“What?” writes the apostle
Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. “Know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye
have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body…”
“The body,” writes Elisabeth Elliot in her book Discipline, “is the starting place –
failure [to discipline] here is failure everywhere else…More spiritual failure
is due to the failure to recognize this living body as having anything to do
with worship or sacrifice.”
Our bodies are to be offered to God as living
sacrifices (Romans 12:1). Just as God required
that the saints in the Old Testament offer Him the first fruits of their crops
and the best of their animals, so we must present to Him bodies that are welled
cared for and well disciplined. “Every
man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown;
but we an incorruptible.” Therefore,
writes Paul, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection” (1
Corinthians 9:27). In other words, Paul
disciplined his body. He desired that
his sinful, natural inclinations be made subject to Christ. And he looked forward to the day when his
corruptible, mortal body would be raised incorruptible and immortal (I
Corinthians 15).
There are many areas in which we must discipline our
bodies. I will address only four, and
briefly:
1)
Food. Our bodies need food. But “food,” writes Elliot, “is a question of
discipline for us who live in very rich, very civilized, very self-indulgent countries.” The Bible warns against substance abuse. (See Ephesians 5:18, for example: “Be not drunk with wine…but be filled with
Spirit.”) I dare say, however, that the
Bible warns just as often – if not more frequently – against gluttony. The nation in which we live has the highest
rate of obesity of any country in the world.
In fact, obesity is second on the list of preventable causes of death in
our country, following smoking. An
estimated 35% of adults in the U.S. are obese.
I understand that sometimes genetic or other medical conditions
contribute to a person’s weight, but for the majority of us, the culprit is a
lack of self-control. It is no
coincidence that as the blatant immorality of our nation escalates, so does its
weight. The one who makes a god of his
belly, writes Paul in Philippians 3, is an enemy of the cross of Christ.
2) Sleep.
Our bodies need rest. Scripture
denounces the sluggard, the man who loves sleep and refuses to work. But it also reminds the believer that is
foolish to deny our bodies the rest that they need: “It is vain for you to rise
up early, to sit up late…for so He giveth His beloved sleep” (Psalm 127:2).
3) Exercise.
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:8 that, when compared to cultivating
godliness, bodily exercise “profiteth little,” or, according to the margin in
my Bible, “for a little time.” Yet it
does profit. So exercise the body that
God’s given you.
4) Sexual intercourse. God made our bodies sexual bodies. He also reserved sexual intercourse for
marriage. If you are married, you are
command not to deny your spouse. If marriage
is not God’s will for you at this point in your life, sexual intercourse isn’t either. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.
Mortify therefore your member which are upon the earth; fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which
is idolatry” (Colossians 3-5).
Your
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, whom God has given you. You are not your own: you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
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