we are the temple

When Jesus entered the temple and saw it filled with merchants and money changers, He made a whip, drove them out, and declared, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered the words of Scripture: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”(John 2:17)

Jesus’ passion for the purity of His Father’s house was not a moment of rage; it was a deliberate act of holy devotion. He came to purify the temple, but more than that, He came to replace it. In His death and resurrection, Jesus became the true temple, the meeting place between God and man. Through faith in Him, we now have direct access to the presence of God.

This passage calls us to examine our own hearts, for we are now the temple of the living God (1 Cor. 3:16). Have we allowed greed, distraction, or self-interest to clutter the courts of our hearts? Do we love the church, the dwelling place of God’s Spirit, with the same zeal Christ displayed? True zeal for God’s house means loving His church deeply, serving faithfully, and worshiping sincerely. It means prioritizing what honors Christ and cleansing whatever competes with His glory.

Beloved, may our hearts burn with the same holy passion that filled our Savior’s. As He cleansed the temple then, may He cleanse our hearts today so that our worship, our service, and our lives together might display His glory to a watching world.