Question 1

But isn’t my body my own? Don’t I have the final say in what I do with my body?

Accepted Answer

1 Corinthians 6:19-20Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.You don’t own your body—God does. He designed it and entrusted it to you even as you were conceived into a sinful world that affected your body in many ways. The outlook for your body changed considerably when you responded to the message that Jesus died for you. God paid for you at a premium price with the death of his own Son, and now he fills your body with his Spirit. Honor his sacrifice with one of your own: Respect the awesomeness of your body by keeping it pure.1 Corinthians 6:12-13You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies.False worldviews in biblical times included perspectives that devalued the body as evil and irredeemable. People who believed this often treated their bodies with disrespect and subjected them to debauchery, arguing that it didn’t matter what they did with their bodies. In today’s world of scientific materialism, which discounts God’s involvement in the world and places our bodies at our disposal, the same outcomes often follow. Once God enters the picture, however, we realize that we are accountable for how we treat everything in the created order, including our own bodies. We must take God’s standards and instructions to heart.

Question 2

How can my body be pure? I’ve done some pretty impure things to my body.

Accepted Answer

2 Corinthians 5:17Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!Forgiveness in Christ is real, and it affects everything—including our bodies, no matter where they have been. This is not to say that our sins will never have ongoing consequences that affect our bodies; we may have to live with those aftereffects for the rest of our lives. But our sins have been forgiven, and we have been infused with eternal life. We are now pure in God’s eyes because of what Jesus did for us. We are now new people.1 Corinthians 6:13, 15You can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. . . . Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ?If we think of our bodies as nothing more than meaningless biological systems, it’s easy to make decisions that destroy our bodies and the bodies of others. Those who discover that Jesus died for them and indwells their bodies through his Spirit receive a new outlook on all of life. Being part of Christ’s body carries with it both privileges and responsibilities.Ephesians 4:32–5:1, 3[Christ] loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.The forgiveness God extends to you through Christ’s sacrifice should motivate everything you do in life. When you are tempted to return to your previous sinful behavior, remember that forgiveness came at a great cost.Psalm 51:2, 7Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. . . . Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.Attempting to purify ourselves leads to delusion, frustration, and despair. We are unable to clean ourselves to the point of anything resembling purity. But God can do what we know is impossible for us to accomplish. David speaks for all of us out of the depths of his repentance: We can’t hope for purity unless God washes us in ways no one else can.Hebrews 10:22Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.When Jesus forgives you, no matter what you have done, God sees you as pure and fully worthy to enter into his presence. Now, forgiven and restored, strive as much as possible to avoid sin that violates God’s intended plan for your body—sexual immorality, drunkenness, substance abuse, self-inflicted violence, and gluttony are among some of these sins.

Question 3

In life after death, will I keep my body, get a new one, or have no body at all?

Accepted Answer

1 Corinthians 15:42Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever.Your present body will get sick and become a burden to you. It will age and deteriorate until it wears out. The good news is that you won’t have to live like this forever—imagine how many problems your body would accumulate over a few thousand years! The Bible teaches that God will someday renew your body. It will never again age or decline, get sick, or be disabled. It will also be a supernatural body. You will be able to do things with your renewed body that you can’t do now. Your body will be perfect and beautiful, and you will never be ashamed of it again.

Question 4

What is the body of Christ?

Accepted Answer

Ephesians 1:23The church is [Christ’s] body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.One of the most vivid and important pictures of the church in the New Testament is that of the human body. The functioning unity of our various organs and members beautifully parallels the way God intends for his people to relate to one another as they remain in the world. Just as our brains are connected to every cell throughout our bodies, Christ is connected to each of us as the head of the body. We belong to him in every way. We should act as though we believe this.1 Corinthians 12:12-13The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.Our different ethnic identities do not affect our status as members of Christ’s body. Christ makes us one and connects us to one another by his Spirit.Ephesians 4:11-12These are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.Among the gifts Christ gives his body are certain offices or roles that significantly impact the rest of the body. These roles do not exist to elevate the stature of the people in these roles. Instead, these roles help make the rest of the body effective as they carry out God’s will.Ephesians 2:19-21You Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.The “body of Christ” simply refers to all people around the world—past, present, and future— who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and who have received his forgiveness of their sins. The body of Christ is also called the “church.” It is amazing to remember that, because of eternal life, the body of Christ is the only group on earth that never loses a member.

Body