As the house of God, the church is the dwelling place of God. Ephesians 2:22 says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” The word “you” here refers to the local saints. Paul is saying that the local saints, the saints in Ephesus, were being built together in Christ into a dwelling place of God.
The church, the dwelling place of God on earth, is the place in which God can have His rest and put His trust. In this dwelling place God lives and moves to accomplish His will and satisfy the desire of His heart.
Because the church is God’s dwelling place, the church is where God expresses Himself. A house is always the best place for a person to express himself. The kind of person you are is expressed by your house. Hence, if you look at a person’s house, you will be able to tell what kind of person he is, because a person’s house is his expression. The principle is the same with the church as the dwelling place of God. In His house, His dwelling place, God expresses Himself on earth. This is the reason 1 Timothy 3:16 reveals that the church is God’s manifestation in the flesh. God not only desires to make home in the church and to have a resting place there; He also wants to express Himself in the church. He wants to practice His New Testament economy, speak forth His desire, and manifest His glory in the church. All that He is, all that He is doing, and all that He wants to obtain are to be manifested, expressed, in the church as His dwelling place.
Ephesians 2:22 tells us that God’s dwelling place is in the believers’ spirit. Here Paul says that we are “being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” This refers to the believers’ regenerated human spirit indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is the Dweller, not the dwelling place. The dwelling place is in the believers’ spirit. God’s Spirit dwells in our regenerated spirit. Therefore, the dwelling place of God is in our spirit. Our spirit is the place of God’s habitation.
We all need to see clearly that God’s dwelling place is in our spirit, not in our heart or in our mind. Realizing that we have a spirit and that God dwells in our regenerated spirit is crucial. If we do not know how to exercise our spirit, it will be impossible for us to understand anything concerning God’s house, because this house, the dwelling place of God, is in the believers’ spirit.
First Peter 2:5a says, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house.” The word “spiritual” here denotes the qualification of the divine life that lives and grows (v. 2). The house of God subsists mainly by the divine life; hence, it is a spiritual house.
As believers in Christ, we need to grow and be transformed for the building up of God’s spiritual house. God’s goal in the believers is to have a house built up with spiritual stones, not separated and scattered stones, not even a pile of stones merely gathered together, but stones built up with one another. Hence, feeding on Christ by the nourishing milk in the word of God (vv. 2-3) is not only for growing in life but also for building up. Growing is for building up. Although the nourishing milk of the word is for the soul through the mind, it eventually nourishes our spirit, making us not soulish but spiritual, suitable for building up a spiritual house for God.
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