WEDNESDAY
At the end of Ephesians 2, the Apostle Paul makes one of the strongest statements of the church being the the temple in the New Testament.
Ephesians 2:19-22 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Paul is here using the metaphor of the temple and applying it to the church (the people of God, believers in Jesus). Members of the church are being joined together and rising (like a building rising brick by brick) to become a holy temple in Jesus. The church in Ephesus is also being built together as a smaller temple dwelling place for God. How does God dwell among the church in Ephesus? He dwells among them in the Holy Spirit who lives in every believer.
The temple then is a metaphor for the spiritual reality that the Spirit of God indwells believers. Herod’s temple was still standing when Paul wrote this. It was a large, magnificent building. More importantly, it is where God chose to manifest his presence most intensely. Ephesus was known for its temple to Artemis, as well (this is one of the seven wonders of the world). So this is an image that both the Jews and the Gentile Ephesians would have heard with awe.
The first thing to notice in these few verses is the utter centrality of Jesus. In Jesus the whole building is joined together and rises. In Jesus the individuals in the church are being built together to become a dwelling place for God by his Spirit. Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the church/temple. This holy temple is “in the Lord.” That’s a lot of Jesus in a few short verses.
When we lose sight of Jesus, we lose our unity. It’s so easy for us to become overly obsessed with our own preferences and other aspects of our identities that Jesus takes a back seat. We value church programs to meet our family’s needs more than how the church leads us to encounter Jesus. We value the quality of music on Sunday morning more than the worship of Jesus. We value our friendships at church more than our relationships that help us to become more like Jesus. We value entertaining or affirming preaching more than preaching that challenges us to be more like Jesus. We look for a church that looks like us and acts like us so we can feel comfortable, with little regard for loving people who are different than us, like Jesus taught. If we value anything about church more than we value Jesus, we will not be a united church. We exist only in him and for his glory.
Notice the passive verbs implying this to be a work of God—built, being joined together, being built together. The verbs are also all present tense, implying this is a continuing work. It doesn’t happen all at once, but it is something that God is actively doing in his church.
Paul also says the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. It’s important to note that both apostles and prophets are governed by the same proposition, so the two must be taken together. The apostles clearly refers to the apostles of Jesus. However, the prophets is less clear. It could refer to:
- The Old Testament prophets (think Moses, David, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, etc.)
- The Apostles, if we take apostles and prophets to be referring to the same people (“apostles who are also prophets” would be the sense.)
- Those in the church who have the gift of prophecy
This is a tough decision (which is why I’m telling you). Most interpreters take it to be number 3, since Paul mentions prophets in 3:5 and it seems to refer to prophets in the church as well. Also, in 4:11 he mentions prophets right after apostles in the list of leaders in the church. However, I think number 1 makes good sense in the context. Jesus is primarily revealed through the apostles who saw him and lived with him and the prophets of the Old Testament who revealed the Messiah. Option 2 works as well and resolves all the issues presented by 3:5 and 4:11, as New Testament gifts, and it leads us to the same conclusion.
In any case, whichever one we go with, I think the application is the value of Scripture. We know Jesus by the words of the Apostles, which we have recorded in the New Testament. If we take it as #1, the Old Testament prophets have revealed the Messiah, so we can be sure that Jesus is the Messiah. The church, this new temple of God, must be built on the foundation of God’s Word. We must then hold ourselves under its authority. We must do our best to study and discern the meaning of God’s Word to know the truth. We are, therefore, not free to just make up our own understanding of God. We know God—through his Word—as the foundation of the church.
The rest of the week, we are going to work our way backwards to see the context and how Paul is using this image of the church as a temple to emphasize unity. If I’ve taught you anything about Bible study, it’s that when you see a word like “consequently” at the beginning of a sentence, you have to look at what comes before it to understand what it’s saying. This we will do for the rest of the week.
Reflection
How central is Jesus, truly, to your church experience? Is Jesus kind of an add-on to your church experience, or is he the focal point of it? Are you more interested in hanging out with friends from church than you are in those friends helping you know Jesus more? Are you hoping for some good self-help nuggets from the sermon or for truths that help you experience Jesus more intimately? Are you more excited about the quality of music in worship or the opportunity to express your heart of worship to Jesus?
Could you be content in heaven if Jesus wasn’t there? John Piper, who asked that question, said that those who answer “yes” probably will not be there.