What is spiritual community? How does one define it? Spiritual community is practically impossible to define because it is not an abstract concept but a living entity. It involves the weaving together of human lives with the Divine Life and divine mission in such a way that the many become one.

The New Testament does not offer a definition of spiritual community. Instead it offers pictures. The appropriate question is not, "How does one define spiritual community?" but "What does it look like?" In this case, a picture paints a thousand words, shedding light on what life together as Jesus' disciples involves.

The New Testament provides three pictures of spiritual community - temple, family, and body. By describing spiritual community with common pictures we are able to better grasp what spiritual community looks like. Our familiarity with these items - the awe of a holy temple, the delights and demands of a family, and the intricate interactions of the diverse parts of a human body - provides the necessary foundation to direct our personal journey into spiritual community. Each picture sheds light on "who" we are in order that we might faithfully know "what" to do - and also what problems to expect along the way.

The Spirit's Temple

The New Testament spiritual community is likened to a temple:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22)

Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:5, 9)

The temple represented the dwelling place of God. According to The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, it "symbolized the center of the cosmos, the meeting place between heaven and earth." It was the chief holy place where God's presence especially resided providing Israel with a tangible reminder of God's favor, blessing, and protection. The temple's special relationship to God designated it as a holy place. The deeper one penetrated into the heart of the temple, the greater the sanctity one encountered. Because God's glory inhabited the holy temple, it was set apart as a special place of worship, sacrifice, and celebration.

The church - God's spiritual community - is the new temple of the Spirit. God's Spirit of glory inhabits each individual human heart and thus the entire human community of fellow believers. Under the Mosaic Covenant most people were forbidden to enter the temple. Temple service was the privilege of only a select few. And out of that few, only one person was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, and then, only once a year. Now, through the New Covenant in Christ, the human heart of every believer is inhabited by God in all his glory. The human heart is now the Holy of Holies! Through our relationship with God we are holy, set apart unto his possession through the Holy Spirit's indwelling. True worship is now offered, not from an altar in a building, but from the altar of the human heart (John 4:21-24).

Because we are God's temple, our new identity is that of priests. A priest stands in the gap between God and other people, representing God to people and people to God. Under Christ's New Covenant the priesthood is no longer limited to a special group within God's covenant people but is now the common possession of all God's people regardless of ethnic heritage (Revelation 5:9-10). No one group has "special status" anymore: "for they all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," Jeremiah 31:34.

This truth is at the heart of the Protestant rediscovery of "the priesthood of all believers." Under the New Covenant, priesthood is not the exclusive possession of a group within the church, but the possession of the entire community of God's people. We are a kingdom of priests sharing the same vocation - to be holy representatives of God to others and others to God.

Sadly, within contemporary evangelicalism this truth is often distorted and made to support radical individualism rather than self-giving love. Our priesthood is not meant to serve ourselves so that we can believe whatever we want or live however we desire. Our priesthood grants us the privilege to serve others in the name of God as we fulfill our duty of representing God to people and people to God. All Christians are meant to share in this priestly activity. "The 'priesthood of believers' doctrine does not mean, as is sometimes asserted, that each person is his or her own priest, but rather that each person is a priest to his or her neighbor, one who shares in Christ's priesthood to the world" (William Willimon, Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry, p.44).

As priests we offer sacrifices unto God on behalf of others. Numerous passages in the New Testament incorporate Temple language - rising smoke and sacrificial smells rising up to please God - to affirm the goodness of a thought or act. Jesus' self-sacrifice on the cross is presented in such terms by Paul: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma" (Ephesians 5:1-2). This sacrifice is not only the basis for our salvation, but is presented as a sacrifice we are to imitate in our daily lives. Paul considers the Philippian church's financial gift to support him in missionary service to be "a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God" (Philippians 4:18). The author of Hebrews calls us to offer spiritual sacrifices of word and deed: "Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased" (Hebrews 13:15-16).

No passage is more comprehensive, however, than Paul's call to the Roman community: "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1). This call to sacrificial priestly service is given to the entire community and embraces all of life. Unlike the Mosaic sacrifices, New Covenant sacrifices involve living people rather than dead animals. Pastor Chuck Swindoll has pointed out the inherent problem with this new situation: living sacrifices tend to crawl off the altar!

