John Calvin Commentary 2 Corinthians 6:16

"And what agreement hath a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." — 2 Corinthians 6:16 (ASV)

What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Until now he has in general terms prohibited believers from associating with the wicked. He now lets them know what was the chief reason why he had prohibited them from such an association — because they had ceased to consider the profession of idolatry to be a sin.

He had censured that liberty and had exposed it at great length in the former Epistle. It is probable, however, that not all had yet been won over to receive the counsel he had given. This is why he complained of their being straitened in their own bowels — the only thing that hindered their proficiency.

He does not, however, take up that subject again, but contents himself with a short admonition, as we are accustomed to do when we discuss things that are well known. At the same time, his brevity does not prevent his giving sharp cuts. For how much emphasis there is in that single word, where he teaches that there is no agreement between the temple of God and idols! “It is a sacrilegious profanation when an idol or any idolatrous service is introduced into the temple of God. Now we are the true temples of God. Therefore, it is sacrilege to defile ourselves with any contamination of idols.”

This one consideration, I say, should be to you as good as a thousand. If you are a Christian, what have you to do with idols, (Hosea 14:8) for you are the temple of God? Paul, however, as I have already partly noticed, contends more by way of exhortation than of doctrine, since it would have been superfluous to continue treating it as if it were something doubtful or obscure.

As God says, I will walk. He proves that we are the temples of God from this: that God long ago promised the people of Israel that he would dwell in their midst.

In the first place, God cannot dwell among us without dwelling in each one of us, for he promises this as a unique privilege — I will dwell in the midst of you. Nor does this dwelling or presence consist merely in earthly blessings, but must be understood chiefly as spiritual grace.

Therefore, it does not simply mean that God is near us, as though he were in the air, flying around us, but it means rather that he has his abode in our hearts. If, then, anyone objects that the particle in simply means among, I grant it; but I affirm that, from the fact that God promises that he will dwell among us, we may infer that he also remains in us.

And such was the type of the ark, which Moses mentions in that passage from which Paul appears to have borrowed this quotation (Leviticus 26:12). If, however, anyone thinks that Paul had in mind instead Ezekiel 37:27, the argument will be the same.

For the Prophet, when describing the restoration of the Church, mentions as the chief good the presence of God, which God himself had promised in the beginning through Moses. Now what was prefigured by the ark was manifested to us more fully in Christ, when he became Immanuel to us (Matthew 1:23). For this reason, I believe that it is Ezekiel, rather than Moses, who is quoted here, because Ezekiel alludes at the same time to the type of the ark and declares that it will have its fulfillment under the reign of Christ.

Now the Apostle takes it for granted that God dwells nowhere but in a sacred place. If we say of a man, “he dwells here,” that will not make the place a temple; but regarding God, there is this peculiarity: that whatever place he honors with his presence, he at the same time sanctifies.