Exactly Who Owns Our Body?

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Khen Lim




Guy or girl? (Image source: androgynousguy.blogspot.com)

In the last two decades, as the Korean androgynous phenomenon gained attention throughout the world, Malaysian youths clambered for the ‘new look’ that has resulted in men and women sporting the same facial appearances.

Androgyny is the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics, giving rise to at least some form of gender confusion or ambiguity. Some call it biological intersex physicality but no matter what you may call it, it can sometimes be quite a challenge to decipher what sex that person is.

In Malaysia, the sight of young effeminate men carrying handbags is no longer uncommon. In fact, you see them everywhere these days. There are also plenty of girls obsessed with the Korean look who don fancy contact lenses that change the colour of as well as enlarge their pupils. Some of them are so overdone that they look unflatteringly alien.

Which of the two do you think is the original look (Image source: wiseshe.com)

There are others who go radically further by altering their eyelids and jawline, re-profiling their noses and basically altering their facial features to achieve that all-important and coveted ‘V-line.’ Called face contouring or sculpting, this is today a worldwide phenomenon that goes far beyond simple makeup, making plastic surgeons very happy not just in Korea but in many parts of the world, including Malaysia.

The startling popularity has also made this an impossible-to-ignore highly lucrative multi-billion dollar industry that spans the world and not just Korea. That is very well the case but this is also an industry with health-threatening controversies that have resulted in serious problems sometimes amounting to deaths.

Catching the imagination of naïve youngsters doesn’t appear too difficult. Everyone seems bent on wanting a “certain look” that makes them alluringly attractive to the opposite sex. The idea is to be so sexually appealing that the person becomes the centre of attention. Call it insecure if you like, this unhealthy preoccupation is a major factor in the growth of this burgeoning industry.

The fear we have in our hands is that our young generation may not change their behaviour or the way they obsessively covet the ‘right’ physical looks. Most of them seem impervious to the potential – and often unnecessary – risks that endanger their lives.

The current trendy doll look (Image source: thedollyeye.com) 

Local media has talked much about the danger of unsafe contact lenses and there are plenty of articles on the Internet that are hard to miss if a person is interested to read. Popularly referred to as costume contact lenses, ophthalmologists are warning of corneal abrasions and ulcers in the eyes that can lead to keratitis. Worse cases can and have led to blindness.

On the Internet, the popular (but painful) double-jaw surgery so in demand in Korea comes with a very serious risk of permanent facial damage, sometimes leading to even paralysis. This is a bone-cutting procedure that not only involves the realignment of the upper and lower jaws but it also takes the patient agonising months to recover.

It has been evident even in Malaysia that, the young generation is willing to risk their health for short-term rewards. The rationale is to “live life fully” or “you only live once” or worse, “it’s my life… I do what I feel I want.” Not many care to read up on the risks involved. The obsession is to be the leading fashionista with enough sex appeal that fans of the opposite sex desire.

Very often in life, short-term pleasure will lead to long-term disaster and nowhere is this truer than in the realm of sexual immorality. Even for a matter of a few minutes of wanton pleasure, so many men and women will risk throwing their lives away, obviously believing they’ll get away with it.

Image source: messianictemple.org

The consequences of sexual sin is a long list, beginning with a loss of fellowship and intimacy with God, alienation from friends and work peers who prefer to distance themselves, estrangement from family members who are ashamed to be in your company, not to mention serious damage to one’s own reputation and family name.

The others are possible sexually-transmitted diseases (STD), unwanted pregnancy, heartbreaking divorce, shame and guilt, social stigmatism, including psychological scarring and financial losses. Sad to say, some of these are irreversible while others will take a lot of time to heal. If it’s AIDS, on the other hand, it is surely fatal.

In fact, there is no sin I can think of in life where one pays such a costly and brutal price but if we’re honest enough to admit it, we tend to think that such things don’t happen to us or even our own families. And so we’re likelier to go on our happy ways, either sinning or turning a blind eye to such things that our loved ones might be involved in.

