Non-Christian Interpretation Of The Human Body

It is generally known that Christians regard the human body as precious and valuable being because the body is the temple of God made for God’s purpose. Non-Christians also think that the body is crucial, but they do not put further religious values because they usually think that they own the body. In contrast to non-Christians’ point of view on the body, the authors, Diehl and Morris, account for the six Christian perspectives on the body and describe the reasons why non-Christians and even Christians have misunderstanding on the body. First of all, the two authors state that, just like other creation, the human body was made for God’s purpose and natural laws (Diehl and Morris 1). God created humans in His image and gave them the order to look after all other creation based on His teaching, which implies that humans need to follow the natural law created by God as well. Therefore, humans should have balance and take care of the body based on God’s Word. Secondly, since men were created in the image of God, men have responsibility to care for both spiritual health and bodily health. Jesus Christ is the perfect example of this; Jesus fulfilled both role of spiritual health and bodily health by using his human body for the purpose of God’s works. Therefore, Christians should do all the work through the body in order to glorify
God as He has commanded them. Thirdly, the human body is significant because Holy Spirit lives in the human body. Accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour means that Christians have accepted Holy Spirit as well because Jesus said so after he left the earth. Therefore, Christians should mind the body as the body is the temple of Holy Spirit. Fourthly, the body is used to fulfill God’s works such as guiding non-believers to God. On the other hand, the downfall of the body is that the body can be a medium of sins such as sexual excitement and murder. This dual aspect of the body should be carefully considered in order to fulfill the responsibility to bring the lost sheep to God and to honour God. Fifthly, the body is the way to exalt God, so it should be preserved purely and without blemish. The very purpose of human creation is to follow and walk the same path of Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ gave himself up his life to save not only human souls but also human body because the very purpose of the body is to give himself up and to do God’ will. Lastly, the human body is the way to get redeemed by God. Although faith in Jesus Christ is the key to the salvation, the body also does the work of God. The body, therefore, can be a sign of the righteousness and eternal. The wrong interpretation of the human body is originated by the great Greek thinkers as they tended to divide the whole world into two areas: spiritual and material world.
This dualism caused people to think that the body would prevent humans from achieving spiritual world and went further to influence some Christians that they began to regard the body as evil being while they treated the soul as holy and sacred being. This interpretation of the body and the soul is wrong based on the Bible as not even one verse talks about dualism. The Bible regards both the body and the soul as the tools of God to fulfill His work and to save
humans. Therefore, the authors argue for both spiritual health and bodily health as God teaches us in the Bible. People, consequently, should do their best to keep their soul pure and devout in Jesus Christ and should to everything to care for their body, which includes physical fitness. However, they should not make mistake of thinking that they should build huge muscles and have beautiful body shape because physical appearance is nothing to God; instead, God looks into people’s heart and intention. Therefore, Christians should find balance between spiritual care and bodily care. The authors’ argument for the spiritual perspectives of the body is well written in a broad sense to explain the importance of the body through God’s intention of the body. It is humans’ responsibility to take care of the body given by God in order to act as God’s servants: preaching, helping the poor, and being examples of good deeds in the world. The authors deserve compliments since they defined well the significance of the body in the balanced way; exalting the body by no means is a sin because of negligence of the soul while paying attention to only the soul is also a sin because God has ordered His people to use the body to do His will. This is a successful work by the two authors and I cannot agree with them more.