Renovation of the Heart
Transforming the Body (3|4)
Pages 174-178
• Christ Delivers from Body Hatred
• The Body Betrayed
• My Body Is Not My Property
• The Only Reasonable Use of Our Bodies
• The Distraught Body
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV) 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
Christ Delivers from Body Hatred
“Sincere people really do find evil in their bodies and wrongly blame the body for it. - This misguided and terribly harmful attitude toward the body correctly sees the power of sin that really is in the actual body and its parts. But it mistakenly assumes that the evil is the body and its parts and does not know how to think about the readiness to sin, the sinful meanings and intentions, that have come to possess those parts through their habituation in a world of sin.”
What is the source of body hatred, and how does Christ deliver us from it?
The Body Betrayed
“The human body is created for spiritual life in the kingdom of God and to be honored - indeed, glorified - in that context. But when taken out of that context and made the central focus of human experience and endeavor, it is betrayed - robbed of the spiritual resources meant to sustain its life and proper functioning - and in turn, it then betrays those who center their lives on it.”
Where and how have you seen this in society? (body of people) In the church? (body of Christ) In your life/family?
“The same mislocation of the body explains many other intractable problems facing the world: the sexualization of practically everything, eating disorders, and racial and other discriminations. All of these are rooted in taking the body - our own or that of others - to be the person and thereby depriving ourselves of the spiritual perspective on the person, which alone can enable us to cherish the body and its central role in our lives. - Body hatred also comes from disappointment about our future with it, even from outright fear of the body - of what it is going to do to us. Not accepting God as God puts us in his place, we have noted and leaves us with nothing to trust and worship but our bodies and their natural powers .”
Have you experienced this in your life or in the life of a loved one? What has that been like?
My Body Is Not My Property
“Nowhere does the modern frenzy of self-assertion and the “me” god come more clearly into view than in the claim now often made that “my body is my own.” This is taken to mean that I alone have the right to say what is done in and with it. Now, there is an important truth here - especially in a world where there are so many ways of getting at you through your body. But it is a truth misstated and misunderstood. - As a mature and competent individual, I am responsible for the care of my body, and it is the center of all the other responsibilities I have. But that does not imply that I and I alone have the right to say what is to be done with it, or in short, that I own my body. - And this is all the more true for an apprentice of Jesus. - It is therefore God’s to do with it as He pleases, and He pleases that our bodies should be “a showplace of God’s greatness (1 Corinthians 6:20 PAR). Christians are the last people on earth who could say, “My body is my own, and I shall do with it what I please.”
What is your response to “MY body MY property to do with as I wish”? The context might change the response. Do you have the right to be protected? - of course! Do you have the right to be respected? - of course! What are some “grey” areas where it isn’t so clear? Do you agree with Dallas Willard’s point of view on this subject? What are some questions you may have with different scenarios where you ask: …but what about…?
The Only Reasonable Use of Our Bodies
“‘Don’t even think it,’ we sometimes say. And the mark of the renewed mind is what it will ‘not even think.’ This freedom from even the thought of evil - ‘thinketh no evil’ (1 Corinthians 13:5) - requires that the automatic responses toward evil are no longer running the body and its parts. The bodily tendencies of the ‘living sacrifice’ no longer incline us or start us toward evil without thinking, and then drag our thoughts and feelings after them - and very likely our will (heart, spirit) also.”
What does this mean and what is your response?
The Distraught Body
“For many of us today, our bodies are in a constant state of agitation and discomfort. - Often it is due to tendencies of the self that have settled into our bodies’ parts that put the body at war with itself. Wounds, fears, unsatisfied desires, shames, losses, and unhealthy ambitions and images of the self sink beneath the horizon of our awareness. We may even deny them. But they continue to disrupt our bodies and can take over our lives through the body’s ‘automatic’ responses. - We see in such a case is soul disruption manifesting itself in disorders of the body, which in turn threaten to take over life as a whole and could even lead to physical death.”
How have you or someone close to you experienced “soul disruption”?
What are some ways we can bring our bodies to peace and strength in God?
EXTRA READING:
“I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.”
- Anne Frank (1929 - 1945)
A victim of the Holocaust at age 15.