Although in the preceding verses Paul is speaking to each Corinthian about being careful what is built on the foundation of faith that he established, here in sixteen Paul is referring to the whole church when he asks, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” A good way understand this shift between actors is to see each Corinthian as a subcontractor expected to contribute to the completion of the whole building project; this building is the temple of God. And this is probably why Paul pronounces dire consequences to anyone who would destroy the temple. 

The Greek word translated as destroy is phtheiro. It is used later in 1 Corinthians and in 2 Corinthians to mean ruin or the infliction of severe damage. By using it, Paul here is not referring to the annihilation or utter destruction. “If anyone ruins the temple, God will ruin that person.” It is important for the Corinthians to know why this is the case, “because the temple of God is holy, and that is what [they] are.” The lives that each of them are building merge to make one common life for the congregation, the temple of God. It must be holy, so its parts, too, must be holy. 

He Paul reminds the Corinthians of what he told them already in this letter: that to keep one’s mind on earthly desires—to scheme—prevents a person from even the ability to understand who God is and what God wants. If they want to keep up the Corinthian practice of climbing to the top, they are in for a rude awakening. “…he must become foolish,” because Jesus’ life was foolish in everyone’s eyes. Paul says here that there is no middle ground: The world’s wisdom is foolishness to God, and God’s wisdom is foolishness to the world. I mean, what’s more foolish than turning the other cheek?

Finally, Paul tells the Corinthians if they don’t want to be deceived, they must keep the proper perspective. They are “boasting in people” because they believe that is way you receive. None of these things: Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, and the future are important: only Christ is. Those who focus on Paul believe that they are the only ones who will receive, while those who focus on Apollos believe likewise about themselves. To give ourselves over to any one of these perspectives or realities thinking that by doing so we might gain the world is wrong. 

Paul tells the Corinthians that their efforts to differentiate themselves from one another is a waste of time since “all thing belong” to the Paul faction, the Peter faction, etc. Who makes them who they are, who gives them “all things” are none of the these things, no worldly leader or idea. Everything belongs to all of you, not matter if you think your party is the first and best one, Paul says, because you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God—who owns everything. So by grounding their identity people other than Christ and building their lives and actions around anything other than the gospel that Paul had implanted in them, the Corinthians were risking everything.