I’ve got a question for you, what’s your motive for taking care of your body? Why spend time on your physical well-being, by committing to healthy eating, getting enough sleep, doing cardio and resistance training to build muscle and tone your body? Is it to draw attention to yourself – look at me, don’t I look great? Is it to impress others, score a date, or have others admire your six pack?

Your body has a purpose. It’s an instrument not a hood ornament or trophy to be paraded around, by flexing and flaunting it. Instead, it is to be used as an instrument of righteousness to honor God and do the most possible good. Now don’t get me wrong there are plenty of personal benefits gained by taking care of our bodies that result in looking good and experiencing optimum health. But that is the result of taking care of yourself not the motive for doing so. God created us body mind and soul to bring Him honor and glory.

Romans 12:1 says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God.” Perhaps the most comprehensive verse is found in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

We are also instructed not to defile our bodies. Most references to defilement pertain to sexual purity. There is no room for perverse practices or involvement in pornography. Let’s be perfectly clear, there is one and only one place for sexual relationships to take place and that is within marriage, and I shouldn’t even have to say this but between a man and a woman. Within the context of marriage, sex is good! It is enjoyable and brings pleasure. It is right, and a holy act. Let’s remember it is God who created our bodies. He is the One who “invented sex”. The act of sex is one of the most beautiful examples there is of oneness and being “one flesh.” 

So, if you are married, have and enjoy sex…often :)!  Don’t deprive one another of sex.  As a married couple, never use sex as a weapon or a tool to manipulate your partner. Don’t withhold sex from your partner or make them have to beg or “earn the right” to have sex. 1^st Corinthians 7:5 (NLT)

says, “Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

Do not present your members (your body) as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members (your body) as instruments of righteousness to God.

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