“Don’t you know that you yourselves
are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you.”
-1 Corinthians 3:16
If I could only be as beautiful as
the girls I see on TV!” I wish I were as
handsome as so and so! Seldom does anyone ever look in the mirror and
not utter a few signs. But have we gone overboard in the quest for the perfect
body, the perfect face, the perfect exterior, at the cost of disregarding
integrity, moral wholeness, inner strength, and beauty?
This is not to suggest that you
ignore the importance of your body as being the handicraft of the Almighty? The
gift of life comes with specific instructions that you are not to abuse body
and destroy what God has wrought, whether it is through obesity, drugs or
overwork.
Paul wrote the Corinthians, “Don’t
you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in
you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is
sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16,17). He likens the human
body to the temples where pagan gods were worshipped, but he says that God
indwells the human body, giving men and women a motive for moral purity and
healthy living.
What is troubling is the mentality
which says you are no longer important or worthwhile when aging puts wrinkles
on your forehead and writes lines on your face. It pushes aside the youth with
glasses and teeth that need attention in favor of the beautiful child with
fewer pimples.
Such superficiality thrust upon us by
the media creates feelings of inferiority. It forces upon us a value system
which runs contrary to God’s intent and purposes. We need to reject this
superficiality and strive to be all that God wants you to be: a person of inner
beauty and integrity. This is what true beauty is all about.
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