A Body Of Praise

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely . . . spirit, soul, and body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

One of the strangest individuals in early church history was Simon the Stylite. At age thirty-three, he began living atop a pillar in the desert. For thirty-six years, he lived on a platform that gradually reached a height of sixty feet. From there he preached to curiosity seekers who came by the thousands. After his death in AD 459, a monastery and sanctuary were built on the site of the pillar.

Simon the Stylite was an ascetic, a person who pursues spirituality by disavowing the material things of this world. Ascetics especially deny themselves any bodily pleasures—tasty foods, marriage, hygiene—believing that they are temptations to worldliness.

But ascetics miss an important point: the human body shares the same creation blessing as do the soul and spirit. Therefore, your body should be a medium for praise and a channel for worship just as your spirit is. In fact, “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,” Paul said (1 Corinthians 6:19). Your body is that which the Spirit animates to bring glory to God.

An offering of your body to God brings glory to its Creator and Sustainer.