… you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. – 1 Corinthians 6:20

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 6, 2014): 1 Corinthians 6

In a world dominated by Barbie, we seem to be increasingly battling a war over our self-images. In a society where obesity reigns, Anorexia and Bulimia also seems to be on the rise. Most of us appear to be on one side or the other of the body weight spectrum, and fewer and fewer people are able to find the middle ground. Maybe an even more surprising development is the increase in frequency that the Anorexia and Bulimia specifically are making into the male population of our culture. But it isn’t that we just want to be too thin, or that we are too fat – our battle is being waged over our image of the way we want our bodies to look, an image that is becoming more and more unrealistic. Add to this the concept that we seem to be increasingly unable to see ourselves as we really are, and we quickly realize the depth of the problem, and our current inability to fix it.

The result is that we are living in a perfect world for anyone who wants to market diet aids (just count how many late night advertisements deal with diet products.) Those of us who are overweight, want to be thinner. Those of us who are of a more appropriate weight, still want to be thinner. And those of us who are already too thin, well, many of these people still believe in the core of the their being that life would be so much better if they were just a little thinner. We obsess over the idea of weight loss and believe that one day even we can look like – Barbie.

What we ignore is that there is a healthy weight – and it isn’t Barbie. But there is something else that we also miss. And that is that we have been purchased at a price. And the price was more precious than silver or gold, Jesus paid the price with his life. Paul applies this concept to the idea that we need to be careful with regard the activities that we participate in with our blood purchased bodies, which for Paul means running from any kind of sexual immorality. But the concept actually goes much deeper than just that. The reality is that our bodies, just the way that they are, deserve honor. We may not be perfect, but we are purchased. In true Christianity, there is no hatred of the body, but rather acceptance of our bodies which God has purchased at such a high price. In Christianity there should be no torturing of the body and no extreme asceticism (as some have practiced over the history of the faith.) There is no need to make the body pay for our sins. That price has already been paid.

And we need to be careful of our dreams. Some Christians dream of the day when the body will be resurrected. For many, this resurrection body is going to be different; perfect. Our resurrection bodies will reflect everything that we dreamt that we could be. But sometimes I wonder if that is really true – and would we really be able to be satisfied even with our new, perfected bodies. Maybe rather than dreaming of our new perfect bodies, we should spend some time trying to understand why God placed such a high value on the bodies that we already have – and then take the time to understand what it means to honor God with our bodies.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 7