Your Body is a Temple, not an Idol
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says,
“19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
When we say our body is a temple, it means that it is home to something invaluable, our soul. Our physical bodies are simply a vessel to carry out this thing we call life. For example, we are not our car, we are a being inside of our car. Now when it comes to taking care of our car we do not put Coca Cola in the gas tank because we know that is not good for our car and it will stop working. Yet, we put things inside our own bodies that are not good for us and expect it to still do what we want it to do. It is only until something goes wrong that we decide to change.
To treat our body with respect as it relates to nutrition, physical activity, and self-care is to honor this gift that God has given us. When we give our body what it deserves and NEEDS (emphasis on the word needs), it repays us with a fruitful life. When we give our body what it WANTS (emphasis on the word wants), it begins to suffer. We should be treating our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit and not worship them as idols.
If you treat yourself like vanity, that's how you will start to feel.
It can be very easy for us to become obsessed with fitness and appearance. If we are being honest, most of us, if not all, have tied our self worth to our physical appearance at some point in our life. “If I could just lose this stubborn belly fat I would feel more confident” or “If my shoulders were more rounded maybe I would…”. When we start to place worth on our physical appearance our bodies quickly become an idol. Anything you’re placing above God can be an idol and when how you look dictates how you view yourself, then you’re beginning to walk on very thin ice for your spiritual and mental health. Chasing the perfect physique is a never ending pursuit that will leave you unsatisfied because the perfect physique just simply does not exist.
Now how does one go about improving their physical health without it becoming an idol? There are a couple things we can do.
Set the right motives
You should be focusing on changing your mindset from taking care of your body for self to taking care of your body for God. God created the body, so if you take care of it the way He intended, then the body will continue to perform the way that He designed it to do so. You do this by setting the right motives. Why do you workout? Eat healthy? Take care of yourself?
Prioritize health over aesthetics
The way we look is a reflection of how well we take care of ourselves. Training for health is directly correlated with a healthy looking body. However, training for a healthy looking body is not directly correlated with your overall health. We should be training with the intention of becoming healthier and our body will follow suit, it does not work the other way around.
Change your mindset
A powerful mindset change that we can all make when it comes to our health is saying “I get to” instead of “I have to”. I get to move my body. I get to prepare a healthy meal. I get to sit in silence with the Lord. Doing this allows us to be grateful for these gifts everyday instead of feeling like it's a drag and we have to just get it done.
Plan
Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. If you plan out your days, weeks, months, it becomes hard to fall behind. If you know what you need to get done then you will be more motivated to actually do it. Making a workout plan, following a specific diet, and setting specific times of the day to accomplish these tasks will make taking care of yourself much easier.
Takeaway:
Honoring our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit is about stewardship, not vanity. God has given us vessels (our bodies) and it is our responsibility to care for them in a way that glorifies Him. This means fueling our bodies with proper nutrition, engaging in physical activity for health rather than appearance, and cultivating a mindset of gratitude for the ability to move and live well. When we shift our focus from chasing worldly standards of beauty to honoring God with our health, we find true fulfillment—not in how we look, but in how we live for Him. Let us remember that our worth is not defined by our reflection in the mirror.
