Saturday, April 3, 2021

Euichang Kim on the Temple Imagery of 2 Corinthians 7:1

  

. . . scholars have acknowledged the centrality of the temple motif in relationship to the cleansing and holiness language of 2 Cor 7:1. Paul’s use of καθαριζω, μολυσμος, and αγιωσυνη, terms which are typically related to the purification of the temple, point back to Paul’s announcement in 6:16b of his shared identity with the Corinthians as “the temple of the living God.” This is the decisive point at which Paul reminds the community not only of their fundamental identity, but also of their vocation to manifest God’s holiness and truthfulness in the world (cf. 6:14-16a), which is further presented in the exhortation of 7:1.

 

Though Paul had already introduced the motif of the church as God’s temple in 1 Corinthians and warned them of the eschatological implications of profaning it (cf. 1 Cor 3:9-17; 5:6-8; 6:18-20), it is significant that in our passage Paul explicitly connects his exhortations regarding the “temple” with “the fear of God” (cf. 6;16ab with 7:1). Moreover, although scholars have frequently focused on the temple motif in 2 Cor 6:14-7:1, few have provided an explanation of why and how Paul connects the motif of the fear of God with the motif of temple purity.

 

Though the temple motif is combined with the fear of God only in 2 Cor 7:1, in 1 Cor 3:9-17; 5:6-8; 6:18-20 Paul associated the temple motif with their holiness in the context of final judgment. There Paul makes it clear that divine condemnation will be the consequence of believers that each of their works will become visible on the “judgment day” through the test of fire (1 Cor 3:13) and that the test will determine their reward or penalty (1 Cor 3:14-15). As such, the judgement theme with regard to the temple in 1 Corinthians has a similar function to the fear of God in 2 Cor 7:1 which is also related to the acknowledgement of the Corinthians as God’s temple. It is noteworthy that Paul’s concern regarding the eschatological judgement is not for those outside the congregation (cf. 1 Cor 5:12-13), but for the salvation of believers within. Again, the fear of God, for Paul, as in the biblical and Jewish tradition, is a characteristic of the righteous, not the unbeliever. Similarly, in 1 Cor 5:3-4 Paul pronounces “judgment” in the name of the Lord Jesus” on the man who commits immorality. As scholars have pointed out, the theme of 5:1-13 is sexual immorality within the Corinthian congregation, which has been described as God’s holy temple. Likewise, in 1 Cor 6:12-20 Paul’s exhortation, “Shun fornication! (v. 18),” is linked to the identity as God’s temple, “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you” (v. 19),” and appears in the context of the final judgment: if the admonition is not heeded, “God will destroy both one and the other (v. 13).”

 

In 1 Corinthians Paul consequently uses the cultic imagery of the temple as part of a coherent moral perspective in his theology, and he exhorts the Corinthians to keep themselves pure and holy, just as God commanded the priests in the OT temple to be holy. In other words, Paul’s temple imagery serves a pedagogical purpose, namely, “to teach the Corinthians to live a holy communal way of life, as opposed to their division and quarrels, through his figurative equation of the Corinthians with God’s field and God’s building.” Moreover, Paul’s exhortations regarding the church as God’s temple appear in the context of a warning that derives from the expectation of divine judgment, which in turn is to motivate believers to pursue a life of moral purity.

 

The recurring connection in 1 Corinthians between the exhortation to temple purity (based on the church’s communal identity as the temple) and the final judgement thus anticipates Paul’s exhortation in 2 Cor 7:1, based on the implied admonition in 6:16a for the temple to be free of all associations with idolatry, to purify the temple in the fear of God. And here too Paul’s command, motivated by the fear of God, is inextricably linked to the theme of final judgement through the contexts of the catena of Scripture in 6:16c-18. Paul’s use of the temple motif and its related motif of the fear of God is therefore based on his underlying conviction that the Corinthians, through the atonement of Jesus, are now the new covenant community, which is the spiritually transformed dwelling of the living God (6:16b), whose holiness they are to manifest through the life they lead.

 

Moreover, the fear of God and the context of the eschatological judgement that lie in the background of Paul’s identification of believers as God’s temple and his corresponding exhortations to them indicate that the process of sanctification has not yet reached the terminal point and will not be fully achieved until a consummative point in the future. Paul therefore combines the temple motif with the themes of eschatological judgment and its consequent “fear of God” in order to stress that believers must continue to pursue holiness as God’s people until the eschatological day of judgment. (Euichang Kim, The Fear of God in 2 Corinthians 7:1: Its Meaning, Function, and Eschatological Context [Library of New Testament Studies 605; London: T&T Clark, 2019], 154-57)

 

Further Reading


2 Corinthians 7:1 as a Counter to Evangelical Abuse of Moroni 10:32


1 Corinthians 3:15: A very un-Protestant Biblical Verse