1 Corinthians 3:16-23
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. [REFLECTION] What stuck with you from this past Sunday’s service/ passage?
2. [BASICS] Quick questions:
- Whose Church is it?
- Who is God’s temple?
- Trace and reflect on the dwelling of God with His people through Scripture: (Garden -> the Fall -> tabernacle -> temple -> Incarnation -> in-dwelling Spirit ->New Creation).
3. [COMMUNITY] If we, as a communal group/people, are the temple of God, what does that tell us about our responsibility to one another?
- How does this combat a more consumer/preference mindset of church?
4. [PERSONAL CHARACTER] What virtues or traits in a person make them a member who strengthens the church instead of weakening it? Does your presence strengthen the church or weaken it?
5. [LEADERSHIP] “Leaders belong to the Church; they do not own or rule over it.”—paraphrase from Sunday. How does this challenge your experience of church, and what complications could it bring?
6. [IDENTITY] What, in your life or the church’s life, is a tempting place to root our identity that is not Christ himself?
7. [THEOLOGICAL GRENADE] If Christ belongs to God (v.23b) and we belong to him in the same way, how does this influence our view of (1) the Trinity and (2) our salvation/standing with God?
- <Note, the phrasing of v.23 is the same in both halves: “y’all are Christ’s; Christ is God’s”>
