2 Corinthians 6:16

what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?] Cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1Co 8:10; 1 Corinthians 10:14-21. St Paul does not lay stress on the abuse of liberty to which he devotes so large a portion of the first Epistle (see note on 2 Corinthians 6:14), but we may gather from this hint that there was still some need of improvement in this particular as well as in the general relations of Christians with heathens.

for ye are the temple of the living God Cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:21-22; 1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:6; 1 Peter 2:5.

as God hath said The Apostle here combines, as was customary among Jewish teachers, Leviticus 26:11-12 with Ezekiel 37:26-27; Ezekiel 43:7 (cf. also Zechariah 2:10-11). The citation is in many respects verbally accurate, but it is a citation, no doubt, from memory. The Apostle has, however, given a Christian turn to his translation. The Hebrew cannot be shewn to mean more than -I will dwell amongthem." The LXX., in the remarkable word ἐμπεριπατήσω, seems to have anticipated the Christian idea of the indwelling of God in His people. But the Apostle was evidently also thinking of some words of Christ, known to him by tradition, and afterwards recorded by the Evangelist St John in such passages as John 6:56; John 17:21; John 17:23.

and I will be their God, and they shall be my people St Paul here boldly transfers the prophecies that relate to the earthly Israel to the spiritual Israel, the Christian Church. Cf. Rom 9:25-26; 1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Galatians 4:26; Heb 12:22; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Revelation 3:12; Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:10.