When people usually think of houses or temples of worship, they obviously have a church building of some sort in mind. However, there are some other common places of worship. Some of the places of worship have simply been open altars that were built to hold large sacrificial animals.
Of course, these places of worship people use may be quite diverse. We can see from Scripture that in the Old Testament, places of worship varied greatly, for example, there is the altar Noah built, the altar Abraham used, the tabernacle in the wilderness, and the Temple at Jerusalem.
An important aspect of these places of worship was that the worshippers were not to defile these locations of worship in any way. They were very special areas because these places of worship foreshadowed a very distinctive and unique future Temple for worship.
The ancient sites had been set apart for acts of true worship by those faithful believers, like Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Believers have considered these sites to be holy because of the reason they were apart. Today, many church members of numerous denominations also tend to consider their houses of worship as very special. Some consider the spaces to be holy.
Today, that distinctive and unique Temple that God is constructing is a very special spiritual Temple. There are Bible passages that show that the Temple God is building is also holy. The construction of that Temple apparently began with the giving of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost following the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The Apostle Paul grasped the spectacular meaning in what God was doing toward this spiritual Temple, which is now referred to commonly as the Church of God. Realizing God’s purpose, Paul fervently warned the believers in Corinth about defiling that Temple.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (16) Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (17) If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Yes, the Temple of God is special. It is holy. Notice the last few words of 1 Corinthians 3:17. Those words tell us that we (true believers) are now the Temple of God that God is building.
As true believers, do we consider ourselves to be holy as God’s Word describes? We are holy! Do we actually realize that we are now growing into the Temple of God? Do we realize that God is building a Temple where He will abide forevermore?
2 Corinthians 6:16 And 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.
Truly understanding and appreciating what a special calling and privilege it is to be part of God’s Church will help us to stay clean and avoid things that would defile us. God’s desire is that His Church remains clean, pure, and holy because wherever God lives MUST be holy!