{"id":625,"date":"2012-08-08T15:39:57","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T15:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/corbdesign.com\/blog\/?p=625"},"modified":"2012-08-08T15:39:57","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T15:39:57","slug":"wwje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/religion\/wwje\/","title":{"rendered":"WWJE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What Would Jesus Eat?<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We are temples of God\u2019s Holy Spirit. As with many biblical principles there are multiple levels to this. Spiritually, we need to make ourselves a suitable dwelling place for God, by living righteously and giving no place to sin. But on the physical aspect, many Christians fail to truly treat their bodies with the honor, respect, and care due to a temple of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply reading this scripture – that we are a temple of God\u2019s Holy Spirit – has sadly become an empty or displaced notion in our church culture. We, as a church, need to redefine what it means to honor and respect our bodies as to the Lord. Because our culture laughs at the concept that the choices we make in our lifestyles, what we eat, and what we expose ourselves to will impact us greatly on a physical and spiritual level, we have the right and obligation to reverse this trend inside the body of believers \u2013 especially because of its spiritual significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it is hard to grasp the gravity of this scripture since we don\u2019t see a temple in Jerusalem that God dwells in as they would have in biblical times. But from what we know of the temple, we can surmise that it was impressive, sacred, and carefully crafted, maintained, and utilized. It was set apart and holy, and was not to be tainted by the trappings and antics of the world. This was why Jesus angrily chased out the moneychangers out of the temple \u2013 it was God\u2019s dwelling place and not to be blasphemed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without getting into specific laws or pondering which ones apply in today\u2019s culture, one can discern simply from the number of practical physical laws given in scripture that God cared about Israel\u2019s health and well-being. This is no different today with \u2018spiritual Israel\u2019 \u2013 the ones God calls into His truth and church. In general we should keep ourselves healthy and avoid items, activities, or environments that we know are injurious to our health and well-being. Why then is it so hard to simply avoid the things that are \u201cbad for us?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All too often we joke about poor health. In Western society, many boast about how drunk they became on a given weekend. Some compete as to the length they can binge on junk food. Perhaps something more common to Christians would be simply overeating. After a meal, some proudly purport, \u201cI just stuffed myself so full, I could barely fit out the door,\u201d or illicit chuckles of empathy from others as they admit, \u201cI loved that cake so much, I just HAD to have 5 more slices!\u201d What\u2019s the harm in that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cognitive dissonance occurs when we trick our brain into not believing the validity of a threat despite the proof of the danger at hand. American culture has done this through the media with a collapsing economy, the threat of fundamentalist Muslims, and health matters. It is no wonder that Wendell Berry penned that \u201cThere is no connection between food and health. We are fed by a food industry which pays no attention to health, and healed by a health industry that pays no attention to food.\u201d Living in American, true Christians cannot fully escape the influence of a blissfully ignorant culture bent on indulgence and pleasure in the moment without concern for the consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with most unsettling trends, what happens in the world happens in the church. An almost careless and \u2018in-the-moment\u2019 approach to lifestyle and eating habits has crept into God\u2019s ecclesia. Instead of calling it out for what it is \u2013 breaking God\u2019s physical laws \u2013 we stand back in fear of offense, and even go so far as to joke about it, in apparent empathetic support. The Corinthian church was faulted for not doing anything about a sinful relationship. Let us not be faulted for allowing obesity, overeating, junk food diets, and stressful overmedicated lifestyles to occur unnoticed and unchallenged in our midst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mainstream Christian world, fornication became so commonplace, it became accepted. In the Church of God, overeating followed suit. We think of \u201cgluttony\u201d with much distance and distain, yet never consider that many of us come dangerously close to that line, and sometimes cross it habitually!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is high time that the Church of God cast aside political correctness and tell it like it is, without being afraid to ruffle a few feathers. If the recipients are truly converted people, the truth should cut to the heart, but not cause great offense. Subjects need to be addressed, and grey areas brought to light. We all have a fear and distrust of a system that establishes \u201csheriffs instead of shepherds\u201d but there is a middle ground where a church can stand firm on issues that may make some uncomfortable. (topics like dating outside of the church, lust and self-gratification, voting, makeup, military service, internet addictions, overeating and obesity).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, growing up I never fathomed that a Twinkie might be just as bad for me as eating shrimp. Since the bible didn\u2019t ban Twinkies, why should I question it? The \u201cMcDonaldization\u201d of the food industry is now at the global level, making it increasingly difficult to discern what a biblical \u201cdiet\u201d would have consisted of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People often don\u2019t know or care that what they\u2019re eating is poison because \u201cat least it\u2019s not pork.\u201d While I doubt updating the \u201cclean\/unclean\u201d list to include junk food items would be the solution, there are basic (and some specific) principles that a church could define in our society to help guide those ignorant of the danger in their eating habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideally parents would teach about these things, but all too often that is not the case. If not the parents, then who will teach the youth? The church could pull together programs and resources to help parents teach their children. In addition, or until then, the church should stand up and address the issue that so many wish to ignore \u2013 we are breaking God\u2019s physical laws and rejoicing in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To reverse a trend, we humans need to be \u201ccut to the heart,\u201d and undoubtedly God will give His servant leaders the words to accomplish just that. This issue isn\u2019t just about us, but what our bodies represent \u2013 God\u2019s spirit. Our calling is not just about us, but about how we can become teachers to help others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a humble attitude, let us all repent and cry for help in both seeing this pervasive trend for what it is and in knowing how to devise a stern and poignant call to action for God\u2019s people in this matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Would Jesus Eat? Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[27,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-living","category-religion","clearfix","post-index"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/pexels-photo-406152-2.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corbinrose.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}