Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 234

Life In Christ –  12

THE CHURCH – THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD

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Ephesians 2:19-22
(19)  That is why you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household,
(20)  having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
(21)  In him the whole building is joined together and rises into a holy sanctuary in the Lord.
(22)  You, too, are being built in Him along with the others into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

The Church, which is composed of both Jews and Gentiles, is being built in Christ, to be the spiritual dwelling place of God.

When someone wonders, “Where is God located?”  Scripture gives a number of answers:

1.	In Heaven – or rather “above the heavens” (2 Chronicles 6:18,  Isaiah 57:15, 1 Timothy 6:16)
2.	In Christ (Colossians 1:19, 2:9, John 1:14)
3.	In the hearts of contrite and repentant believers. (Isaiah 57:15,  66:2, Ephesians 3:17, 1 John 3:24)
4.	In His Church.  (Ephesians 2:22, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 2 Corinthians 6:16)

The Bible also says, quite plainly that God does not dwell in buildings, in  “temples made with human hands”:
Acts 17:24-25
(24)  The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of Heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands,
(25)  nor is served with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives life and breath and all things to all.

God dwells in the Church, but not in the building as some sort of “temple”, rather He dwells in His Church as an extension of His life, His body, and the persons He indwells at both an individual and a corporate level. 

God dwells in us as individuals, and abides in us and with us, and each of us who are born -again are given the Holy Spirit as a deposit of faith. And, as I have said before, the Holy Spirit is God resident in human personality with the power to change it.

God also dwells in us as a community.  The Jerusalem Church of Acts 1-6 was clearly such a Spirit-indwelt community. The Holy Spirit builds us TOGETHER into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit, He builds as a multi-individual, multi-racial, (Jew and Gentiles), multi-cultural (from every tribe and tongue) dwelling place of Almighty God.

Precisely how does God dwell in His Church and how can it be considered His dwelling place? A church is most completely God’s dwelling place when it takes on His nature and visibly demonstrates His powers. That is when a church demonstrates God’s love of sinners and care for the poor and healing of the sick and compassion for the downtrodden it is truly a place where God dwells.

Churches riddled with sin, or which nourish false prophets, or which condone immorality, or which have lost their love of God or are proud and worldly are clearly failing as dwelling places of God - and Jesus rebukes them for such failings in His seven letters to the churches of Asia Minor (Revelation chapters 1-3).

So, one of the primary functions of the spiritual community we call “the Church” - is to allow itself to be built into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Lets go back to the verses we began with:
Ephesians 2:19-22
(19)  That is why you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household,
(20)  having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.
(21)  In him the whole building is joined together and rises into a holy sanctuary in the Lord.
(22)  You, too, are being built in Him along with the others into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

The Church, the dwelling place of God is a massive spiritual edifice, founded on the apostles and prophets, and which over the centuries has added layer upon layer and culture upon culture as missionary work has expanded. The new cultures, in this case Greek Gentiles, are not strangers, but are fully incorporated into the Church as “fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household”.

In the end this dwelling place, the New Jerusalem, will be radiant with glory:
Revelation 21:1-3
(1)  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And the sea no longer is.
(2)  And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband.
(3)  And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.

Before the New Jerusalem arrives we have to face life in its more “day to day” mode and the reality of local churches.  Yet we must never lose the vision of even these local churches becoming dwelling places of God, not in the crude sense as in a temple or shrine, but in the spiritual sense above. 

Is your church a place where God would want to dwell? God does not want to dwell among the divisive, the divided, the bitter, the immoral or the profane. But He does dwell where His Word is reverenced, the saints are humble, His Spirit is heard (and not grieved), and where  His commandments obeyed.

I will finish this study with some verses in Colossians that are good instructions for preparing our churches to be true dwelling places of God:

Colossians 3:12-17
(12)  Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
(13)  Put up with one another and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you also should forgive.
(14)  Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which ties everything together in unity.
(15)  Let the peace of Christ also rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body, and be thankful.
(16)  Let the word of Christ dwell in you with all richness and wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and singing to God with thankfulness in your hearts.
(17)  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Blessings,

John Edmiston <johned@aibi.ph>

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