Being built together (4925) (sunoikodomeo from sun = together speaks of intimacy and indissoluble union + oikodomeo [word study] = to build from oikos = dwelling + doma = building > literally the building of a house) means to build or construct of various parts. It is used only figuratively and only in this verse to describe the community of saints in Christ who are continually being formed into a dwelling place for God. The present tense pictures this as an ongoing process. The passive voice indicates the power producing the growth comes from an outside Source, in this case God. You are not merely added to it, but you constitute a part of the building. Dwelling (2732) (katoiketerion from kata = intensifies meaning and also implies permanency + oikeo = dwell, reside in a house) is a place of dwelling or a place of settling down and conveys the idea of a permanent home. The term occurs only here and in Revelation 18:2 in the NT but is frequent in Septuagint (LXX) (Ex 12:20; 15:17; 1 Ki. 8:39, 43, 49; 2Chr. 6:30, 33, 39; 30:27; Ps 33:14; 76:2; 107:4, 7; Jer. 9:11; 21:13; Dan. 2:11; Nah. 2:11-12) to denote the divine resting place either on earth or in heaven. For example in 1Kings we see a representative use... 1Ki 8:49 then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven Thy dwelling place (LXX = katoiketerion), and maintain their cause Formerly, God's earthly abode was thought to be on Mount Zion and in the Jerusalem temple. Now he makes His abode in the church. Dwelling of God - What a dramatic contrast this truth presents. Before receiving Christ, the Gentiles were “without God in the world.” Now they were being prepared as His dwelling place! The picture of God dwelling in His people reminds us of His three fold promise in the Old Testament “I will be their God" "They shall be be My people" "I will dwell in their midst.” In Ezekiel 37 which alludes to the New Covenant, we see God's promise... "My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people." (Ezekiel 37:27) In this verse in Ephesians Paul explains that the great objective of the saints being built together is to provide a place of habitation for God, Who by the Spirit permanently dwells in His holy temple. Imagine how the original recipients of this letter must have been struck by Paul's imagery. After all they were pagan, idol worshipping heathen who had been living amongst temples in which dead deities were believed to dwell, as in the temple to Artemis in Ephesus (see Acts 19:23-41). What a dramatic contrast Paul paints, for now they as the Body of Christ, the Church, are no small physical chamber in which an idol is kept but are in fact a vast spiritual body of the redeemed, wherein resides the Spirit of the Living and True God! In Old Testament times, God dwelt with His people in the Tabernacle and later the Temple. Under the New Covenant, God dwells in His people. Note once again the work of the Trinity. In Christ all believers are being fitted and formed into one building by the Holy Spirit Who regenerates and indwells them so that we are a dwelling place for God. In a parallel passage Paul writes... 1Corinthians 3:16: Do you (plural speaks of all believers collectively and so of the church) not know that you (plural) are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (Comment: This verse views the local church as the Temple of God inhabited by His Spirit) Here in Ephesians 2:22, Paul is speaking of the Body of Christ corporately. Elsewhere he uses a similar image with reference to individual believers writing ... 1Corinthians 6:19-20: Or do you not know that your body is a temple (naos = Holy of holies) of the Holy Spirit Who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. Comment: In contrast to the Paul's intended meaning of the "holy temple in the Lord" in Ephesians 2:21 [referring to Jew and Gentile in one body = corporately, as the body of Christ, the mystical church], this verse refers to the body of each individual believer. As an aside, ponder for a moment the practical significance of this passage -- every act of fornication, adultery, or any other sin is committed by the believer in the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where God dwells. In the OT, the High-Priest only went in there once a year, and only after extensive cleansing, lest he be killed. Remember we are holy ones who are growing into a holy temple in the holy Lord! Spirit (4151) (pneuma) is from the Greek word that describes air in movement (i.e., blowing or breathing) and is that which animates or gives life to the body. Think of these literal meanings of pneuma in the context of the Holy Spirit. Pneuma thus refers to God’s being as a controlling influence in this context focusing on the association with humans. All those who belong to God possess or receive His Spirit and hence have a share in God’s life, the life He has in a sense "breathed" into dead sinners, animating them and giving them life eternal and potentially abundant (depending on one's obedience). Blaikie writes that... In this verse, again, we find the three Persons of the Trinity: the temple is the habitation of the First Person; the source of its life and growth and symmetry is the Son; the actual upbuilding and glorifying of it is by the Spirit. This is the climax of privilege, and no contrast could be greater than that between the death in trespasses and sins with which the chapter begins, and this sublime temple, where God dwells and bestows his fulness, with which it ends. (The Pulpit Commentary: Ephesians) Ephesians 2, what a chapter - beginning with a horrible description of Gentiles as dead, depraved, diabolical, and disobedient and closing with those same Gentiles now cleansed from all guilt and defilement, and forming a dwelling place of the living and true God in the Spirit! The more we read His Word, the more amazing we find His grace! Walk in the light of these glorious truths dear saint! The soul wherein God dwells — What church could holier be? — Becomes a walking tent Of heavenly majesty. Johannes Scheffler