SYNOPSIS: Don’t treat your body like a rental house from which you’re about to be evicted. If there is momentary remorse as you stand before the judgment seat of Christ in eternity, it will likely be how for you treated your body while you were on earth. The Apostle Paul called our physical being, “the temple of the Holy Spirit.” That itself should alert us to pay better attention to how we care for them! Do you treat proper “temple care” as optional; opting instead for excess eating, under-exercising, and over-indulging your selfish desires? Have you nurtured your spirit, pampered your emotions, and fed your intellect while neglecting your body? However you may answer those questions, from this day forward, as a way to honor the Creator of you, make a commitment to care of the holy bod!
Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // 2 Corinthians 6:19-20
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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
I don’t quite understand how things will play out when we as believers stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Maybe it will have nothing to do with the negative image the word “judgment” conjures in our mind. Perhaps the judgment will only be a positive experience, as when an arbitrator renders a favorable judgment on our behalf.
However, the Apostle Paul speaks of the believer having to give account at that moment for the deeds done while living in the body—whether good or bad. (See 2Corinthians 5:9-11) It is hard to imagine feeling any remorse when you’ve permanently planted your foot in heaven for the first time, but it could be that we will feel some momentary remorse at that moment over wasted opportunity to grow into Christlikeness or failure to trust God to a greater degree or the lack of effort to extend his kingdom while we were on Planet Earth. I say “momentary remorse” because I can’t imagine anything but sheer joy that we, unworthy sinners saved only by grace, will get to spend eternity in God’s heaven.
If there is momentary remorse, one of the areas of disappointment for many Christians in our day will surely be how we have treated our physical bodies. The Apostle Paul called them “the temple of the Holy Spirit”, which should have alerted us to pay better attention to how we cared for them. Yet we have treated proper “temple care” as optional; opting instead for excess eating, under-exercising, and over-indulging our own selfish desires. We have loved on our spirits, pampered our emotions, and fed our intellect, but our bodies—we have treated them like a rental house from which we are about to be evicted.
However, Paul says that we are to honor God with our bodies. Why? They are not ours—they really belong to God. We are driving his car, so to speak, and it is not a Yugo, it is a Lamborghini. He created our physical bodies, designed them in his very own image, put the Breath of Life into them, then after we had irreparably corrupted them through sin, he redeemed them at a very costly price to himself. Our bodies belong to God, and one day we are going to turn them back in to him. So we really ought to give careful thought to how we treat them between now and then.
So what should be we doing with these “holy bod’s” that have been loaned out to us? Let me suggest three things:
First, treat them physically as if God himself were living inside—which he is. Watch what you eat—and how much, get the proper amount of rest and exercise, give them the best appearance you can—without over indulging, and keep them untainted by immorality and other kinds of impurity.
Second, use them to serve God. The Holy Spirit inhabits your body, and he has placed within certain of his gifts, unique to you. Make sure you are exercising those gifts to his glory by serving others.
Third, offer them as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. After all, in light of his creation—and recreation—of them, it is the least you can do. As Paul urged in Romans 12:1 (The Message), “Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”
Yeah, you’re walking around at the moment in a holy bod! So remember, you’re going to turn it back in some day!
“The body is a sacred garment.” ~Martha Graham
Does God really want these bodies back? They profit nothing eternally. Everyone who is born of water and the spirit shall be given new bodies, if they are found worthy of the regeneration. These present ones have worth only in that the Spirit may dwell in them. And if the Spirit indwells them, then they are also extensions of God upon the earth. They have become His eyes, His hands, and His feet, through which he may work in the world’s presence openly, clearly seen. Almost all of God’s work is done through the spirit. This work is seldom discerned by carnal perceptions. He has thus become invisible to the world. It is through our bodies and our acts that he is once again manifest to this world, if we walk in the spirit and not the flesh.
As his manifestation, being the children of God, it very much matters what we do. The good we do brings both honor upon his name and recognition of his persistent presence, but even the little folly we partake in reeks as rotting flesh in their sight. They will excuse one another of many things; they will never excuse one identifying him or herself with a holy Christ. Yet even when we fall short of our holy calling a good work is accomplished. They shall call us hypocrites while they themselves do the same things and worse. Thus they shall be judged according to their own judgments. For God shall repay everyone according to their own judgments.
Indeed, he repays everyone according to their own ways. A spiteful man shall receive spite. A patient man shall receive patience. A judgmental man shall receive condemnation. A merciful man shall receive mercy. An angry man shall receive anger. But a truly gentle, loving man shall receive love beyond what he may at present conceive.
Christ is the embodiment of his holy example. We think upon all his great works and we marvel. Yet he did not set about to do great accomplishments. What did he build? Nothing. What lasting monuments of his presence did he leave? None. That is why some will claim he did not even exist, or he was some obscure wise man which has somehow become deified. He was a man going about doing small acts of kindness to all who came to him, or whom he came across. He built an invisible church, whose foundations and walls are those who follow him, a holy temple where no profane man can enter, and an altar upon which no unclean gift shall reside. None of this is seen by this world. They can only acknowledge his enduring influence with chagrin.
Give to everyone who asks; and he who would borrow from you, turn not away. He lived these words while he walked among us. We are given two example of him not doing so. One was the Canaanite woman whose daughter was possessed, and the other was Salome, James and John’s mother. In the case of the latter, she wished her two sons to have the highest places in Christ’s kingdom. He explained this was not his to give. This was not exactly a no, but rather a deferral to a higher authority. In the case of the former, Jesus seemingly attempted to ignore the Canaanite woman and her pleas. This was actually out of character for him. (It may also teach us how beneficial it is to be persistent in prayer.) He always dropped everything to do what was asked of him. (Perhaps this was to teach the Jews that people from other nations would be moved by great faith and persistence to enter into the kingdom of God. There were many illustrations of this kind in his short ministry. People of all nations would come from the north, east, south, and west to sit down in the kingdom, while the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.) He told her: “It isn’t proper to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” She answered: “That’s true; but the dogs do eat the children’s crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” For the sake of this saying, he declared the greatness of her faith to all present, and he also did as she asked. She asked him, and she did receive.
For the sake of performing some good work, Jesus never went out of his way. The Raising of Lazarus was the only exception, and that was only because it was better if he was known to be someplace else when he died. There were always plenty of opportunities to do good works right in front of him. I expect it is the same with us, if we are open to their possibilities, and not overcome with what we feel as our responsibilities. If God wishes us to do something else, or be somewhere else, that is really the only time he needs to tell us. Otherwise, we already know what we should be doing. The question is whether or not we choose to do it. Our own wills and distraction may very well get in the way of doing what God has set before us to do.
May we have eyes to see these opportunities more clearly and hearts to bring it to pass.
michael