What should you do with your body?

Human beings are whole persons, the mind, body, and the spiritual life are intimately woven together.

You’ve probably learned already that one of the most profound issues we humans face is the need for purpose. We’ll never fully “get our act together” without it. As Christians, we know that we were created specifically to worship, glorify, and enjoy God; we’ll never be the person we were created to be, or have the life God intends for us, until we finally discover that purpose.

But there’s a real connection with the physical body as well.

Just as we spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and intellectually will experience a deep void with out a reconciled relationship with God, we need to look at the issue of what we’re supposed to do with our bodies.

We were designed to live and fully experience life as a physical being, equipped with a brilliantly created body of flesh. We need and want to experience life physically in healthy and appropriate ways.

But that’s the problem, most people don’t choose those “healthy and appropriate ways” of experiencing life physically.

Instead, they abuse their bodies by fueling it with junk and otherwise robbing it of what it needs while treating it like an amusement park for their unhealthy pleasures (more about that in my post, “Are you living a life of stimulation and titillation?”). The outcomes will include unfit bodies, increasingly unhealthy bodies, and greater susceptibility to disease and decay, etc.

So what should we do with our bodies?

Real, healthy physical exhilaration is realized through physical exercise, activity, recreation, movement, work, and even biblically appropriate sexual activity with your spouse.

Not only do our bodies yearn for the physical exhilaration of living fully, both our minds and our physical bodies need a type of stress. But it’s the kind of stress experienced through resistance training and other exercise and ways of being active and engaged that exercise and build up the body and mind rather than harm it.

Our bodies want and need a full experience, or “exhilaration” of living, but in ways that are good for it and fulfill the body’s purpose. Scripture helps us at this point:

“Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple,” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him,” Romans 12:1.

“Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body,” 1 Corinthians 6:18-20.

We should be good stewards of our physical bodies because they are the temple in which the Holy Spirit lives; and we can know physical exhilaration by caring for our and using our bodies in healthy ways. Finally, our entire being, including our physical bodies should be offered to God in service to Him and used to bring Him glory – we are called to honor God with our bodies!

Is this what you’re doing with your body?

Scotty