Cow or Temple? What Does Jesus Say I Am?
My oldest, Zane, will turn 12 this summer, and Lord knows he still says some ridiculously funny things. But about a decade ago, right before he turned two, he called me a cow.
As most moms do when teaching their kids about various animals and the noises they make, I went through a long list of God’s creatures, asking Zane what sounds they each made. He did pretty well. Then, purely out of curiosity, I decided to ask, “And what sound does mommy make?”
“Moooo!” Zane answered.
Why, thank you, son! I laughed then, and I laugh now that he indirectly and unknowingly called me a cow. Of course, Zane had no concept of what he had said, and no offense was taken.
Nonetheless, we’ve all felt like (and called ourselves) a cow, right? My goodness, I hope I’m not the only one! To be clear, I know I’m not. I am well aware that I am not unhealthy, overweight or at all fat. But when I was 16, I became bulimic, and I would be bulimic for several years thereafter. The enemy’s lies that fueled my eating disorder – the lies I believed, the ones that enslaved me – I had learned over the course of many years before. And to this day, many years later, I still hear them. Like a spider crawling on my skin, sometimes I feel them trying to creep back into my thoughts, taking aim straight for my heart.
The thing with an eating disorder like bulimia is it never really goes away. You can make progress, yes. You can create new habits and abandon the old, destructive ones, absolutely. You can get better, and you CAN recover. But some scars only fade; they do not disappear. The lingering lies can still feel true, even when you know they’re not.
Satan is a liar, now and forevermore. He does not care if it’s day one of recovery or 15 years in. He does not care if the number on the scale is over or under what it should be or if it’s perfectly fine, and he does not care how in shape or out of shape I am. He is not threatened when others compliment my appearance. He does not back down just because my husband adores every inch of me. He is not even discouraged that I wrote a book proclaiming the truth that quells his lies. He keeps at it with every rising of the sun, and he will use any and every scenario he wants to tell me my body sucks, that it’s not enough.
What does the enemy tell you about yours? Does he tell you it’s amazing (or could be if you’d just try harder) or that it’s despicable (and always will be), so that all your worth and identity is wrapped up in the way you look? Does he drive you to hate your body? Does he remind you constantly to obsess over it?
Does he tell you that your body is a temple? Sacred and holy? That it’s made for glorifying the One who created you? Nah, he would never. The Holy Spirit is the One who reminds us of God’s Word and speaks truth that points us back to Jesus. When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, he made this much clear: As believers, our bodies are a temple.
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).
“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 6:19-20).
“For we are the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16).
Remember the temple Solomon built for the Lord? “He overlaid the inside with pure gold…He adorned the temple with precious stones…He carved cherubim on the walls…He made the curtain of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen” (2 Chronicles 3:4, 6-7, 14). It took a multitude of workers (nearly 200,000 people) and seven years to complete. It was magnificent and beautiful; however, not for the sole purpose of looking esthetically pleasing. This was not an architectural beauty contest. It was set apart and sacred because it housed the Most Holy Place, where the Ark of the Covenant would reside and the Holy Spirit would dwell. The Israelites honored God by holding the temple in high esteem, by respecting God’s laws regarding it, and treating it with impeccable care.
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit would no longer dwell there. The curtain was torn (Matthew 27:51). The Holy Spirit lives inside of us now. Our bodies, therefore, are holy, precious, magnificent, valuable, sacred, and made to honor Him. The world says, “It’s your body. It’s your choice. Do whatever you want with it.” And the enemy pushes us into one of two extremes: Loving our physical bodies so much they become an idol or not loving and caring for them at all. But the Word says that God created our inmost beings, knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13) and that we were created for His glory (Isaiah 43:7).
As such, what if we held our bodies in high esteem as a temple of the Most High God? What if we respected God’s Word and honored Him with our bodies, living like they are His and not our own? What if we treated them with impeccable care, not for our sake but for the sake of His Kingdom?
Our bodies are not the problem. Jesus didn’t make a single mistake when He created you and me. Every nook and cranny is intentionally crafted. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). My struggle is not against bulimia. That battle was won at the cross. The battle I face is not letting the existing scars pull me away from my Savior. Rather, allowing them to remind me that I can’t do this life without Him. I need Jesus to lean on, to renew me daily and to give me strength. I need Jesus in order to walk in truth, because He is the truth (John 14:6). And the hope I have in Him is greater than any scar, memory or feeling I may carry.
I am a temple of the one and only Almighty God. And so are you.
