Ephesians 2:21

‘In whom all the building (or ‘every building’), fitly framed together, grows into a holy Temple in the Lord.’

And the purpose of all that has been described is so that they might be ‘the Temple of God’, that is, that in which God dwells in the world. Men must no longer look to Jerusalem and its Temple but to the Temple which is composed of Christ and His believing people. The building being described is ‘a holy Temple’, ‘a habitation of God in the Spirit’, and all its parts are joined and fitted together ‘in Him’, growing into that Temple. Thus the people of God are seen as being His Temple, a picture used elsewhere in 1Co 3:16-17 ; 2 Corinthians 6:16. (In 1 Corinthians 6:19 it is the body of each individual Christians which is seen as a sanctuary of God). All believers are being fitted together for this purpose. ‘All the building’ stresses the unity of the whole. If we read as ‘every building’ it may refer to different local churches, but ‘all the building’ seems preferable. (The picture is very similar to that in 1 Corinthians 12:13-27 where we are all members of His body. Note how in 1 Corinthians 6:15; 1 Corinthians 6:19 the two concepts merge).