God's Holy Fire: 'Don't Vandalize God's Temple'

What often gets lost in this passage is that the "you" is plural — "y'all" in southern parts of the USA. The congregation, the local church, is the temple of God. God lives in us and among us. So when damage is done to the local church because of bickering or division or splits or anything else, God takes these sins seriously and will deal with these sins strongly. "The Message" uses the image of "vandalizing" in referring to doing damage to the local church. When we create problems in the church, we are vandalizing something precious to God, the place he lives and makes his home! Through the Holy Spirit, God personally lives in us (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) and in us as a church (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). We are holy and precious and sacred to God, and he wants us to treat each other as something holy and precious and sacred.