Moreover I will tell you also concerning the temple, how the wretched ones, being led astray, set their hope on the building, and not upon their God who made them, as though it were the house of God.
For almost like the nations they consecrated Him in the temple. But how the Lord speaks, abolishing it, learn: "Who has measured the heaven with a span, or the earth with the hollow of his hand? Have not I? says the Lord. Heaven is my throne, and the earth the footstool of my feet; what house will you build me, or what is the place of my rest?" You have known that their hope is vain.
Again, it was made manifest how the city and the temple and the people of Israel were to be delivered up. For the Scripture says: "And it shall be in the last days, and the Lord will deliver up the sheep of the pasture and the sheepfold and their tower to destruction." And it came to pass according to what the Lord spoke.
But let us inquire whether there is a temple of God. There is, where He Himself says He makes and perfects it. For it is written: "And it shall be, when the week is fulfilled, a temple of God shall be built gloriously in the name of the Lord."
I find, then, that there is a temple. How, then, shall it be built in the name of the Lord? Learn. Before we believed in God, the dwelling place of our heart was corruptible and weak, as truly a temple built by hand, because it was full of idolatry and was a house of demons, through doing whatever things were contrary to God.
But it shall be built in the name of the Lord. Take heed, that the temple of the Lord may be built gloriously. How, learn. Having received the forgiveness of sins and having set our hope on the Name, we became new, created again from the beginning; therefore in our dwelling place God truly dwells in us.
How? His word of faith, His calling of the promise, the wisdom of the ordinances, the commandments of the teaching; He Himself prophesying in us, He Himself dwelling in us, opening to us, who were enslaved to death, the door of the temple, which is the mouth, granting us repentance, leads us into the incorruptible temple.
For he who longs to be saved looks not to the man, but to the One who dwells and speaks in him, being astonished at Him, in that he has never before heard such words from the mouth of the speaker, nor ever himself desired to hear them. This is the spiritual temple being built for the Lord.