Temple or Marketplace?
Throughout history, temples have served as sacred spaces where people sought to encounter the divine. In many traditions, people regarded temples as dwelling places of the gods—centers of worship and ritual, sacrifice, and spiritual devotion. Within the temples, worshippers placed and revered carved or cast images of the gods, which became the focal point of worship.
In the biblical record, we find mention of several pagan temples dedicated to the worship of false gods. In 1 Samuel and 1 Chronicles, Scripture refers to the temple of Ashtaroth and the temple of Dagon. Likewise, in the book of Acts, we read of the temple of Artemis in Ephesus.
Even today, temples remain integral to the religious life of many communities. In and around the city of Lowell, there are approximately nine active temples, primarily Buddhist and Hindu, where followers gather for worship and meditation. In addition to these, the city is home to numerous Christian churches—sanctuaries where believers gather to worship the living God.
The tabernacle and the stone temple
The Bible records that Yahweh, the LORD Almighty, also had a dwelling place among His people in the Old Testament. In Exodus 25:8, God commanded a tabernacle to be made for His dwelling among His people. God’s glory was to live in the tabernacle, a mobile sanctuary among the people during Israel’s exodus from Egypt.
Exodus 25:8 (ESV)
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
And after the tabernacle's completion, the glory of God filled the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle (Leviticus 16:2).
Exodus 40:34–35 (ESV)
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
After Israel settled in the Promised Land, King David felt it was inappropriate that he lived in a palace while the Ark of God remained in a tent (2 Samuel 7:2). He was determined to build a permanent dwelling place for the Lord—a house of worship that would reflect the glory of God (2 Samuel 7:1-3). Although David’s desire was honorable, God revealed to him it would be his son who would build the temple for His dwelling (2 Samuel 7:12-13).
Following his father David's death, Solomon planned to build a temple to honor the Lord and God promised to live there once it was finished (1 Kings 6:11–13).
1 Kings 6:11–13 (ESV)
11 Now the word of the LORD came to Solomon, 12 “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. 13 And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”
Solomon built and finished the temple in seven years, as recorded in 1 Kings chapter 6, and God dwelt in it as He had promised. Conditions for God to dwell among Israel were threefold: 1) walk in God’s statutes, 2) obey God’s rules, and 3) keep and walk in all His commandments.
However, Israel failed to walk in faithful obedience to God's commandments, which led to devastating consequences. As Jeremiah had prophesied, judgment fell: in 586 BC, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, marched against Jerusalem and laid siege to it. The Babylonians breached the city walls and burned the temple that Solomon had built to ashes (2 Kings 25).
After many years without a temple in Jerusalem, exile returnees from Babylon, led by Zerubbabel, started on the work of building a second temple on the ruins of the first one. They finished the second temple in 516 BC, seventy years after the destruction of the first one. It was later expanded by King Herod the great. Besides being a dwelling place for God, the second temple served other purposes.
The temple was a place to offer sacrifices to God. After Solomon had finished the first temple and dedicated it to God, 2 Chronicles 7:12 records that God appeared to him in the night and said to him “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice” (2 Chronicles 7:12, ESV). The priests and Levites offered sacrifices such as burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings at the temple before the Lord.
The temple also served as a place of teaching and instruction. The Bible reveals figures like Jeremiah delivered sermons at the temple (Jeremiah 7), a practice followed by Jesus, the Pharisees, and later, the Apostles.
The second temple, however, suffered worse destruction than the first, this time at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD, a prophecy Jesus made about forty years before the event.
Mark 13:1–2 (ESV)
1 And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2 And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
There remains no physical temple in Jerusalem to this day. We must now ask: Where does God now dwell among His people? Scriptures answer this question for us. No longer confined to stone and structure, the living God now makes His dwelling in two places: first, in the hearts of believers through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and second, within the body of Christ, the Church.
First: The Holy Spirit in the believer
The first place where God has made his dwelling is in the believer. Individually, every Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Before His death, Jesus Promised the Holy Spirit, and the Father sent Him to every believer after Christ’s ascension.
John 14:15–18 (ESV)
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Later in the same chapter, in His reply to Judas, Jesus stated that He and the Father would live in those who keep God's Word.
John 14:23 (ESV)
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Jesus instructed the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they had received the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4). At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled those who were waiting (Acts 2:1-4), and continues to fill those who believe in Christ.
Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians reminds us we are temples of the Holy Spirit and edifies us to glorify God in our bodies.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV)
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.
