Sunday School Overview: Summer Quarter: Sacred Altars and Holy Gifts

By Rev. Adrian Grubbs

Unit 3: Christians and Sacrifice

The first two lessons in August are from 1 Corinthians 3 and 6. In both chapters, Paul wrote, “You are the temple.” Remember that in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit descended upon the believers, thus filling the new “temple,” and in 70 CE the old temple in Jerusalem was destroyed; the Church is God’s temple, His throne, in the world. In 3:16 “you” is plural – all of you together, the church, y’all are God’s temple; but in 6:19 “you” is second person singular – each of you is the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians (not Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, see 5:9) addresses problems in the church at Corinth, such as divisions, immorality, marriage, meat from pagan sacrifices, etc. Chapter 3 is part of Paul’s answer to the problem of divisions in the church. Not everyone in the church is always going to agree on everything, but the disagreements at Corinth were serious, leading to splits in the congregation over pastoral leadership. Some claimed to belong to Paul, some to Apollos, and others to Cephas. Paul said they had it backwards; he said, “we are your servants;” you do not belong to us, rather, we belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Each of us builds on the one foundation, Christ Jesus, and you are that building, y’all are God’s temple. The great cathedrals in Europe were under construction for several generations; one contractor worked until retirement, then another took his place, and they all followed the same architectural plans. The Greek word here for temple actually refers to the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, the room where the Ark of the Covenant was placed, God’s throne-room. You, the Church of Jesus Christ, are God’s inner sanctuary, where God sits on His throne. A church that is split in pieces cannot be God’s throne.

1 Corinthians 6:19 is part of Paul’s answer to the problem of sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 5:1). The Greek word, porneia (fornication), is not the word for adultery or incest, but a more general term for sexual immorality. One of the things that separated Jews from pagans was their high sense of sexual morality – not that they always kept it, but it was their code. Some of the pagan religions even employed temple prostitutes. Paul’s argument is that, individually, your bodies are temples/sanctuaries of the Holy Spirit; therefore, you must keep His throne-room clean and pure. The church at Corinth looked the other way while one of their members was sleeping with his stepmother. They reasoned that since Christ set them free, they could do as they pleased; since Christ redeemed them spiritually, they were at liberty to indulge their bodies in the things of the world. Paul spoke and wrote in the Greek language, but he did not adopt Greek philosophy. The Greeks distinguished between body and soul; to the Hebrews a person was both body and soul (Genesis 2:7), consequently, the whole person is affected by sin. Your bodies are temples, inner sanctuaries, for the Holy Spirit. That member who has defiled his temple must be disciplined by the church.

The lesson in Ephesians 2 also speaks of the temple, but as construction in progress. In Christ Jesus God has removed the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile – torah, commandments, regulations (2:15). Everyone who believes in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, is built into the holy temple/sanctuary of the Lord, a dwelling place for God (2:21-22). The apostles and prophets are the foundation; Christ Jesus is the cornerstone binding all together.

Hebrews 13 is a concluding list of exhortations concerning love, hospitality, prisoners, marriage, love of money, leaders, strange doctrines, sacrifice, and prayer. The sacrifices acceptable to God are what Paul called living sacrifices (Romans 12:1). Verses 10-13 use the Day of Atonement as an analogy. You will recall from a previous study of Leviticus 16 that the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month was the only time that the high priest approached God’s throne (the ark of the covenant in the inner sanctuary of the temple). A bull and a goat were presented to the LORD and slaughtered before the altar. The fat was burned on the altar, the blood was collected, and the carcasses were burned outside the temple and the city.  After extensive rituals of personal cleansing, the high priest went into the temple and sprinkled the blood on the ark of the covenant for the sins of the priests and people. Jesus had said that the temple was corrupt; therefore, sacrifices would not be acceptable to God. Jesus offered himself as the ultimate and final sacrifice, so there was no longer any need for a temple and altar and animal sacrifices. On the Day of Pentecost the followers of Jesus became God’s temple. The only pleasing and acceptable sacrifices are praise and confession to God, and loving service to others (Hebrews 13:15-16; also see Psalms 40:6; Hosea 6:6; Micah 6:8; Matthew 12:7).

1 Peter 2 uses several metaphors from the Old Testament for the church scattered in the world (1:1-2). Christians are living stones being built into a spiritual house; believers are a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God (2:5). Verse nine quotes Exodus 19:5-6, which says that the Children of Israel were a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and God’s own people; Peter applied it to the new spiritual Israel. The purpose is “that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you…”