Glorify God with your Body

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,  for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20)

There are few things as Christians that we need to reminded more of than this truth: “You are not your own.” How quick we are to forget this reality. We have very little trouble in this life proclaiming Jesus as our Savior, but are we living in a way that reveals that he is our Lord? The Scriptures are permeated with the grand reality, that as believers we are not our own.

“For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.” (1 Corinthians 7:22–23)

“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (Galatians 5:24)

“And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29)

“All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” (1 Corinthians 3:21–23)

““In Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:22–23)

The testimony of God’s Word is clear beloved, we belong to Jesus! And as those who belong to Jesus we are called to use our bodies as instruments to glorify our God. We are temples of the living God, but is that apparent to the unbeliever you cross paths with every day? Can they see anything different about your life through the way you use carry your self and the choices you make with your body? Here are a few ways that we can use these bodies that are so often used for sin to magnify God instead?

1) Remember that you were bought with a price to serve God by serving others. This is one of those grand truths that we often miss. When we offer humble sacrificial service to others in the name of the Lord we are magnifying what Christ has done to change our sinful nature which is inherently self serving, and secondly we are glorifying God by being obedient to the second of his great commands (Matt. 22:39).

2) Recognize that how you live and carry yourself directly reflects the God you confess. The old statement that “Actions speak louder than words,” could not be more true when it comes to our testimony as a believer. Do the things that you do with your body or the things that you are putting in your body reveal the reality that you are not your own, and that you belong to Christ?

3) Resist any and all temptation that would put your body in a compromising position. So many great leaders in the church have fallen in the area of sexual immorality. Few things serve as a greater attack on the glory of God than to call ourselves Christians and call out the wicked sexual perversions of this world, and then to put ourselves in equally perverse situations and use our body for the same wickedness that we proclaim as wrong in the public eye. Our private lives must reflect our public confessions. Resist the urges of the flesh, and use your body for purity and as a vehicle to glorify God in all that you do.

Soli Deo Gloria