As temples of the Holy Spirit, we glorify God by yielding our bodies to His sanctifying work. Let us cast out every form of impurity—sexual immorality, malice, bitterness, anger, gossip, greed, pride, self-pity, hatred—and all other sin, for our bodies are now consecrated spaces where we should worship the Most High God in spirit and in truth.
Second: The Church, a temple of living stones
The second place where God has made His dwelling is in His Church. Although the Romans destroyed the physical stone temple structure, God maintained a dwelling place with His people. He built a new temple made of living stones, as we read in 1 Peter 2:4-5.
1 Peter 2:4-5 (ESV)
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Collectively, the body of Christ, the Church, is the temple of God, a spiritual house built with living stones which are the believers.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (ESV)
16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Note: In Greek, “you” is plural in verse 16 and 17. Paul was speaking to a congregation of believers. The body of Christ is God’s dwelling place.
God is present wherever His people are. Scriptures say, where two or three are gathered in God’s name, He is there with them (Matthew 18:20).
Service in the New Temples
As someone in whom God has made a home, a living temple, you are the place where God dwells, where spiritual sacrifices have to be offered, where true worship to the Most High must resound.
Romans 12:1 (ESV)
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
As the body of Christ, the Church should be a temple of living stones, people in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, where spiritual sacrifices ascend, and where people truly worship God..
1 Peter 2:4-5 (ESV)
4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Under the Old Covenant, several things were forbidden as sacrifices in the temple of God. For example, no animals with physical defects, such as blindness, lameness, or other deformities—could be offered in the temple (Lev. 22:20–23). In like manner, there are some sacrifices that are unacceptable in God’s living temple. Scripture is clear: spiritual sacrifices offered in our temples must be holy and wholly acceptable to our God.
What is happening in the temple?
According to the Gospel of John, one day Jesus went into the stone temple and found it bustling with trade. People were exchanging goods for money in the house of God and it appeared to be business as usual.
John 2:13-17(ESV)
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
In the Jerusalem temple, the Jews were trading sheep, oxen and pigeons and changing money, but are we also doing trade in the temple of God that is the Church? Is the Church of Christ about offering spiritual worship to God or about business? Are we doing trade in the temple of the Holy Spirit that is our bodies? Are you a temple or a marketplace?
Today, the temple of God has turned into a marketplace. How?
We’ve traded God’s immutable Word for popular secular ideologies.
We’ve exchanged God’s design of man as male and female—for gender theories that place sex on a spectrum.
We’ve swapped sound doctrine of the word for messages that merely “tickle the ears,” most notably the prosperity gospel.
We’ve exchanged genuine community for isolation.
We’ve replaced reverent, scripture-centered worship with entertainment spectacles.
We’ve exchanged righteousness for moral relativism.
We’ve abandoned God-ordained marriage in favor of its counterfeit.
We’ve traded justice and love for our neighbors for hollow legalism.
We’ve traded self-control for hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-indulgence).
We’ve traded humility and servanthood for pride and competition.
We’ve swapped prayer for activism and social agendas.
We’ve exchanged repentance for inclusiveness.
We’ve traded stewardship for consumerism and materialism.
What’s happening in the temple that is your life? Is it worship for God or trade? Is the Church of Christ a temple or a marketplace?
Purge what does not belong in the temple
The scriptures do not say anyone invited Jesus into the temple to drive out the traders; it was His Father's house. He did not need an invitation or authorization. Claiming His authority as the Son, He entered, saw the commerce defiling the sanctuary, made a whip, and drove out the merchants and their goods, restoring the temple to its true purpose: a house of worship.
Likewise, if you are truly God’s temple, you are not your own. The Holy Spirit needs no permission to come in and purge His temple. He is going to make a whip and drive out sin from His temple. He will say to you, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!”
As the Holy Spirit cleanses His temple, He will expel every impurity—sexual immorality, malice, bitterness, anger, gossip, greed, pride, self-pity, hatred, and the like. You must yield to His refining work: let Him remove all that defiles the temple of God. That purification may extend even to relationships, driving from your life anyone who hinders your devotion to God.
When the Spirit moves to cleanse His house, do not stand in His way, do not harden your heart or resist His work. Don’t cling to the spoil He’s about to cast out—it has no place in God’s temple. Yield fully and let Him purify you.
May we repent of all other business taking place in God’s temple that is not about Him. We should ask God to make us worthy temples. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are a living stone building up the temple for God.
Amen.
