“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19-20).
Scrambling for motivation for the next training session it is hard to resist the bright colours and edgy fonts of the latest trending instagram quote “The body is a temple”. Is it not just the perfect excuse to justify losing yourself in preparing your body to perform to perfection?
Pedestaling the athletic body is not a new concept. It is pushed at us constantly from social media. As an athlete that has competed internationally, I have wrestled with my appearance. Pushing myself to conform to what I perceived was an ideal and finding hollowness in never quite managing to attain the unattainable standard I set for myself.
Platforms like instagram have blown up scripture, with cute cursive handwriting and the latest trending music. However, as aesthetically pleasing as this looks, we are creating a fragmented bible where the depth of scripture is lost.
At its roots “The body is a temple” comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19 to 20 but we have boiled it down, minimized it and pulled it so far from the bible that a non-Christian would happily plaster it to their ‘story’ without a second thought to its deeper meaning.
Whilst in context, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 19 to 20 is talking to sexual immorality; it is just as applicable to athlete physique and performance motivations. Our bodies can become idols as with any other sin. However, when we reduce the verses to “The body is a temple”, we allow for misapplication. Too many of us can interpret it as “I should glorify God with my body by working out, getting fitter, pushing harder and eating healthier.”
Taking this direction on the scripture completely misses the intention of it. You are overlooking heart of the verses which is: the Holy Spirit of the living God lives within you. It is by God's grace and your faith within Him that the veil is torn and you have access to God at all times and that through God, you can do anything but without God, you can do nothing.
We have failed to recognise that without the Holy Spirit, our body is not a temple. Without the Holy Spirit we cannot glorify God and we cannot in good conscious pursue a high performance lifestyle without becoming prideful and selfish.
When we rely on the reduced verse “The body is a temple”, we place all the emphasis on the body and pursue our goals before and without pursuing God. When we transform our perspective on the body being the residing place for the Spirit, as an athlete we then allow ourselves to have the freedom to recover from intense training sessions and seasons without guilt because it is good for the body.
As an athlete we run the risk of missing out on all the joy and love and peace that the Lord has to offer us if we place all our focus on the body instead of in our relationship with God. Instagram scripture like this blind us to the fact that we are broken people in need of Christ, whose broken body on the cross is the reason we are saved. We cannot workout our way to salvation.
Our body is a temple because the Holy Spirit resides in it. Our salvation comes from accepting Christ into our life as a gift, not as something we have worked for. The verse should be understood in terms of glorifying God with our bodies, not glorifying our bodies for God.