Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
If any . . . defile . . . destroy—rather as the Greek verb is the same in both cases, "destroy . . . destroy." God repays in kind by a righteous retaliation. The destroyer shall himself be destroyed. As temporal death was the penalty of marring the material temple (Leviticus 16:2; Daniel 5:2-3, Daniel 5:30), so eternal death is the penalty of marring the spiritual temple—the Church. The destroyers here (I Corinthians 3:16-17), are distinct from the unwise or unskilful builders (I Corinthians 3:12, I Corinthians 3:15); the latter held fast the "foundation" (I Corinthians 3:11), and, therefore, though they lose their work of superstructure and the special reward, yet they are themselves saved; the destroyers, on the contrary, assailed with false teaching the foundation, and so subvert the temple itself, and shall therefore be destroyed. (See on I Corinthians 3:10), [ESTIUS and NEANDER]. I think Paul passes here from the teachers to all the members of the Church, who, by profession, are "priests unto God" (Exodus 19:6; I Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6). As the Aaronic priests were doomed to die if they violated the old temple (Exodus 28:43), so any Christian who violates the sanctity of the spiritual temple, shall perish eternally (Hebrews 12:14; Hebrews 10:26, Hebrews 10:31).
holy—inviolable (Habakkuk 2:20).
which temple ye are—rather, "the which (that is, holy) are ye" [ALFORD], and, therefore, want of holiness on the part of any of you (or, as ESTIUS, "to tamper with the foundation in teaching you") is a violation of the temple, which cannot be let to pass with impunity. GROTIUS supports English Version.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 Corinthians 3:17:
Zechariah 6:12
1 Corinthians 3:7
1 Corinthians 3:17
1 Corinthians 6:19
Galatians 6:8
Ephesians 2:22
Ephesians 6:24
2 Thessalonians 2:4
Revelation 11:1
Revelation 21:22
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