BODY

For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your BODY, and in your spirit, which are God's – 1 Corinthians 6:20

We cannot meditate on the spiritual nature of the human being without reference to the human BODY, which is the dwelling place and vehicle of expression for the naturally invisible human spirit and intangible soul (1The.5:23). It is the spirit that actually gives animation to the body. The body is NOT the real person; the SPIRIT is! However, in order for the spirit to live in the Earth realm it must be contained within a human body. The physical body embodies or accommodates the spirit-soul within, for as long as a person lives on this natural realm. Your body is like your “earth suit” to survive and function in this terrestrial realm. You have to have an earth suit to live in the earth realm. As soon as an earth suit falls, the human spirit and soul immediately depart for one of two places – Heaven or Hell – to exist eternally, either in bliss or in doom and damnation!

Your body is like a house for your real spirit-being to live in, in order to survive and function in the earth-realm. Your body is the tenement. Your spirit man is the tenant. This is why when you speak to another human being you look them in the eyes, which is like looking in the tenement windows. The eyes are the windows to the inner man: “There is a spirit in man….”  (Job 32:8). The spirit man, the real man, is on the inside of the outer flesh tenement. Another analogy: Your body is like a balloon and your spirit is like the air that keeps the balloon inflated. It is important to reiterate that God can but does not normally contact or communicate with the human body. The body is mainly in contact with the physical realm and God does not live in that realm. God is a Spirit. He lives in the spirit realm and contacts man through the human spirit. Even so, God does not undervalue the role of the body, and we must not. Why? Because both the spirit and the body belong to God (1Cor.6:19-20).

The body is the external, outermost part of man: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us…Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our inward man is perishing, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2Cor.4:7,16). This “earthen vessel” bears the “treasure” within – the spirit. It is the temporary container or residence for the spirit-soul. The body is the link with the physical world, through the five physical senses – sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. It operates essentially through its Appetites and cravings, which constitute its VOICE. If left unchecked and unrestrained, the body can overstep its bounds and usurp authority over the real man, resulting in various vices or works of the flesh. That’s why the body must be trained and disciplined: “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lets, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1Cor.9:27).

Appetites, though natural and legitimate, can be misused or abused. The untamed appetite for food can degenerate into gluttony; for hard drinks, into drunkenness; for sleep, into slothfulness; for ease, into idleness; for pleasure into hedonism; for sex into immoral lusts and diverse perversions such as masturbation, pornography, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, lesbianism, and bestiality. The body’s appetites must be brought into subjection, to take instructions from the recreated human spirit through the renewed soul or mind: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom.12:1). Beloved, you have the dual responsibility to present your body daily as a living sacrifice to God, and be transformed by the renewing of your mind through God’s Word. For you to become the best that God ordained you to be, you are expected to develop in all three dimensions of existence: by feeding and exercising your spirit, soul, and body (Lk. 2:40,52).