“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” 1 Corinthians 6:15a,19,20
If taking care of one’s body is good for everybody, it is doubly good for a Christian. Not only for health reasons, but also for spiritual profit rather than loss.
Good bodies are indispensable. Even courtesy reflects this, with exchanges such as, “How are you?”, “Take it easy”, “Don’t work too hard”, etc. Legally, it is a criminal act to endanger or inflict injury or loss to another’s body.
God makes two points for us to consider when commanding us to do right by our bodies:
1. They are to be cared for as God’s temple should be. We are to present them to God as best kept as we can for Him to live in and work through.
2. They are to be maintained as a possession that God has purchased to bring glory and honor unto Him. We are to treat them as we would respect anything that belongs to God.
Everywhere, we can see how that by sin, people abuse their bodies. Sin is against one’s own body. It ravages the body. A ravaged body is a depression and bitterness unto one’s mental and spiritual state. The Bible teaches total abstinence from alcoholic beverages, plus warns about the guilt of trafficking in the trade of making it possible for others to get it and use it.
It is a known fact that tobacco use is very detrimental to one’s health. Some argue that God created tobacco plants, marijuana plants, etc., and use this as justification for smoking the stuff. But God also created other plants that are poisonous and gave man the good sense to know he shouldn’t eat something that will kill him.
Drug abuse is a major, out of control, malignant habit that is ruining masses today. The business of drug trafficking is one of the most violent and corrupt existing today. It draws the hard core criminals. It caters to lust and greed. It enslaves through its chemical dependency.
Bodies become chemically dependent by subjecting them to chemical controls. A Christian may abhor drug usage and pushers, and yet at the same time, give themselves to unnecessary use of drugs to make them sleep, pep themselves up, and keep themselves going, so they live beyond the normal limits of what their bodies will allow. To force our bodies by chemicals to go beyond their limits, is to be chemically abusing our bodies.
Remember, Godliness is the best care for your body’s well being.
SHARING
