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