God’s Household – the Church?
Let's continue with 1 Timothy 3, where this week we will explore what it means to belong to God's household - a term used by Paul in verse 14.
There is something about home - about your household - that is very sacred. Home is where the heart is, as the saying goes!
Shereen and I have done some travelling, and we always enjoy seeing different towns here in South Africa, or going overseas if we have that luxury, as we did back in 2022. But coming back home is a great feeling! Your own shower! Your own bed! Your own space!
It reminds me of that old John Denver song that goes Hey it's good to be back home again!
In light of this, I find it interesting that Paul describes the church as "the household of God". If home is where the heart is, then God's heart, you might say, is in His church!
God's Desire to Dwell With His People in Scripture
When you read the Bible from one end to the other, you can see a theme running through of God intending to dwell with His people.
Back when the Israelites were wandering in the desert, we read God saying that the people should bring an offering of gold and silver and bronze and yarn and more, and He says: "Have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you" (Exodus 25:8-9)
He says that this tabernacle should be consecrated, and then He says: "I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God." (Exodus 29:45-46) God wanted to dwell with them, even then!
Years later, David had a vision to build the temple - a permanent dwelling place for God rather than the tabernacle which moved about. But David never completed it - his son Solomon did, and when he finished building it, Solomon said this: “'The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.'" (1 Kings 8:12-13)
From the Temple to Jesus: God's Presence Fulfilled
But Solomon also knew that the temple was insufficient to house God. Look at what he writes soon after this: "But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!" (2 Chronicles 6:18)
You see, this great temple that Solomon built was actually destroyed by the Babylonian armies centuries before Jesus. This was a major blow to the Israelites - because that temple was, in their view, the place where God dwelt - the household of God! So when they could, they rebuilt it, but it was never quite the same, and in fact it came down again in AD70.
But God was still looking to dwell with His people! Then Jesus came, and in an amazing way, God came to dwell with His people through Jesus by becoming one of them. John 1:14 says it brilliantly: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." (John 1:14) This is the great mystery of Jesus' coming: that He fulfilled the need for a temple. He became the temple, the walking embodiment of God's presence - and even when they killed Him, He rose again. God's presence can't be snuffed out!
Here's the best part: when Jesus ascended, He sent the Holy Spirit, and we read this beautiful verse in Paul's letter to the Corinthians: "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" (1 Corinthians 3:16)
So where is God's household? It's not in a building or a tent. God dwells in the hearts of His people.
You are the household of God, if you believe in Christ! May that truth change the way you live today.
Paul calls the church God's household - the place where His presence dwells among His people, traced from the tabernacle and temple right through to Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit.