Ephesians 2:21

Paul pictured the church as under construction with God adding new believers constantly (cf. Ephesians 4:15-16; Matthew 16:18; 1 Peter 2:5). The individual stones represent believers, both Jewish and Gentile. Today God does not inhabit a physical temple somewhere on earth, as He did in Old Testament times. He indwells His church, which is a spiritual temple spread over all the earth. It began on the day of Pentecost, and it will continue until the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). As physical temples glorified the gods they represented in ancient times, so the church glorifies the true God today.

Paul may very well have used the illustration of a temple because the temple of Artemis in Ephesus was the city’s most outstanding claim to fame. It was four times as big as the Parthenon that still stands in Athens. One hundred twenty-seven white columns rose 60 feet high and surrounded an image of the goddess Artemis (Diana). [Note: Pliny, Historia Naturalis, 36.21 §96.] Authorities still regard this temple as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world (cf. Acts 19:23-41).