinking all the while that we are fine with God, when we are, in fact, eating the forbidden fruit instead. 

That is why God places such an importance on unity and relationship. He did not intend for His family to be dysfunctional and non-relational.  If we think we can have a relationship with God, apart from a relationship with His church, we have fallen into the trap of deception and the Apostle John states very plainly:

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20 NKJV)?

While we must guard our hearts because they are the inner sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, we must also make sure that we are part of the bigger building – for our own safety and protection.  This, of course, is not a church building, but a body of believers.  We need the eyes and ears of our brothers and sisters in Christ to help us spot the deceiver in our midst. 

Lord, grant me the wisdom to graciously accept the input of others in my life.  I need them to help me see clearly when I believe a lie instead of the truth.