Take a trip to the beach, the gym, or even to the supermarket and it doesn’t take long to see that our culture has made an idol out of “the body.” People spend hours trying to make their body look chiseled, tanned, blemishless, the right shape, and fit. From the rave of 100-Calorie snack packs in grocery aisle to the surge of gym-memberships every January, people are concerned about their bodies.
Now I’m not against working out, gym-memberships, or trying to eat healthy. In fact, I believe that as Christians, part of our obedience to God is taking care of our bodies. God made us to have physical bodies. In fact, when we go to heaven, we will not float around as spirits, but will one day have perfect physical bodies. God loves the human body…after all, He made it! It’s His greatest work of art…His greatest masterpiece on earth…the highlight of creation! Even though our current bodies are growing older and weaker because of sin, we are still to be good stewards of our bodies and seek to live as long as we can to achieve the mission God has given us. Rather than making an idol of the body, Christians have sometimes valued the body too little. Many Christians have developed the mindset that only what is spiritual matters and therefore have let their bodies go to waste. This is just as wrong as making an idol of the body. We should care about our physical bodies because God cares about them!
However, in Southern California, it is also very common to see our human body, its health, and what it looks like become a big idol. Here’s how it happens:
- “I will be happy and find acceptance if I can just get that six-pack.”
- “I will be happy and feel like my life is worth living if I can look like that model.”
- “I will be happy if I can just eat in a way that will keep me healthy.”
- “I will be happy if I can live till I’m 95 years old.”
Is it wrong to desire beauty, good health, or strong muscles? No! But the problem comes when gaining these things become the ultimate source of happiness and meaning in life.
This drives many young girls to seek for the perfect body…often developing disorders and distorted views of themselves. The magazines, tv shows, and commercials all propogate (sometimes unknowingly) a lie: look like this and you will be happy. Be this strong, and your life will have meaning.
We need to fight these lies and call ourselves to believe what’s true…that God is our ultimate source of joy and meaning and happiness.
What do you Think?
What other ways has the “body” become an idol?
What “core/root” idols are people sometimes seeking when they make their body an idol? (i.e. “acceptance from others”, “control over their life”)
Why should we take care of our bodies?
#1 by Brian McNeilly on February 22, 2010 - 8:00 pm
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I see as well as the way we see our bodies, how we see other’s bodies has also become an idol, in relationships especially. Guys will judge another girl’s ‘date-ability’ on how good she looks in a swim suit, completely neglecting how much her heart and spiritual eyes are focused on God! How sad that men are throwing away the chance to marry a godly woman because they are too focused upon what her body looks like! America has fallen to the lie of finding that ‘perfect’ girl, but that is another topic. This is also the case with many marriages in cases of adultery and divorce, where the husband becomes dissatisfied with his wife because of how she looks. He has forgotten his job to love as a husband humbly, always encouraging her spiritually and being encouraged by the ways in which she honors the Lord.
People are missing the point when they focus on the body. They are becoming prideful and insecure. They are being discontented with the way the Lord has created them. We must remember that each body was sculpted by God intimately down to the last hair and the way in which we look is the way in which He intended us to look! How fantastic to know that my crooked nose and unproportioned torso was a gift from the Lord! To be discontented with how I look is for me to be discontented with the Lord’s gifts, and as we know from Luke 11, God only gives us good things, even when we think they are unpleasant.
Now of course, sometimes we are called to think we are unpleasant, but not because of the things we can’t change, but the ones we can change! Take for example my recent ACL reconstruction. During the healing I had gained 35 lbs from an inability to run mixed with a slow metabolism. If i was to become healed and not at least put myself through necessary training to lose that, I would have been lazy! Especially with the call I feel to the military. For me to neglect fitness in this case would be for me to neglect and charge God had put upon me. You can’t be 35 lbs overweight and in the Army, they will kick you out. So for me to work out everyday was for me to worship the Lord everyday, toiling physically as a supplement to toiling spiritually. Sometimes we are lazy with our bodies neglecting them supposedly in a drive to care for our souls. But this is wrong! We should put an effort into fitness as worship to God! Not necessarily becoming bodybuilders and the next Lance Armstrong, but I believe that we are called to incorporate physical fitness in our lives as an act of thankfulness for what God gave us? But will this physical fitness result in a super-strong, super-tough league of Christians? No! God created us in variety, with more forms and figures than a box of crayons. So even though we strive to stay fit and take care of our bodies, some will still be rounder than others! But we are to be content with the outcome, knowing we are doing our duty to the body and the soul, along with the beautiful notion that we are loved deeply through and through however we look.
#2 by Sarah Rodriguez on February 23, 2010 - 3:05 am
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I completely agree with Brian in that we judge others so much on outward appearance, but what we do not see is that this could be a privilege if we had God’s glory in mind. We are attracted to others’ appearance, especially the opposite sex, because these are biological characteristics of all humans. God created us that way, in the same way that He created us to need food, and to desire friendships/romantic relationships. As with many things in the bible, a lot of which were outlined in the book of Matthew, it is our heart that shows our true desires.
That is not to say that we should not care about our bodies, for this was a gift from God too. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” The Holy presentation of our bodies is a gift to God, as is eating, and friendships/romantic relationships.
Where many people, myself included, get confused is in thinking that Holy presentation means looking good, and impressing others, so that they would think that I had my life together, and/or I am an impressive person that is worth knowing. Instead, we should all think of having an attractive appearance as we think of singing, or fasting; it is an HONOR to do, not a REQUIREMENT.
We all believe that humans’ judgment is more important than God’s, but really, humans just judge more, not more fairly. All we need is God’s approval, and we have that whether we are wearing True Religions, or sweatpants.