What About Our Bodies?

Reflection:  In our society there is quite a bit of emphasis on the body.  We pour tons of money into making our bodies look good, and try to prevent the aging process. We see tattoes are all the rage, as many people ink their bodies with different types of images.  Many people struggle with their body image and fight this feeling of inadequacy their whole lives.  In today’s New Testament letter, Paul has quite a bit to say about the body to the Corinthian church.

In this church the people were using their new found freedom in Christ to experiment sexually even into realm on homosexual behavior.  There were some philosophies of the day that said spirit is good and body is bad, so go ahead and just do whatever you want because it doesn’t matter.  This was later to be known as “hedonism”. 

But Paul gives us some valuable teaching on the body.  First, the body is good because it is created by God. Second, when Jesus rose from the dead in bodily form, He redeemed our sinful bodies and gave us hope that one day our bodies will be redeemed.  In the meantime, our bodies are the temple, or residence of the Holy Spirit.  Though we can’t see the Spirit, the Spirit literally resides in our bodies.  And therefore when we commit sexual acts outside of the covenant of marriage where two bodies are joined and receive God’s blessing as one, we are joining them with something outside of God’s provision and will.  Paul quite crudely says, “Will you join yourself with a prostitute?”   

For those in Christ, we have not only surrendered our minds and hearts, as also our bodies.  Our bodies are to be given for God’s use and be a dwelling place for God’s Spirit.  God gave us things in this life to enjoy with our bodies like food, drink and intimacy with a lifelong partner as we are joined in the covenant marriage.  God is not against these things but has given us boundaries to protect ourselves, just like there are boundaries for the things we should engage with our minds.  In all of this the key question is “Am I honoring God with this activity or behavior?”  “Am I glorifying God with the things I am doing with my body?” 

Dallas Willard says that the sins of the body (lust, gluttony, drunkenness) are some of the hardest behaviors to root out of our lives.  The power to have freedom in these areas comes not from our own striving, but through surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.  By God’s grace and through faith we can live lives of true freedom using our bodies to glorify God and testify to His grace even in our weakness. 

Psalm 53

For the director of music. According to mahalath. A maskil of David.

1 The fool says in his heart,

    “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;

    there is no one who does good.

2 God looks down from heaven

    on all mankind

to see if there are any who understand,

    any who seek God.

3 Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt;

    there is no one who does good,

    not even one.

4 Do all these evildoers know nothing?

They devour my people as though eating bread;

    they never call on God.

5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,

    where there was nothing to dread.

God scattered the bones of those who attacked you;

    you put them to shame, for God despised them.

6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

    When God restores his people,

    let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

Job 30

30 “But now they mock me,

    men younger than I,

whose fathers I would have disdained

    to put with my sheep dogs.

2 Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,

    since their vigor had gone from them?

3 Haggard from want and hunger,

    they roamed[a] the parched land

    in desolate wastelands at night.

4 In the brush they gathered salt herbs,

    and their food[b] was the root of the broom bush.

5 They were banished from human society,

    shouted at as if they were thieves.

6 They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,

    among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

7 They brayed among the bushes

    and huddled in the undergrowth.

8 A base and nameless brood,

    they were driven out of the land.

9 “And now those young men mock me in song;

    I have become a byword among them.

10 They detest me and keep their distance;

    they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

11 Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me,

    they throw off restraint in my presence.

12 On my right the tribe[c] attacks;

    they lay snares for my feet,

    they build their siege ramps against me.

13 They break up my road;

    they succeed in destroying me.

    ‘No one can help him,’ they say.

14 They advance as through a gaping breach;

    amid the ruins they come rolling in.

15 Terrors overwhelm me;

    my dignity is driven away as by the wind,

    my safety vanishes like a cloud.

16 “And now my life ebbs away;

    days of suffering grip me.

17 Night pierces my bones;

    my gnawing pains never rest.

18 In his great power God becomes like clothing to me[d];

    he binds me like the neck of my garment.

19 He throws me into the mud,

    and I am reduced to dust and ashes.

20 “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer;

    I stand up, but you merely look at me.

21 You turn on me ruthlessly;

    with the might of your hand you attack me.

22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;

    you toss me about in the storm.

23 I know you will bring me down to death,

    to the place appointed for all the living.

24 “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man

    when he cries for help in his distress.

25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?

    Has not my soul grieved for the poor?

26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;

    when I looked for light, then came darkness.

27 The churning inside me never stops;

    days of suffering confront me.

28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun;

    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

29 I have become a brother of jackals,

    a companion of owls.

30 My skin grows black and peels;

    my body burns with fever.

31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,

    and my pipe to the sound of wailing.

1 Corinthians 6:9-20

9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Sexual Immorality

12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

He remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 136:23

Peter said, “If we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Acts 4:9-10

Spirit of Christ, you send us into a broken world to meet its needs through word and deed. This task is great – and though our spirits are willing, we know the potential of being overwhelmed or burned out. Break our hearts, but not our spirits, we pray. Amen.