Seeking First God's Kingdom for Our Bodies
Dr. David M. Hughes, Pastor First Baptist Church, Winston Salem, NC, and Coordinating Council Alumni
January 7, 2007
SEEKING FIRST GOD’S KINGDOM WITH OUR BODIES
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
I want to ask you to do something we rarely ask you to do at church. I want you to think about your body. I know…it’s embarrassing to reflect on our bodies anywhere, but especially in church! And then there’s the fact that few of us will be confused with Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie! Even so, I want you to ponder just how marvelous your body is.
Consider what will happen in your body over the next minute. In the next minute, your body will take 15-25 breaths, ridding your body of the carbon dioxide it does not need, and converting the oxygen your body does need, using it to clean your blood. Right now your body is digesting the food you had for breakfast so your cells can use it to make energy. Right now the roughly 10 trillion cells of your body are performing their respective duties to make your body work. 100,000 cells of your body will die and be replaced before I finish this sentence. And during the last minute, you’ve probably blinked your eyes about 25 times.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. These and countless other functions go on in our bodies every minute of every day. Can you think of any other machine that functions 24 hours a day without shutting down, and has the ability to repair itself and reproduce when necessary?
Our bodies are truly amazing creations! And yet, for a variety of reasons we often ignore them or worse yet, consistently abuse them. We don’t have time this morning to explore the many complicated reasons we take our bodies for granted. But one reason we do this at church is because of poor theology that tells us our bodies are not important to God. At church, we focus on the life of the Spirit. We talk about weighty subjects like sin and salvation, evangelism and discipleship. To talk about the size and shape of our bodies seems almost inappropriate at a sacred place like church.
Over the years, the church has made a few exceptions to this rule. Conservative churches talk a lot about not abusing our sexuality, and not drinking alcohol. More liberal churches talk a lot about feeding the hungry and housing the homeless. Virtually all churches pray to the sick. Otherwise, it seems like what happens to our bodies is largely irrelevant. After all, our bodies are just temporary houses for our spirits that will eventually be cast aside when we die and go to heaven.
I have only one problem with this line of thinking—it’s not biblical! Our bodies matter a great deal to God. And when we act like they don’t we not only sin against our own bodies—we sin against God.
Today I begin a four week series of sermons on stewardship built around the theme of “Seeking First God’s Kingdom.” Normally we don’t talk about stewardship in the month of January. But that’s changing this year as we conduct what I’m calling a mini-stewardship campaign in the month of January.
In Matthew 6, Jesus says you shouldn’t be preoccupied by your desires for food, and drink, and clothes. Instead, he says, you should seek first (God’s) kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (v. 33). In this first month of 2007, we’ll be looking hard at what it means to seek first God’s Kingdom in key areas of our lives.
I’ll be honest and admit I was not initially planning to begin a series of stewardship sermons with the human body. But Lori Carter, our parish nurse, whose job it is to remind us of the vital connection between body and spirit, challenged me to include this subject in this series. So here we go!
What does it mean to be a good steward of the marvelous bodies God gives us? It all starts with believing our bodies matter, and matter greatly to God.
That’s an interesting idea. What evidence do we have in scripture that it’s true?
Let’s start with Jesus. We just celebrated a holiday (Christmas) that celebrates the incarnation. The incarnation says God became flesh and dwelt among us. The very fact that God not only created our bodies, but chose to inhabit one says God cares about what happens in these bodies of ours.
Notice, too, that Jesus devotes a considerable part of his ministry to touching, healing, feeding, and even resurrecting human bodies. Why would he do that if bodies didn’t matter? And notice that Jesus took time to rest and pray, and invited his disciples to do the same. When God rests on the seventh day of creation, and Jesus takes time to rest, doesn’t that say something about caring for our bodies?
The Apostle Paul picks up on the theme of bodies, big time! You might think a man who was commissioned to start churches all over the Mediterranean world and write a huge portion of the New Testament would have no time to talk about something as mundane as our bodies. But you would think wrong!
In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul gets surprisingly graphic about our bodies as he talks about sexuality. As he lays out a case against having casual sex with people outside of marriage, Paul makes a case for the vital importance of our bodies. Read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, and here’s what you’ll learn:
- Our bodies are meant for the Lord, and the Lord for our bodies;
- Even though our physical bodies die, our “spiritual” bodies are destined to be resurrected, and live for eternity with Christ;
- Our individual bodies are members of the universal Body of Christ. What I do with my body, and you do with your body, reflects on Christ’s body;
- Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit;
- Our bodies are not our own to do with as we want. They belong to God;
- And our bodies were redeemed at great price—the broken body of Jesus Christ on the cross.
And so, says Paul, we are to honor God with our bodies. Being good stewards of our bodies means honoring God with our bodies. But what does it mean to honor God with our bodies?
Again, I don’t have time to deal with this subject in any comprehensive way. So, let me offer the following two lists gathered from my reading of scripture, articles on health and wellness, and my own experience.
My first list is a “stop” list. This is a list of habits and activities you should stop if you want to care for the marvelous body God gave you.
- Stop making poor sexual decisions. Stop being involved in sexual intimacy with anyone outside of marriage;
- Stop overeating, and poor eating. Stop eating fast food. Stop eating high fat, high sugar food. Stop eating late at night. In other words, stop eating like 60% 60% of the American public that is currently considered overweight;
- Stop under eating, or purging yourself to look thin. If you can’t stop under eating on your own, begin talking with a Christian counselor, immediately;
- Stop drinking alcohol to excess, and stop taking drugs inappropriately. Paul says you shouldn’t be enslaved by anything. It’s time to get rid of any and all of your addictive behaviors;
- I know my next suggestion may be controversial. But I’ll say it anyway—stop smoking.
Now, for the “start” list.
- Start attending “First Place,” a course offered by Lori Carter on Wednesday nights beginning later this month, that will deal with physical and spiritual fitness;
- Start getting medical checkups at appropriate intervals;
- Start eating in a healthy way. Never miss breakfast. Eat less meat, and more fruits and vegetables, less high sugar fruit juice, and more high fiber fruit;
- Start getting enough rest. For most of us, that means 7-8 hours of sleep at night, with at least two hours of that sleep before midnight;
- Start exercising. (If you’ve been sedentary a while, start slowly, under a doctor’s supervision.) Get 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at least five days a week, and muscle-training exercise at least two days a week. Start climbing the stairs rather than taking the elevator;
- Start drinking more water. Most experts recommend drinking eight 12 ounce glasses of water a day;
- Start playing and having fun. Look for appropriate ways to reduce your stress.
One more thought—we’re not trying to get in shape so we can look like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. We’re doing it so we can have the maximum physical and mental energy to work for the kingdom of God with the time we’ve been given on this earth.
God paid a huge price for your body. The least you can do is care for it while you’ve got it.