Know Your Body

Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away
from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls. Be careful to live
properly among your unbelieving neighbours. Then even if they accuse you of
doing wrong, they will see your honourable behaviour, and they will give
honour to God when he judges the world.
1 Peter 2:11–12

It is impossible to come to terms with moral purity without dealing with some practical facts related to the body—our flesh-and-blood appetites that crave satisfaction. Volumes are written about the mind, our emotional makeup, our “inner man.” The soul, the spirit, and the spiritual dimension. But by comparison, very little is being said by evangelicals today about the physical body.

• We are to present our bodies as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1).
• We are instructed not to yield any part of our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness to sin (Romans 6:12–13).
• Our bodies are actually “members of Christ”; they belong to Him (1 Corinthians 6:15).
• Our bodies are “temples” literally inhabited by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).
• We are therefore expected to “glorify God” in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20).
• We are to become students of our bodies, knowing how to control them in honour (1 Thessalonians 4:4).

You see, these bodies of ours can easily lead us off course. It isn’t the body itself that is evil; it’s just that it possesses any number of appetites that are ready to respond to the surrounding stimuli . . . all of which are terribly appealing and temporarily satisfying.

Let me ask you: Do you know your body? Are you aware of the things that weaken your control of it? Have you stopped to consider the danger zones and how to stay clear of them—or at least hurriedly pass through them?

Personal purity is an attainable goal. In our day of moral decline, it is easy to begin thinking that purity is some unachievable, outdated standard from the misty past of yesteryear. Not so! Hear again the timeless counsel of God’s Word:

For God has not called us for impurity, but in sanctification. Therefore, the one who rejects this is not rejecting man, but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you. (1 Thessalonians 4:7–8 NASB)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, eager for good deeds. (Titus 2:11–14 NASB)