For this reason, the Apostle Paul uses positive affirmation to guide us to avoid or overcome sexual immorality by saying that, your body is God’s body. In 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, he offers us two ways to honour God with our bodies.

Image source: gospelcrusader.com

Firstly, we must refrain from allowing our bodies to master us (v.12). In other words, our bodies are to be used for our well-being and God’s glory. All things created by God are definitely good and that includes sex. But sex out of wedlock is not profitable and can master us. Paul’s message here is that we can still enjoy the world that God created, so long as we stay vigilant enough not to risk being damaged or defiled. Immorality will wreak damage to all our relationships including marriages. It will break family homes, bring untold agonies of guilt and shame, and destroy confidences and trusts.

The second way to honour God with our body is to refuse to do the opposite. In other words, don’t do anything to our body that will dishonour Him. Take note that sexual immorality offends not only God the Father (vv.13-14) but also the Son (vv.15-17) and the Holy Spirit (vv.18-20). While food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, sexual immorality is not for the body if we are to honour the Triune God. This is because God values the human body, which He is solely responsible for its design. While food and stomach are temporal, the human body is for eternity.

Remember too that, as we die to self and offer ourselves as a sacrifice to God, our body belongs to Him. Any talk about “my body” does not and should no longer exist anymore. Instead, our body is emphatically God’s body. And He will surely raise it one day. All this means that whatever things we do to our bodies matter tremendously to God.

Just as smoking, substance abuse and alcoholism are all offensive to God who owns our body, what more sexual immorality? Paul asks, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?” Paul asks “Do you know” three times and three times, he used the word “members.”

His use of the latter word is instrumental in helping us to frame our understanding on the premise that, the moment we believe in Christ, our bodies are grafted onto His body. As a result, we are now the one and the same in the Body of Christ, which means that when we sexually defile our body, we are also doing it to Christ Himself.

In verses 19-20, Paul says, “…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? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” So here are three simple but important points.

Firstly, we are a temple of God. This means that we have a body in which God is welcomed to dwell within us at any time. Secondly we have been given the Holy Spirit as a gift and by receiving Him, He now lives inside us. Thirdly, we have been bought with a price and therefore, we are no longer our own. We were once slaves of sin but today and forever, we are slaves only to God (Rom 6:16-23).

We do not have the right to abuse or pervert our bodies because we belong to God, body and soul and everything in between. We are no longer controlling masters of what we do with our bodies because we have surrendered all to Him.

A.C. and Veronique Green (Image source: matome.naver.jp)

Here’s a true story of a former NBA pro basketballer to inspire you:

While still in high school in Hermiston, Oregon, a young A.C. Green Jr. converted to Christianity before he became an NBA record holder for the highest number of consecutive games played. The 6 foot 9 inch 224-pound Green is said to be the epitome of the ‘iron man’ image with his abundance of strength and stamina.

More so, he was a true iron man when it came to sexual morality. By the time he walked to the altar to marry Veronique in 2002 at the age of 38, he was still a virgin. In fact he was one before he began and after he ended his NBA career. His teammates would constantly send women to lure him into compromising his Christian morals to which he would respond by quoting Bible verses.

The famous Magic Johnson was quoted as saying, “Once you start seeing (these) girls around the NBA, you won’t be thinking any of that Christian and God stuff.”

And Green said, “Really? You think so?”

“We’ll give you two months and you’ll be done,” Magic replied.

“Two months,” he reiterated.

Johnson removed his baseball cap and passed it around his Laker teammates to round up some cash as a challenge to break Green’s chaste habit.

By the time the round ended, there was $300 in crumpled notes.

“You don’t get laid once in two months, the money’s yours.” Magic said.

“But there’s no (expletive) way.”

It seems that in that party that night, only A.C. Green Jr. knows that his body belongs to God.

And he honoured God with it.

The above quotes of Magic Johnson’s dialogue is courtesy of Jeff Pearlman’s book entitled, ‘Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s’ (Avery, 2014).