Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 7:19-20
In the above passage from 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul makes a statement with massive implications for nearly every part of our lives. The fact that our bodies – our physical selves – are temples that host God himself leaves no room for a spirituality that is solely “spiritual” in nature. Instead, it means that our bodies are an essential part of our faith and that with the way we use our hands, feet, stomachs, genitals, and more all must be shaped by the immanent presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
So what does it look like to honor and “glorify God in your body”? There are thousands of ways. Here on this sunny, frigid December morning I merely want to point out four.
1. Follow God’s design for sexuality
The immediate context of the verses quoted above are Paul’s admonition to the Corinthian church to limit sexual intimacy to the context of marriage. He writes a few verses earlier, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!” (v.15)
In Paul’s mind one of the premier ways we honor God with our body is by practicing sexuality in the limits he commanded. Want to glorify God in your body? Quit the porn habit. Stop reading “romance” novels. Give up any sexual act outside of the context of marriage.
2. Don’t disdain your body
I know so many people who disdain part or all of their physical selves. They want to lose more weight. Be less hairy. Have curly hair. Be taller. Have a smaller nose. Whatever the specific complaint is, when we disdain or reject part (or all) of our body we are disdaining and rejecting the work of God. To glorify God in your body is to see the value and beauty in yourself. From the stretch marks from child birth to the too-flabby arms, God has given you your body and chosen to dwell in it, and He isn’t a God who creates or dwells in things that are not good. And if you disdain your body you won’t be able to care for it.
3. Care for your body
God’s first command to Adam and Eve is to dwell in the earth and care for it – to turn a wilderness into ordered beauty like the Garden he had created for them to begin their existence in. I believe we have a similar call to care for the bodies that God has given us.
This care and kindness will manifest itself in dozens of ways; eating good, nourishing food, getting physical exercise, resting well, going to the doctor when necessary, and receiving and giving physical affection are a few. Too often we abuse our bodies, punishing ourselves out of disdain and anger. To do so is to fail to “honor God in your body.”
4. Use your body for good.
However, that care for your body isn’t self-focused, protectionist “self care” advocated by much of the modern western world. Such self care advocates prioritizing your own needs and desires above others, an idea that is far from biblical. The biblical reality that Paul is affirming here in 1 Corinthians is that “you were bought with a price.” You no longer own your body. God does.
Look to the Apostle Paul and Jesus as examples of what this means. Earlier in 1 Corinthians Paul lays out for the church all the physical pain and suffering he’s endured with his body for the sake of the Gospel. In Philippians he can write that he is, “poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith” (2:17). Similarly, Jesus gives his body to be beaten and torn and hung upon the cross in order to glorify his heavenly Father.
To “glorify God in your body” is to give your body to God’s cause in humble obedience, regardless of the cost.
As we enter this new week, let’s ask ourselves, are we conscious of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us? Are we operating under the realization that our bodies are not our own? If we want to fully follow Jesus it must be so.
How will you glorify God in your body this week?
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