Top 7 Bible Verses About Taking Care Of Your Body

Here are seven good Bible verses about a person taking care of their body.

First Corinthians 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

I have heard so many Christians slam others over their drinking, their smoking, their overeating, their lack of exercise, and so on and then to back it up, they quote the verse above as to justify their judgmental attitude, but what is the context of this verse? Clearly Paul is telling the church that sexual immorality defiles our body and since we have the Holy Spirit, we’re essentially a temple of the Holy Spirit. These other things (drinking, smoking, etc.) do hurt the body but do they really think about the context of this verse before berating others over their habits? Text out of context can make a pretext and usually a false one.

Romans 12:1 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

The word used for “spiritual” is a poor translation. It would be more accurate to use the Greek word “logikos” for what it means; reasonable, or logical, agreeable so we are to present out bodies to God as a living sacrifice that is “holy and acceptable to God” because this is our reasonable worship. That is what God expects of us; however the problem with being a living sacrifice is that I keep crawling off the altar because I haven’t slain the old man yet.

First Corinthians 9:27 “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

Paul is telling the Corinthians, and us, that it takes a very concerted effort to keep our bodies under control. Jesus said that we are to “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24). The word for “strive” is stronger in the Greek (“agōnizomai”) as it means “to contend with, to agonize over” so Paul is saying it’s very difficult to keep our bodies under control. Amen? When Paul wrote that he didn’t want to become disqualified, I don’t believe he was talking about losing his salvation but perhaps of being disqualified to be as minister of the gospel as they are required to live a holy life and one above reproach (Titus 1:5-16; 1st Tim 3:1-13).

First Timothy 4:8 “For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

Paul is actually telling us that bodily training does have some value and few would debate that but if you were to rank godliness and bodily training, it would be no contest because bodily training is only good for this temporary life which is like a vapor compared to eternity. That’s because godliness holds the promise of this present life but “also for the life to come,” while bodily exercise is no good in the grave, so how can that even be compared to this finite life?

First Corinthians 3:16-17 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

Back to the first verse idea (1st Cor 6:19-20) where Paul was talking about the body being the temple of the Holy Spirit and here, in these two verses, he is saying nearly the same thing with one exception; God will destroy those who destroy God’s temple. This could well mean that we are commanded to take care of our body (the temple) and that God will hold us accountable on the day after our death when we’ll be judged (Heb 9:27).

First Corinthians 6:18 “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

This is as clear as it can possible be without God speaking audibly to us. We are all sinners but most of our sins are done outside of the body, however sexual immorality is sinning against one’s own body. How so? Because whoever is “joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh” (1st Cor 6:16). Does anyone really want to become one flesh with a prostitute, male or female?

Romans 6:13 “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

Finally, Paul again tells us to present our bodies or instruments for righteousness for God’s service. We can easily present our members as instruments of sin but the fact is, we’ve been bought with a price and brought from life to death, and our bodies are not our own anymore (1st Cor 6:19-20). Why not yield our members up to God for things that are pleasing to Him and not in pleasing ourselves?

Conclusion

We all are told from Scripture to take care of our physical bodies because that’s where the Holy Spirit resides, but more so, we are to yield the members of our body to God for His glory and to bring glory to the Son of God, making ourselves a living sacrifice that is like a pleasant aroma to God and to those who are perishing.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.