Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1Corinthians 3:16-17)

The children's song, "I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together" captures Paul's intent. The you is plural, as in y'all.

Each of us and all of us are able to build with the foundation materials provided by Jesus Christ. How we arrange the foundation and what we erect on the foundation is up to us.

I understand Paul to mean that any structure - grand or simple - is fully acceptable to God. It is the spirit of joy and thankfulness that matter, more than how that spirit is expressed.

But the absense of joy and thankfulness is of grave concern. The translator chooses to speak of destruction. The original Greek is closer to corruption.

Phtheiro is a corruption that results from a wasting away or pining after. Miss Haversham in Great Expectations is the personification of Phtheiro.

In the experience of Pip and Estella we may see our choices - and even a bit of God's intent, known by Paul, translated by Charles Dickens.