This Belief is Quietly Eroding the Church
Christian, the way you think about your body matters.
I’ve talked about how caring for our bodies is a way of honoring God and how improving our health helps us to avoid sin by making us more patient, loving, gentle, and kind.
But here’s something I’ve hesitated to dive into publicly, maybe out of fear of offending:
The way you treat your body matters because it shapes how you think of your body,
and the way your think of you body matters because it shapes how you view life.
Let me explain.
Growing up I often heard that caring about your health and your body wasn’t important.
It was all temporary and a distraction from “spiritual things.”
The phrase “the flesh” was often thrown around and automatically linked to sinfulness.
In considering our bodies this way, we start to think of them as something that is separate from who we REALLY are – our souls.
But here’s what happens when we do that…
- We reduce the value of the body.
- Which then reduces the value or importance of what we do with our bodies.
- Which then reduces the importance we put on other people’s bodies.
That is a path of thinking flowing from a mindset that says the body isn’t important – isn’t we are.
Once we separate personhood from the body, we introduce confusion into our Christian principles and our moral clarity on major questions disintegrates
On abortion – When someone says “My body, my choice. The fetus isn’t a person, just a clump of cells,” if personhood isn’t linked to the body, how do we respond clearly and persuasively?
On gender – If the body isn’t who you are, why not take the hormones and have the surgery?
On sex – If the body isn’t spiritually important, why not do whatever you feel like?
Slowly and then all at once, we lose confidence in our own beliefs. We can’t effectively argue for what we know to be true.
If that were not enough, that ideology doesn’t stop there.
If life itself isn’t sacred, then neither is speech, truth, or the image of God in others.
We saw this logic play itself out in the assassination of Charlie Kirk just 11 days ago.
And here’s where it’s eternally dangerous. The church is not immune.
When we don’t guard against this ideology or lose confidence in the truth that stands in opposition to it, we start to mirror the culture instead of the Bible.
- That’s why so many Christians now argue it’s actually faithful to be pro-abortion.
- It’s why there are congregations adamant on “affirming” transgenderism.
- And it’s why some churches hang pride flags on their front doors.
We’ve let a belief seep in that says our bodies aren’t of eternal, spiritual importance.
It feels nice because it’s allowed us to put “kindness” ahead of truth and call it love, but ultimately, it’s an ideology that wants to usurp God as the ruler of life.
Christian friend, please hear me clearly,
How you treat your body matters.
Because how you treat it builds the framework for how you think of it.
And how you think of it shapes how you see truth, life, and the sovereignty of God.
Your body matters because it is an inseparable part of who God made you to be.
