You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
(b) Every statement Jesus ever made concerning the temple corroborates this view.  "My house (the true temple) shall be called a house of prayer; but ye made it a den of robbers"  (Matthew 21:13).  "Behold your house is left unto you desolate"  (Matthew 23:38).  "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise" (John 2:16).  This is not an endorsement of the temple as God's house, but a condemnation of their house of merchandise.  Matthew has, "Jesus entered into the temple of God"; but even if the text is valid the passage must be understood as Matthew's use of a common popular name for Solomon's temple (rebuilt by Herod the Great); but as the margin indicates (ASV), "Many ancient authorities omit of God."