“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 6:19-20 KJV)
Has
anyone ever held this scripture over your head as a weapon to get you to quit
smoking or loose weight? Actually I have
often heard from well meaning Christian friends, “You know your body is God’s
temple so you really should loose some weight.”
I know they care and this is their way to show it, but it still hurts
deeply to hear it from them.
I
have struggled with obesity my whole life.
I cannot remember a time when I was not over the suggested weight for my
age and height. I turn to food when I am
stressed, lonely, angry…you name it. I
have often experienced rejection due to being fat. A good example is being picked last for a
softball team during P.E. and ignored by the popular boys at school
dances. We can understand schoolmates
being prejudiced against fat children but my rejection experiences did not stop
there. In Junior High School I tried out
for a part in our school production of H.M.S. Pinafore (a popular musical production
at the time) but the director gave the part to another. Why was I rejected? Oh, my voice was very good for a teenager,
but I did not have the “looks” so I was given a position in the “pit” chorus
where my voice could be used but I would not be seen. Rejection for being fat followed me into
adulthood with applying for jobs and romantic relationships. The hardest thing I struggled with as a young
adult was when people told me, “You’re such a pretty girl, if only you’d loose
a little weight you might get a boyfriend.”
Now,
lest you think I am having a little self-pity party here let me clarify that
the reason I share my rejection with you.
Where that verse in 1 Corinthians 6 was used to cut me to the core it
now empowers me to obey God. Hebrews
4:12 tells us that the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword. That sounds harsh because we connect swords
with violence and warfare. Well-meaning
Christians will often use God’s Word like a sword, hacking and slashing away at
someone hoping that will change the person they think should change, but this
is not what the writer to Hebrews intended.
Listen to how the Amplified Bible puts it:
“For the
Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active,
operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the
breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and
judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.”
“The
Word God speaks…” is not just some words written down; it is alive and spoken
by the very God Who spoke creation into being.
It is full of the same power that created the land and the seas and
everything on and in them. God said “Let
there be…” and there was! Taking this
into account, now when I read 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 I recognize that it is no
longer the verse some well-meaning Christians tried to slash at me to get me to
change, but rather the very empowerment that creates the change within me.
In
1 Corinthians 6 Paul is addressing issues of sin and fornication in the
Corinthian church. He wanted them to see
that they were “…washed…sanctified…justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the Spirit of our God” (verse 11) and that they were now connected with
God, joined, becoming one spirit with Him (verses 15 & 17). The Word of God acts like a sword by showing
me that since I belong to God what right do I have to “do my own thing”
resulting in sin against my body which is rightfully His? “…ye
are not your own? For ye are bought with
a price…”
Now
I see that when I eat compulsively (either eating too much at one setting or
eating something that is not good for me) then I am sinning against my body
which belongs to Him. It is HIS body now
and to sin against it is to sin directly against God. Sobering thought is it not? My deepest desire is to be obedient to Him; I
long to please Him. Now, when I am faced
with eating that extra serving or other food temptation I remember that my body
is not my own, but it belongs to God and I CHOOSE to not indulge. One step of obedience makes the next step
easier. Now I find myself loosing
weight. Wow! Obedience not only pleases Him but benefits
me. Is not God awesome!
