Some people understand the trinity with the water illustration, that water can be a solid, gas and a liquid.  For whatever reason that has never resonated with me.  At all.

For me, and I’m the only one I know who understands it this way, is that we too are triune beings.  We are made up of a body, soul (the eternal part of us) and a spirit (mind, will, emotions), yet I am just one person.  And just as the body and soul can be separated at death, God in heaven was also able to separate Father and Son in the Incarnation.

So how does that related to the sacredness of my own body?  Well I’ve been reading Nabeel Qureshi’s books and watching him on YouTube (a must read and hear) and he talks a lot about the Trinity.   The beauty of the trinity is that God is love and as love, all three parts of his essence–Father, Son and Spirit exercise selfless love among themselves.  He is one God, but they are unique and in unity show love.  This makes God as perfect, selfless love and one that is self-contained.

Then if I take my own self of body, soul and spirit as a reflection of the trinity, then my body, soul and spirit must also all show love towards each component.  The truth is that I regularly try to feet my spirit and my soul, but my body is just a side-kick.  Exercise?  Ugh.  Tired today.  Eat right?  Chips and salsa are the stuff of life.

But if I’m to reflect perfect love within myself, love and care must be shown to all three.  Some people love their body at the neglect of their spirit or soul but that’s not me.  I’m the opposite.

So what it means is that eating healthy and exercising more are not just optional, they are necessary for love to be fully manifest in myself.

And then I went to church.

Today’s church talk was the sex talk.  Not often found in sermons for sure but there it was today.  And our pastor quoted this:

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” 1 Cor 6:18

It struck me a little bit more than usual today that this Scripture really makes it almost that to sin against our bodies is worse than usual sin.  That our bodies are sacred.  In all of life, and especially sexually.

And then we took communion.

“Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” 1 Cor 10:16

It was the physical body of Jesus that was flogged, stripped naked and crucified.  And it was his body that took the punishment for our sins.

And it was his body that “by his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also” (1 Cor 6:14).

Perhaps there is a greater sacredness to the body than I am willing to admit.

And then I went to the concordance.

I was quite surprised actually that 30 times in 1 Corinthians the word “body” is used.  That’s not small.

“The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (1 Cor 6:13)

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?” (1 Cor 6:15)

Thoughts

The truth is my body and my worship to God have felt disconnected.  It’s really challenging for me to see how I treat my body is a sacred act.  And I’m not just talking sexual immorality here.  That’s kind of the more obvious.

But does how we eat honor this sacredness?

Does our exercise honor it?

Perhaps this should be listed in the spiritual disciplines right along with fasting, praying, reading the Word, etc…

“You are not your own; you were bought at a price.  Therefore honor God with your body.” (1 Cor 6:19-20)