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And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? This particular instance giveth some expositors occasion to interpret 2Co_6:14, of communion with idolaters in such acts of religion as are proper to them; but nothing hinders but that that precept may be interpreted more generally, though the apostle gives this as one particular instance, wherein he would have them avoid communion with unbelievers.
For ye are the temple of the living God; the argument is drawn from what the apostle had before asserted, 1Co_3:16 6:19, their being the temples of the Holy Ghost; which he proveth from Lev_26:12 Eze_37:26,27.
As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: not that what the apostle meaneth here, is the literal meaning of Lev_26:11,12; for it is manifest, that God by Moses there is speaking not of God’s dwelling in the persons of believers, or in his church, but of that gracious presence and manifestation of himself to his people in the tabernacle erected by his order. Some therefore think, that the place here alluded to, though not quoted verbatim, is that, Eze_37:26,27, which is a promise respecting the kingdom of Christ; where God promiseth to make a covenant of peace with his people, and saith, I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. The words, as they are here quoted, are entirely to be found in no one text of holy writ; it is sufficient that they are to be found there in parts. Nor doth this text so properly speak of God’s dwelling in particular believers, as of his dwelling in the churches of his people; therefore, though he speaks of many, ye are, yet temple is in the singular number. These many are but one body; the church in which God dwelleth, and with which he hath communion, which is expressed by walk in them; as in Rev_2:1, he is said to walk in the midst of the golden candlesticks. Nor is the term living vainly added to God; for besides that he is usually so called, as being ever-living, and the Fountain of all life; it also showeth the opposition between him and idols, which are dead things: and therefore God could have no more communion with idols, than the living can have with the dead; nor could they have communion with the living God and dead idols. Nor could they be the people of the living God, and the people or worshippers of dead idols; so as those that were idolaters must lose the advantage of that covenant wherein God had said:
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.