To Paul, as to all other biblical writers, the body and soul belong together, created in the image and likeness of our great Creator. Paul had a high view of the body. He also had revelatory insight into the conflicted human condition. Our struggle is not between our body and our soul, it is between the Spirit and the “flesh,” our tendency towards self-centeredness, with all the troubles that arise from it:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do (Gal 5:16-17).
Jesus did not come just to save your soul.
He came to save the whole of you. He did not lay down his life just to save some spiritual aspect of you. He came, lived, died, and was raised in order to rescue, redeem, reconcile, and renew you. The totality of you as a person. Your whole life is to be transformed to the glory of God. Not just your “soul.”
Paul’s healthy, holistic, biblical view of the body is evidenced by the powerful metaphor he repeatedly uses for the church. The followers of Jesus are his body on earth: And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Eph 1:22-23). Now you [collectively] are the body of Christ and individually members of it (1 Cor 12:27).
No one with a Hellenistic (Greek) worldview would ever say such things. If the body, as part of the “lower” material world, was so corrupt, how could Paul dare use such an elevated metaphor? But wait, there’s more. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God (1 Cor 6:19)?
You see, there is no dualism in Paul.
In fact, says Paul, like the physical body of the Messiah, one day we too will be raised: So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:42-44). That is the glorious consummation of the new creation. Hallelujah!
But what I want you to grasp is that resurrection transformation has begun and is at work in you right now!!
Here is the crucial point I am endeavoring to make.
The Platonic influence upon the church fathers and, subsequently, on Christian thinking to this day centers on misreading the NT use of “flesh.” Why does that matter? It has disastrous consequences, especially regarding your views on eating, nutrition, and physical holiness. It impacts us personally, our families, our faith communities, and ultimately, our witness in the world.
Because of our misconceptions, our state of health is seriously declining, and that decline is staggering. You can hardly turn on the news without seeing a medical emergency. The television bombards us with pharmaceutical commercials. We are a diseased society. No civilization in recorded history has ever spent such a proportion of its gross national product on medical care. At the current rate, our entire Western civilization will go bankrupt from medical expenses.
Tragically, the church—separated from her covenant roots—is prone to compromise with the prevailing culture and can even become complicit in its decline: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” says the prophet Hosea; “You have forgotten the Torah of your God” (4:6).
I was a prominent figure in the New Age Movement when me and my egghead friends were swept into the kingdom of God by an extraordinary act of God’s grace. Perhaps you’ve heard me tell the story. We all got saved in a Pentecostal tent revival: God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27).
The reason I mention it is that, as New Agers, we practiced a healthy lifestyle, particularly related to what we ate and drank. Now, as a Bible teacher, when I tell people God cares about their bodies and what they eat, some say, “Uh oh, that sounds like the New Age Movement.”
How ironic. The truth is that, out of ignorance, the church lost its heritage and the New Agers came along and took credit for it. Regardless, what I am sharing with you comes from a biblical worldview, and we ignore it at our own peril.
Ancient Rome developed the use of lead. It was a technological breakthrough. One that poisoned the populace.
The Romans discovered lead as a plentiful, inexpensive resource. They used it extensively in pipes, cookware, eating and drinking utensils, cosmetics, and even as a sweetener in wine. What they did not know was that they were slowly and steadily poisoning themselves. The parallel is frightening.
The chief causes of premature deaths in the Western world are directly related to excessive consumption of refined foods. Our modern technological innovations present the population with cheap, nutrition-deprived foodstuffs.
The best research today shows that 70% or more of all diseases in the West (and, unfortunately, now spreading to the rest of the world) result from lifestyle choices. Said another way, self-destructive behavior chosen, either wittingly or unwittingly, is responsible for three-fourths of all hospitalizations. People in the Western world are suffering and dying disproportionately of heart disease and cancer. The principal causes of this are the foods we eat, the sedentary lifestyle we lead, and the stress we endure.
I am not saying everything is explainable, nor do I want you to feel any condemnation.
I lost my dear wife Jeanette three months after the diagnosis of a freakish cancer in her respiratory system. She was the godliest, healthiest person I knew. I have experienced the debilitating effects of Rheumatoid Arthritis in my body since I was a teenager. The reality is we suffer as a result of living in this fallen world
What I am doing is raising an alarm about the things we can control: what we put in our mouths, what we drink, our lifestyle choices, and the stresses we live under. They all impact our health. In many ways, our society is slowly but surely committing suicide. And if we Christians fall prey to a false spirituality that fails to rightly value the significance of our God-given bodies, we will follow suit.
GIGO is computer jargon for garbage in, garbage out. My dear brothers and sisters, I shudder when I say this: God is not mocked. We reap what we sow. Blessing bad food does not turn it into good food. You can pray over a Twinkie from now till next Saturday, and you will not add one nutrient to it. Nor will you protect yourself from its deleterious effects.
