Way, way back – way back in 1976 – I changed college to Tennessee Temple University. I was 21, but because I had not been required to take phys ed in the other college I still had to take a course here.
It was terrible. It is everything you hate about PE. The coach who taught the class was crazy. We had a list of memory verses we had to learn and if you could not quote the verse you had to run a lap around the basketball court. Most of the verses had some reference to the body and this was his favourite. Needless to say I learned this one well and it has stuck in my mind ever since.
For all that this is a wonderful passage for us to remember. It, or course, the verse focuses on the fact that we should glorify God in all we do.
This though talks about something in particular. We read that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We have been bought with the price of the shed blood of Christ. Our bodies are His and our bodies should glorify Him.
It seems pretty clear that we ought, therefore, to care for our bodies with the same devotion that the Jews cared for the Temple. We need to sure that we don’t do things to harm our bodies. We need to care about the kinds of food we eat and the substances we take in and the things we do. We need to be sure that we stay active to the extent that we can.
If we harm our bodies we aren’t going to be much use to God and His work. If I wreck my body with the wrong foods, take unnecessary drugs and medication, pollute my lungs with toxins, and abuse alcohol to the point where my organs are damaged I am truly gambling with God’s possession, my body.
I wonder, if I honestly examined my life, could I say the my body brings glory to God?
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