Matt 21:¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them,“‘My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.”

This is a story of Jesus purging His father’s temple; Jesus’ view was that all the buying and selling was making the temple morally and spiritually impure.  Christ found some of the courts of the temple turned into a market for cattle, doves, sheep, oxen, lambs and things used in the sacrifices, and partly occupied by the money-changers.  The selling occurred in the outer court, which was where the Gentiles were, as they could not proceed any further.   The money changers made profit out of each transaction. The temple had become a place of money transactions,  instead of a place where God was revered.

This market in the temple was for the convenience of the people, and the nearness of the passover increased its size. Oxen and doves were constantly needed for sacrificial purposes, and as each family which ate the passover required a lamb, they would be in the market in great abundance.

The cord was used in driving them out out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew their tables    These money-changers sat at small tables, on which their coins were piled and counted;  As a Son, he purged the temple of his Father.

The building or the place we call as the ‘church’ is not God’s temple but our bodies.  Both the soul and the spirit are in a vessel; the body.  When a person connects his/her spirit with the spirit of God i.e accepts Jesus, the spirit of God moves and dwells in the body of that person.

Is it possible that we are guilty of perverting the use of “God’s house” when we compromise our prayer walk?  1 Corin 3:¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?  ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

The temple of God is the place where God lives. It is a place that is set-apart as special, a place of worship and prayer, a place dedicated to Yahweh Elohim [the LORD God, the Mighty One of Israel].  Yahweh Elohim, who is the Creator of all things, dwells in a place of glory, honour, and reverence.  However, the moment we become a Born-Again Believers of Jesus Christ, the Bible teaches us that the LORD God, by His Holy Spirit, begins to dwell within our person, within our body: 2 Corin 6:¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

God wants our body, soul and spirit to be subject to the Spirit of God in us.  

As these Scriptures teach us, when we become Born-Again Believers in Christ Jesus, our body becomes a very special place! By God’s precious Holy Spirit, He comes to us to dwell within us, and thus our body becomes the temple of the Living God!  As Believers,  our Heavenly Father desires that we begin to understand the great importance of what His dwelling place is to be, and how to maintain it.

As a Born-Again Believer, Father God loves us dearly and wants each one of us to glorify Him, not only in our spirit and our soul, but also, He wants us to glorify Him in our body:(1Corinthians 6:19, 20)What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. 

The human body is God’s dwelling place and we must take care of our bodies which are God’s temple. Taking care means that our bodies must be very clean as said, ‘cleanliness is second to Godliness’.  Since our bodies are the temple of God and God is dwelling with us we can praise and worship Him any place and at any time.  God is in you and you do not need a building or a place to worship and praise Him. You are the church; wherever you are any time, God is in you just talk to Him.