You All Together Are the Temple of God

"Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16, ESV).   This is an amazing assertion.  It's an assertion that we often individualize, especially as we think of Paul's second letter to Corinth.  “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Corinthians 6:16, ESV) .  In both cases the "you" is plural.  The sense is captured by the NLT this way:

“Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16, NLT)

Greek: “Οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ναὸς θεοῦ ἐστε καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν” (1 Corinthians 3:16, SBLGNT) where ὑμῖν is the second person plural present indicative .  We are all of us together the Temple of God.  Therefore the destruction of that Temple is a heinous crime.  “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:17, ESV) . "The one who destroys God’s temple (in this context, the church) is not part of God’s people and so faces eternal destruction on the final day, just as God eventually destroyed the Babylonians who had destroyed Solomon’s temple." - Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (2195). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.