A lot of magazines at
the moment will be giving advice on how to get the perfect
beach-body, although it might be a bit late for this year! We often
have a love-hate relationship with our bodies and both those
attitudes have their down-sides.
On the one hand our
society tends to idolise the body. Body-worshippers, both male and
female, can be found at the gym, in the beauty salons, and strutting
the streets in their designer clothes. Beauty and physical fitness
are seen to be the ideal; we are judged on both and if we fall short
of the standard we are deemed less worthy, less love-able than
others. At its extreme this leads to designer babies and aborting
children with disabilities, but it also shows itself in the social
media pre-occupation with selfies, 'likes' 'ops' and 'rates'.
Idolising the body leads not only to vanity but also to body shaming
and self-esteem issues.
On the other hand there
can be a despising of the body where the 'spirit' of a person is seen
to be the only authentic 'person' and the body is merely a vehicle
for the spirit. In Christian Theology this is known as the heresy of
'Gnosticism' but it is a common belief of Eastern religions such as
Hinduism and Buddhism, and the New Age beliefs inspired by them.
This separation of body and spiritual means that the body can be used
and abused in any way particularly if it will 'enhance' the spirit's
well-being.
Christianity, however,
gets a different perspective on the body from the Bible, and in
particular from its key doctrines of creation, incarnation and
resurrection. The Creation story in Genesis teaches that God made
humans, male and female, as 'ensouled flesh' i.e. as physical bodies
infused with his living spirit. Our bodies are essential to our
being, so much so that God says that he forms us in the womb
(Jeremiah 1:5) and the Psalmist speaks of God knitting and weaving us
in our mothers' wombs so we are wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-16).
There is no separation between our bodies and our spirits: we are our
bodies as much as we are our spirits.
The incarnation reminds
us that not only did God make us to be flesh and blood, but that in
Jesus he became human, complete with flesh and blood. Another heresy
in the early church said that only Jesus' body was human, while his
mind was divine. However, Jesus was like us in every way, flesh and
blood (Hebrews 2:14,17) and mind too (Hebrews 4:15). Body and spirit
together make up a human being and God affirmed the value of human
beings by becoming one!
The resurrection
accounts of Jesus make it very clear that he was raised physically
and spiritually. Jesus even says to his disciples “Touch me and
see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have”
(Luke 24:39). This tells us that we're not waiting for death to
release our spirits from our bodies but that we're waiting for our
bodies to be renewed to be imperishable, glorious and powerful (1Corinthians 15:42-44). So, whether you're beach-ready or not: love
your body, care for your body and worship the God who created your
body.
