The Temple Being Built Together

Today's passage contains the prayer and blessing Solomon offered to God after completing the temple. Solomon confesses the infinity of God, whom heaven and earth cannot contain, and declares that the temple is not a mere building but the place where God hears and meets his people's prayers. At its heart is his prayer of intercession: that when the people suffer because of sin and sincerely repent and pray, God will forgive and restore them in his justice and mercy.

This passage leads us to reflect deeply on what it means for us to walk before God ‘with all our heart’. It asks what true faith is, the faith that obeys God's will beyond our understanding, as Abraham did when he offered Isaac. It also shows how, though salvation is given wholly by grace, our lives, as we respond to that grace and walk the path of sanctification, can be in harmony with God. It emphasizes that the temple is now not a building but believers united with Christ, and that our whole lives must become the ground that bears witness to God.

Relying on God's grace, how can we carry out our mission as the temple through the relationships in which we meet one another? We invite you to consider together what a true temple looks like, one in which God's work is revealed in every area of life.