Sons and Daughters

We are the temple of the living God, Paul says (2 Corinthians 6:16), and he supports the claim with a string of quotations. God says, “I will dwell in them and walk among them” (Exodus 29:45). He says, “I will be their God and they shall be My people” (Genesis 17:8).

In order to be the temple of the living God, it’s necessary to separate from the unclean, and so Paul goes on (v. 17) to quote Isaiah 52:11 (“come out from their midst and be separate” and “touch nothing unclean”).

Then he adds that God has said, “I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me” (v. 18). Two problems arise: First, that statement is not found anywhere in the Old Testament and, second, it’s not clear what this has to do with being the temple of the living God.

Take the first problem first: Paul quotes a modified form of 2 Samuel 7:14. That passage is a promise to David that the Lord will be Father to David’s son, the future king, and that the king will be a son to him. Behind this promise is the designation of Israel as “My son” (Exodus 4:23). Paul expands the promise so that it includes not only a Davidic line but the entire people of God, not only sons but daughters. Together, they constitute the new Israel, a new Israel conceived of as a thoroughly royal people, a Davidic family, sons and daughters of the heavenly Father, brothers and sisters of the Davidic king Jesus.

This clarifies the second problem. The temple was the house of the divine king, as the palace was the house of the human king. Already in the Old Testament, temples symbolized the people of God as well as serving as dwelling places for Yahweh. Temple and people were mutually interpreting. In the New Testament, there is no architectural temple, and the household of brothers and sisters becomes fully identical with the house of the living God. To say that the church is a temple of the living God is thus not only to say that God dwells in our midst but that He dwells as King in the midst of His family of princes and princesses.