Living a Balanced Life Week 4 Day 1

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (NIV)

My friend, Lance Witt, posted on twitter, “Your body is God’s temple, not His mega-church.” Ouch! I have certainly allowed for more “capacity” than the Spirit needs.

But, I am working on it based on this week’s lesson from the Living a Balanced Life study guide. In fact, at this writing, I have lost 10 pounds so far because of what I have learned in writing the study, from applying Kelly Frazier’s teaching on the small group DVD, and from hearing Rob Dempsey’s testimony of losing 140 pounds. If you need a study guide or DVD, contact the Brookwood Bookstore: brookwoodchurch.org/bookstore. (The price of the study guide just dropped to $2.99).

Before we start down the laundry list of what we shouldn’t smoke or drink or chew, we can find two greater principles in this passage. First of all, “You are not your own; you were bought with a price.” Believers do not belong to themselves. We belong to God. We cannot do whatever we want to do with our bodies without consequences. In fact, the Bible tells us, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires” Romans 6:12 (NIV).

The second principle is that we are to honor God with our bodies. Paul goes on in Romans 6:13 to say, “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (NIV).

Are you honoring or dishonoring God with your body? What things do you need to start doing to honor God with your body? What things do you need to stop doing? What accountability do you need to change?


Copyright © 2009 by Allen White

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.