How to Honor God with Your Body
The church at Corinth was in one of the most morally tainted cities of its day. So instructing the believers in Corinth to flee from immorality, the Apostle Paul exhorted, “Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body.".” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
We live in a culture of a body conscious and materialistic – our world is very much into the amusement and body fitness. In the markets scores of cosmetic products available to clean up, paint up, and fix-up. All because we are concern about our physical shape, fitness and wanted to make it pretty and healthier. We go to the gym, we diet. We exercise and we indulge ourselves with fine food; and even the most restrained person tends to pursue pleasure in some form. However we were not merely to make to let those things control our bodies and define our lives. Remember, the most universal beauty queen body you have ever seen in your life is going to be ashen faced in a coffin before they knows it — and then where will be all the investments in that temporary, outward beauty?
We also live in a culture "if it feels good - do it" society. This is why Bible cautions us in Matthew 26:41: “All of you must stay awake and pray that you won't be tempted. The spirit is indeed willing, but the body is weak." Our body is weak, and it is what we tend to respond to. We give in to its cravings—what it lusts for. However, to be a genuine follower of Christ we must realize that we are united with Christ -- we are a part of his body physically and spiritually and all that we do has an effect on the body “His body” Therefore we are challenged to practice spiritual discipline, all within the empowering relationship of the Holy Spirit. We can flee from practices which are harmful to us and to Christ for we must honor God with our bodies.
So what does it mean to honor God with our bodies? When God created our bodies he did so with the intention that we would use them to honor him. Our body is a precious gift from God. And the Bible is clear about its highest purpose: There is one simple reason why we ought to consider the body that we live in very important and we ought to treat it with tender loving care and that is because God made it and God values it. King David rightly said “I will praise you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are your works; and that my soul knows right well.” (Psalm 139:140) Your body is unique. You were created by God, and you are not an accident. Your heavenly Father chose the day and the time your life would begin. God thought a lot about you. Every detail of your body, every cell and organ are God’s handiwork. There is a purpose for your body.
God’s value for the human body extends beyond creation all the way through to death. The Bible gives evidence to that, “God himself made sure that Moses body got a decent burial.” From creation, through death on into eternity; our bodies are so important to God that He has promised to raise them from the dead. So keep in mind, just like the temple, the body is a place of worship, but it is not an object of worship. We worship in this building, but we don’t worship this building, but because it is God’s building we respect it and we keep it clean and honor it by the way we occupy it. Just as we are to respect and take care of the one house (the building) we are to respect and take care of the other house (the body). That is exactly what we are told in another part of scripture, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable,” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4)
Remember that the day you become born again something significant happened to your life, another dimension was added to your being. Your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to build you up in the image and likeness of Christ to the glory of God. There is an ample reason why our body is called a “temple.” In the Bible, the temple was a place of worship. In like fashion your body is to be a place of worship. The Holy Spirit lives in my temple twenty-four hours a day, so every waking moment my body is to be a place where God is worshipped and God is honored. Your body is not a hotel with check out time at one o’clock on Sunday when church is over. Your body is a temple where the Spirit of God resides every moment every day.
This reminds us of the temple in the O.T. What great care was given to its design? What immense procedure was placed into its function? Indeed, our bodies are gifts from God of which we must be wise stewards. The body is for the Lord! Your body has been given to you for one reason: to be an instrument for glorifying Christ (6:20). Therefore the way you use your body and the way you take care of your body should communicate that the glory of Christ is all-satisfying.
The Bible also says, “You are not your own. You were bought at a price.” What that means is that your body is not just a temple, but it is God’s temple and it belongs to Him. God bought you. The bill of sale is the cross of Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid for your sins He also paid for you. God owns every part of you –and you belong to Him. When you begin to see your body as a temple where God lives it will change your entire perspective. In Galatians 3:27, Paul writes "...for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." We have put on Christ. He is in us, and we are in Him. We are a part of His body. We are no longer our own and that's the thought that keeps us on track when we become self-centered. The blood of Jesus Christ was the price that was paid for our lives, for our bodies. Therefore, we are like slaves to the one who paid for us. We owe Him. We have an obligation to “Honor God with our body” We are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God. Every aspect of our lives should honor God and should demonstrate that our bodies are home to His Holy Spirit. How is this accomplished? Well, I believe it's accomplished in very practical ways.
First of all, the Apostle Paul admonished us in Romans 12:1-3 Dedicate our bodies as a living sacrifice “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Your body is not intended for the gratification of self, but for the glorification of God. God gave us these bodies to honor Him—they are not our own. This is contrary to the popular belief, “It’s my body; I can do what I want with it.” No, it’s not yours and you can’t just do what you want with it. Our desire should reflect the attitude found in Philippians 1:20—that Christ would be magnified in our bodies.
Second, we need to discipline our bodies for God. In Romans 6:11-13, we find the concept of losing oneself, dying to self, being dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ. We are called not to use our “members”—our body parts—as instruments of sin but for righteousness. Even Paul, the apostle who wrote half of the New Testament, said in First Corinthians 9:27, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” This great man of God—who did more single-handedly to spread the Gospel than any other person—also had to keep his body under. We are not any different from Paul. Our body naturally wants to do things that are not right. But we must control those fleshly desires and not give in to them. We must not let our body rule us; we must rule our body.
Third Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Therefore honor God with your body." The word “honor” is the word that gives us the word “doxology”. A doxology is “an expression of praise to God. The word doxology comes from the Greek doxa, (“glory, splendor, grandeur”) and logos, (“word” or “speaking”) The Latin text of the Lesser Doxology is “Gloria Patri, Literally translated, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” In other words, our body is to be a walking, living, breathing, talking, doxology of praise and glory to God in everything we do with it.
The word honor also means to carry weight, to weigh down, to make heavy. Now, the Bible tells us that God and His Word are one (John 1:1). So, honoring God means that His Word weighs heavy in your life. No matter what anyone else says, or what’s going on around you, nothing will influence you more than God's Word. His “logos” Word carries weight with you, and His “rhema” Word carries weight with you. Logos is His written Word, the Bible and “rhema” words are those words spoken to you by the Holy Spirit. This means His Word weighs heavy upon the decisions you make, the actions you take, even in the words you speak. God has made a way for us to honor Him. He has done the hardest part of the work for us. He did this through Jesus dying to pay the price for our ransom and sending the Holy Spirit to be our helper. Jesus said “When the Spirit of truth comes; he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me”. (John 16:13-14)
The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to Honor God through everything we say and do. God Almighty says “Those who honor me — I will honor." (1 Samuel 2:30) All history attests it. Those Nations which have honored God, and spread His Word, have been most blessed by Him. Those individuals who have honored His Son Jesus Christ and been regulated by the Scriptures have enjoyed most peace and joy in their souls. God is to be honored, by ascribing to Him the glory of His matchless Excellency (Ex 15:11; Psalm 104:1). He is to be honored by sanctifying Him in our hearts (Isa 8:13). By trusting, adoring, following and obeying Him. He is to be honored in our worship: "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints" (Psalm 89:7). "Sing forth the honor of his name: make his praise glorious" (Psalm 66:2). So the greatest news in the entire world is that the Son of God has paid the price of our condemnation. (Romans 8:1-3) When Christ paid the debt for us to go free, he paid for our body as well as our soul. It means that the Lord is for the body and not against it. It would mean that your body becomes the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. It means that your bodies would be raised from the dead. It means that you do not have to be mastered by anything but God. It means that your body is for the glory of God. Therefore glorify God in your body.
