Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Corinthian believers, who are divided into factions and judging one another's work. He is mid-warning about building on Christ's foundation with perishable materials (3:12–15), and this verse is the pivot: before he can speak of what they build, he must establish what they are.
The words — ναός (naos) is the word for the inner sanctuary, the holy of holies, not a generic building (contrast οἶκος, "house"). The rhetorical οὐκ οἴδατε ("do you not know") assumes the fact is already settled and challenges the reader for acting as though it were not.
The thread — 1 Corinthians 6:19 applies the same logic to the individual body; 2 Corinthians 6:16 quotes the Old Testament dwelling-oracle (Exodus 25:8; Psalm 114:2) to the collective; Ezekiel 36:27 grounds the pattern in the Spirit's indwelling as the new covenant mark.
Why it lands — The verse is not a new revelation but a recall: the reader already knows this, and the question is why they are behaving as if they don't. It forces the reader to own the claim before asking what it means.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Cross-references
- 1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
- Ezekiel 36:27 And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.
- 2 Corinthians 6:16 What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
- Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.
- Ephesians 2:21 In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
- Romans 8:9 You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
- John 14:17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
- 1 Peter 2:5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- 2 Timothy 1:14 Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
- 1 John 4:15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.