INSIGHTS FOR HEALTHY LIVING

“For you were bought at a price; therefore GLORIFY GOD in your BODY and in your SPIRIT, which are God’s” – 1 Corinthians 6:20

God’s Covenants of Healing and Health do not preclude obeying Scriptural INSIGHTS for HEALTHY LIVING: “Or do you not know  that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor.6:19-20). God wants to be glorified in our entire being. His covenants should not be used as excuse for careless or reckless living or licence for licentious lifestyles. It is apt to highlight few scriptures that point to insights for healthy living.

Nutrition is crucial to health: “Food for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them” (v.13a). God cares about what w e ingest or digest into our bodies, which belong to Him: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1Cor.10:31). The drunkard, glutton, cigarette and tobacco-smoker or drug-abuser may say that it’s nobody’s business what he or she does with the body. Such a person will ultimately reckon with the Almighty God – the Maker of the body and Giver of the Breath of Life (Gen.2:7). God actually expressed His concern for Man’s food quite early in creation and subsequently (Gen.1:29; 2:16; 9:3; Psa.104:14-15; 136:25; Mt.6:11).

Sexual vices are vital to health: “Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (v.13b). A person’s sexual lifestyle will lead to either healthy living or ruinous existence: “Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body” (v.18). Such sins however, affect not just the body, but the entire personality – spirit, soul, and body. Sexual depravities have terrible temporal and eternal consequences: “If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (1Cor.3:17). The Bible actually names and shames some of such: “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites…will inherit the kingdom of God” (vv.10-11).

Exercise is another scriptural guideline: “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having a promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1Tim.4:8). Both forms of exercise – physical (bodily) and spiritual (godliness) – are profitable. The latter is clearly superior, but even the “little” profit of physical exercise is backed by medical research. So, it pays to partake of this, but more, to give attention to spiritual exercises such as the disciplines of the Word (hearing, reading, studying, meditating, confessing, and obeying); disciplines of devotion (worship, praise, prayer, thanksgiving, consecration, intercession); and disciplines of purity, practical living, and of the mind (Rom.12:1-2; Phil.4:4-8).

We cannot lay claim on the Covenants of Health while sowing seeds of corruption: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Gal.6:7). Of course, it is not every case of disease or ill health that is directly due to a sin of the flesh. Some are due to satanic or demonic attacks, the like of which Job experienced. But we do well to abide on the side of scriptural caution in terms of nutrition, sexual lifestyle, exercises, and other guidelines.

The true Believer would have a witness in his or her heart as to what is beneficial to healthy living or otherwise. Not everything that is attractive, legitimate, and seemingly enjoyable is favourable to health and well-being: “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (v.12). There is a place for Scriptural Instructions in Healthy Living!