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Viewpoints
The apostle Paul said, "..honor God with your body." This text is found in I Cor. 6:20. Paul was framing a lecture to the Corinthians, who were not following the teachings of Jesus. This lecture begins in verse 12 and goes through the end of the chapter, and in these nine short verses the apostle Paul relates truths to the Corinthians about the physical body. For it seems that the Corinthian Christians had adopted the Greek view of the body, which was that the body was of no significance at all. The Greeks thought that the only thing that really mattered was the spirit. So since the physical body was unimportant, they concluded that they could just do anything with their bodies that they wanted to. So I ask you, is taking care of our bodies an important or even necessary part of living faith? We all know that our human bodies are created in the image of God, but we've all been scourged with the sin of Adam. How is it then that you and I are to live our lives as if "your bodies are members of Christ Himself"? (I Cor. 6:15) In Galatians 3:27, Paul writes "...for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." We have put Him on. Christ is in us, and we are in Him. We are a part of His body. Have we not been bought with a price? Yes! We are no longer our own &emdash;that's the thought that keeps me on track when I become self-centered and somewhat destructive with my own body. The blood of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, was the price that was paid for our lives &emdash; for our bodies. Therefore, we are like slaves to the one who paid for us. We owe Him. We have an obligation. I believe you and I are to literally follow Paul's text and "... honor God with your body. " We are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to our God. Every aspect of our lives should honor God and should demonstrate that our bodies are home to His Holy Spirit. How is this accomplished? Well, I believe it's accomplished in very practical ways. First, I believe we should all worship God daily and serve Him as often as possible. Paul says in Romans 12:1: "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God &emdash; this is your spiritual act of worship." Offer your time, your talents, your abilities, your skills, whatever you have: offer it to God. This is the first practical way to honor God with your body. Second, I believe we should take care of our bodies. Like any temporal vessel, our bodies can and do wear out. After all, they are on loan from God, and we really don't own them. I suggest that we should: a) Avoid habits that are destructive to the physical body&emdash;desires of the sinful nature (Romans 13:14), b) Stay active and exercise the body and mind&emdash;Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:8 "Bodily exercise profits a little but godliness profits a lot" But it does profit a little. We need to take care of our bodies so they can go the distance. c) Focus on healthy eating&emdash;some foods are simply better than others for consumption (Deut. 14). In fact, I believe God never intended us to eat some of them. Our God is great and is worthy of all honor we can give him. May we all honor God with our bodies. Stephen L. Teunis |
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Perspective
Toward the end of a special interview with Carl Jung on television, a reporter asked, "Dr. Jung, do you believe in God?" There was a long silence as Jung seemed to contemplate how to answer the question. Finally with a look of profound assurance he stated, "I don't believe, I KNOW." In Psalm 37:1 (NIV) David says, "Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong." Evil makes most people fret. The news today, as always, is full of stories about evil. Bad things happen and people want to know why. We are afraid they will happen to us or to those we love. And they do. And we also want to know why. We want to make sense out of what seems so senseless. Without God there is no sense to life and its events. Even with God, there is not now always an immediate answer to every question that is asked. Knowing why is not the key to life. The quest to know why often leads only to frustration and fretting. The key (and ultimately the answer to all questions) is to know God. David tells us not to fret about evil men. He goes on to tell us how to do this: "Trust in the LORD and do good" (v. 3). "Delight yourself in the LORD" (v. 4). "Commit your way to the LORD" (v. 5). "Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him" (v. 7). "The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble." (v. 39). To have inner calmness and peace, to be able to trust and delight in God only, to learn to wait patiently for God to act instead of acting ourselves, to be still at all in this noisy world, to have the ability to "not fret" because of evil, to trust God fully and completely, we must know Him. Knowing God goes way beyond believing in Him. (But belief is the first step.) Religion is all about explaining God, or at least trying to. Spirituality is about knowing God. The role of our church should not be to make us all more religious. It should be to create and maintain an atmosphere in which we can be spiritual. Church should help us in our quest to know God. Make no mistake &emdash; the ONLY way to know God is through Jesus Christ. That's the reason Jesus came. He came to make it possible for us to know his father, to be able to know God intimately. Sin makes it impossible to know God. Sin frustrates us and makes us fret. Jesus took care of all that. He took care of sin, of Satan's power, of frustration. He provided us with the way to know God. I recently read that young people want to change the world, adults want to change their families, and older people realize that they can change only themselves. I guess I'm somewhere between being an adult and an older person. I still try (from time to time and all too often) to change members of my family (both my physical family and my spiritual family). But I am learning that all I can really do is to pray. It is God's business and responsibility to change others. It is my job to make sure that I am allowing God to change me. David knew exactly what he was saying when he advised us to be still and wait patiently for God. The more I know God, the more aware I become of just how He is working out His will in all those who love and trust Him, even in me. Knowing God: that is the key to life, both this life and the next. Larry Urbaniak |
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