A popular refrain in
our society for several decades has been, “It’s my body. I can do what I want with it.” That is one of Satan’s great lies. If he can get us confused about what the body
is, what it’s for, what our attachment is to it and how that affects our
spiritual standing with God, he can actually separate us from God or at the
very least weaken the connection.
In I Corinthians
6:19-20, Paul tells us very clearly that the body is important in our worship
of the Lord and that it is not ours to do with as we please.
“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.”
I like to pair this
with a couple of other scriptures about the importance of our bodies and our
spirits, such as Doctrine and Covenants 18:10, “Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of
God,” and Isaiah 43:4 and 7, “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast
been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and
people for thy life….even every one
that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed
him; yea, I have made him.”
We are each and every one bought with a price,
and that price is great. God said he
would sacrifice people for the life of those who are called in his name. He gave one in particular. If we become one of his people, the price
that has been paid is the sacrifice of his Only Begotten. The worth of each soul, not all souls combined, is the torture and crucifixion
of Jesus Christ.
Do we then have the
right to say that we can do what we want because we have our agency? Actually, yes, but at what price? If we do not see the worth he has placed on
our individual soul and treat it with the respect and dignity that price
affords it, we will find that we are those who have been given for the others
who are called in the name of the One who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
We belong to the
Savior. He purchased us with his
atonement. Those of us striving to be
called by his name worship and praise him and we seek to obey his commandments
so that we can benefit from his sacrifice and receive eternal life. If you’re like me, you’ve thought of this as
a spiritual endeavor involving the spirit.
The body is just along for the ride.
Paul, however, says we are to glorify God in body and spirit. How do we
glorify God in body? Can abuse or
neglect of the body glorify God? Can
ignoring physical health glorify God? Do
we glorify God when we do not use our physical strength and ability to serve
others, to improve our own life or to enjoy our time in this mortal world?
There must be
appreciation for the body but not worship of it. There must be care given to the body but not
overindulgence. Needs must be met, but
carnal desires and urges must be controlled.
There is a line between the enjoyment we are to get through the proper
use and treatment of our bodies and the joyless enslavement Satan would hoist
on us if we just give into the natural man and turn the righteous use of our
physical bodies — eating, exercise, sex, labor — into excessive indulgence and
a distraction from righteous living.
If we come to see that
everything is spiritual, we can understand that eating foods that harm our
bodies is a sin. Eating more food than
our bodies require for energy and good health is a sin. Allowing our bodies to grow weak and
inflexible through nonuse is a sin.
Trying to make our bodies perfect for the pleasure of others is a
sin. Using our bodies to manipulate the
feelings of others is a sin.
Our bodies are
sacred. They are temples where the Holy
Ghost resides. The body is the
instrument of the spirit, and as such it can give power and strength to the
spirit, or it can weaken the spirit. The
body is not incidental. It is not
irrelevant. It is a creation of God who
values it as a part of our eternal, resurrected, perfected soul. We need to do the same.
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