Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
1 Corinthians 3:16
Ever since the popularity of John 3:16, a well deserved status for such a meaningful passage, the chapter:verse tag has become a meme (in the scholarly sense, an idea that spreads) escaping the religious world and appearing on, for example, WWE fan signs. So, occasionally, that chapter and verse pair pop up in our reading and we unconsciously attach the address to Jesus’ famous proclamation for God’s love for the world.
Interesting then that the passage above comes in a didactic, if not rebuking, passage from 1 Corinthians much like the talking-to Jesus was delivering to Nicodemus in the gospel. This is a lesson about our perceptions of bible passages and the real context they exist in.
For example: on the cross, Jesus famously said “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” But he is quoting Psalm 22! Later in that very Psalm the Psalmist praises God’s capacity to save and says that even the heathen nations want to kill him will turn and worship God. Without context, without knowledge of Scriptures, the crowds say “He’s calling for Elijah!”
Let’s not have a three sixteen type of faith! Let us be Christians who meditate on the whole Bible and read it as a comprehensive work. If we take our favorite parts, strip them of context and use them for our purposes, we use the name of God for our purposes. If we take in the Scriptures, meditate on them and are changed by them, we will do things in his name.
Ethan Kirl
Leave a Reply