The New Temple
THE NEW TEMPLE
EPHESIANS 2:19-22
Paul uses three metaphors to describe the people of God: a city, a family and a temple.
The result of Christ’s reconciling action was the radical alteration of the status and position of the Gentiles. God has created one church of all people.
Paul brings his thoughts to a head by going back to the analogy in 2:12 of a person living outside the gates of a city-state. He assures his readers that the church is a community in which all possess the rank of free citizens (2:19). The terms “foreigners” and “strangers” are to be read in the light of 2:12. Paul means, specifically, that his readers are no longer strangers to the promises expressed in the divine covenants and they are no longer foreigners in the community made up of God’s people.
He then changes the metaphor to one of his readers being members of the household of God. While the civic metaphor expressed the quality of privilege Gentiles share with Jews in Christ, the figure of the household permits a more intimate touch. Both Jews and Gentiles have access to the Father (2:18), and both were marked out as God’s sons (1:5). Thus both together constitute the members of the divine household, which Paul elsewhere describes as “the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).
Paul now uses a third metaphor: a temple. The transition from the figure of a household built upon a strong foundation to that of a temple in which God dwells appears at first to be abrupt. But in the ancient world a temple was not a place for public worship, as a church building is today, but the actual dwelling place of a deity. God’s own household is therefore the place where he dwells. Paul describes the church as a holy temple on earth built on a foundation of the word of God entrusted in a special way to the apostles and prophets (see also 3:5; 4:11; 1 Corinthians 12:28). As those commissioned to proclaim and interpret God’s word, they have the primary responsibility for building up the community of faith. The chief cornerstone binds the parts of the building together and gives to the walls their lines. The whole structure rests on Christ (see also Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; 1 Peter 2:5). His power shapes the building and guarantees its growth toward completeness. The Gentiles are like new tiers of stone that are rising upon the foundation as the building continues to be erected. In 2:21, Paul describes the building not by the general term for temple, but as the inner shrine where God reveals his glory.
Paul’s point is that the living God displays his presence in the world through a living household created by the Holy Spirit.