We have a high calling. Our call is to give ourselves completely, fulfilling the threefold role of priest, sacrifice, and temple, for the good of the world to the glory of God.

The Challenge

We must recognize the wide extent of our call as God's living temple. All of life is encompassed in our priestly activities. Worship is not limited to "praise music" or even music at all. Worship is not limited to church or church activities. Worship embraces all of life. Every place, every person, every act holds the potential for worship.

In all our activities, we as priests are God-bearers to the world. This is not simply limited to proclaiming the gospel. Too many Christians assume that they are not doing God's work unless they are presenting the "four spiritual laws" or some similar evangelistic summary. They forget that we are priests who proclaim the favorable presence of God in word and in deed.

Can you be a priest wherever you are and with whomever you are? Or is your priesthood limited to so-called "holy" places? Have you forgotten that you are God's holy place - his holy temple - and that you make holy whatever place you are in?

Jesus was able to be a priest in a bloody, violent place full of hatred, racism, blasphemy, abuse, tyranny, and torture. On a garbage dump called "the Skull," in the midst of sin, human evil, and satanic forces, Jesus was able to represent God to people and people to God: "Father, forgive them they don't know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). Before you write this off as something unique to Jesus, remember the martyr Stephen who did the same in Acts 7:59, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!"

There is no excuse. You are a priest wherever you go and in whatever you do. You are a God-bearer to the world. You bring the holy place of God with you wherever you go for you are the holy place.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus was able to touch unclean (ritually impure) people without becoming unclean himself? Numerous times, Jesus ignored the Law of Moses and chose to touch unclean people. Under Mosaic Law, Jesus should have become unclean himself. And yet, Jesus did not become unclean. Instead, he made the unclean things he touched clean. Uncleanliness did not transfer to Jesus for one simple reason. He brought holiness with him wherever he went. He is the temple, the priest, and the sacrifice. Whatever the sacrifice touches becomes holy!

Like Jesus, you also hold the potential to make holy whatever you do and wherever you go. The Apostle Paul takes this for granted. In his advice to believers who are married to unbelievers he demonstrates how we, as temple, priest, and sacrifice, make things holy by our presence. The believing spouse may be concerned that the unbelieving spouse will defile the entire marriage through their "uncleanness." They may feel that they need to leave the marriage in order to remain pure and undefiled. Paul, however, states that there is no reason to worry as long as the unbelieving spouse is willing to stay. "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy" (1 Corinthians 7:14). Because the believer is a priest and sacrifice, he or she holds the potential to make the unclean clean through his or her faithful presence.

It is difficult to communicate this in contemporary evangelicalism. We have been taught to be afraid of every possible situation where we might become "defiled." We "feel dirty" too quickly. We blush too easily. We must view our vocation as being priests to all the world, at all times, in all places, and with all people.

The author of Hebrews pleads with his readers to keep from returning to the shadowy and impermanent realities of a temple building, ethnic priesthood, and animal sacrifice. Under the New Covenant, it is no longer necessary to attach holiness to buildings, a group of people within the church, or to bloody ritualistic sacrifices. Indeed, to return to these things belittles the work of Christ, who is the temple, the high priest, and the sacrifice. The former temple, priesthood, and sacrifices are merely shadows. Like a shadow, they indicate that there is a deeper reality somewhere. Now that the deeper reality has appeared in Christ and in his church, to return to the shadows would be absurd. Indeed, the author of Hebrews considers it blasphemy (Hebrews 10:29). Why would we want to cling to the shadows when we can possess the substance to which the shadows only pointed?

The deeper reality is ours in Christ. Because of our identification with Christ through his Spirit, we are the temple of God. We are priests offering spiritual sacrifices for the sake of the world. Even more, we ourselves are the sacrifice being offered. Through humble, self-giving love we become a living sacrifice that is given for the life of the world. May God grant us the wisdom, grace, and strength necessary to be faithful to this high calling!

© Richard J. Vincent, 2004