1 Corinthians 3:16

The Corinthian church was a temple that God’s Spirit indwelt. Paul was not speaking here of individual believers being temples of God, though we are (1 Corinthians 6:19), or of the church universal as the temple of God, though it is (Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5). He meant the collective body of believers that made up the local church, as is clear from his use of the plural "you" in the Greek text and the singular "temple." The local congregation was not just any building (1 Corinthians 3:9) but a sanctuary (Gr. naos) that God inhabited. The presence of the Spirit alone marked them off as God’s sanctuary in Corinth. Ten times in this epistle Paul asked, "Do you not know?" (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 6:2-3; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Corinthians 6:15-16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Corinthians 9:13; 1 Corinthians 9:24) and each time the question introduces an indisputable statement.

The New Testament writers spoke often of the church (a group of believers) as God’s temple. They did not usually make the distinction between the holy place and the holy of holies that existed in the Israelites’ physical temples. They viewed the temple as a whole. However here Paul did distinguish the place of God’s dwelling, the temple building itself (naos), from the temple precincts that surrounded and included the sanctuary (Gr. hieron).