By Jeff Cranston 

We all have thoughts and opinions about our physical health. Some people are fitness nuts. They watch what they put into their bodies. They eat clean. They can bench press a Volkswagen and run to Florida and back. Others, well, not so much.

The motivation for a healthy physical body, can come from many places, but for the Christ-follower, there are two that I want to share with you:

1. You want to serve Jesus.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit …” – Matthew 28:18-19.

In the Great Commission, Jesus invites you into His story. GO! Tell others the news of eternity. GO! Tell others how your life has been changed. GO! Serve and love your neighbors. GO! Feed the hungry. GO! Help the orphan and widows. GO! Care for the sick and elderly in your life. GO! Visit prisons. GO! Make disciples!

Jesus says that when we do those things, it’s like we’re doing it to Him. But it’s tough to Go, Do, Feed, Tell, Help, Care, Visit, Show and Make when our physical bodies are falling apart or when we don’t have any energy because of our poor eating habits and physical fitness.

When you have a good physical rhythm going on, you’ll have more energy to do God’s work. Your present role in serving God may not require physical fitness. But what if an opportunity arose for you to serve in a more demanding setting? It’s better to stay ready even if not needed than to be needed but not ready.

2. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

“… Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Your body is a temple, apostle Paul writes. What does this mean? God the Father created our bodies, God the Son redeemed our bodies, and God the Holy Spirit indwells our bodies. This means that, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then your body is the very temple of God. 

Charles Spurgeon, a 19th-century English preacher, looked at the 1 Corinthians passage this way:

• The Blessed Fact: We were bought with a price. Paul reminds us that we were redeemed from the punishment due us, redeemed from the wrath of God, and redeemed to Christ forever. “You were bought” implies a price, but the words, “with a price,” are added to show that it was not for nothing that we were purchased; something inestimably precious was paid for us—“the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:19).

• A Plain Consequence: “You are not your own.” Since we have been bought, we are not our own. If this is true that we are not our own, then the inferences from this are that we have no right to damage what does not belong to us; and, as we are not our own, we have no right to be idle or to waste our talents and lives.

• A Natural Conclusion: “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” That’s what these bodies are for, to glorify God. What does it mean to glorify the Lord? It means to give Him proper esteem by putting Him into an honorable position. When your body is willing to bow before Him, and you let Him have the rights over His temple on this earth, then you have glorified Him.

These bodies of ours are not only temples; they are temples of the Holy Spirit. By choosing the word “temple” to describe the Spirit’s dwelling, God conveys the idea that our bodies are the shrine, or the sacred place, in which the Spirit not only lives, but is worshiped, revered and honored. Therefore, how you behave, think and speak, and what you let into the temple through your eyes, ears and mouths become critically important because every thought, word and deed are in His view.

What does this mean for us?

We must take good care of our bodies in order to honor God as His created beings. In other words, we should consider pursuing healthy eating habits, exercising regularly, drinking a healthy amount of water, sleeping seven to eight hours a day, and avoiding harmful substances.

The Christian understanding of our bodies from Scripture obligates us to be good stewards of the bodies that God has given each of us. And we are to do that, not as a means to earn God’s grace, but as a means to express our gratitude for the grace He has already shown us through Jesus Christ.

Jeff Cranston is the lead pastor of LowCountry Community Church in Bluffton, South Carolina.

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