1 Corinthians 6:15 NIV
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!
There are many passages where the Bible tells us the importance of our body. We can study different topics relating to our body from scriptures. I believe the most important mystery in our newfound birth in Jesus Christ is becoming a new creation. In Galatians 2:20-21, apostle Paul reminded us we have been crucified with Christ; Jesus lives in us. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” For the purpose of this reflection, I am compelled to focus on the visible outer appearance transformation that should take place in our lives when we said Jesus is Lord. "You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ" (Romans 8:9). Your body is the temple of the living God where his Spirit lives if we have declared Jesus is lord. The passage above talked about not using our body for prostitution and in verse thirteen of the same chapter it explains “The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” I believe there are different ways that we can defile our bodies without engaging in sexually immoral acts. Let me share a story with you. Growing up my parents always said the way you carry yourself as a young woman is how society will judge you. My parents made sure we had clothes and dressed nicely according to what our peer group wore at the time. However, there were rules, we were not allowed to wear shorts that showed our thighs and buttocks, nor clothes that exposed our breasts or belly buttons. In addition, our skirt/dresses had to be no shorter than knee high and my mother would always say it's proper for women to wear tights under their dresses and skirts because you never knew when you had to run or when the wind would suddenly blow and lift up your dress or skirt. Then I became a teenager. Should I say more? I rebelled and decided I only wanted to wear everything that my parents said was not allowed. My styles were Poom poom shorts, tight jeans, short clothing, etc. I enjoyed all the attention and praise of everyone around me.
One year, I was part of a flag celebration and because of the demands of practice for the event, I did not have time to purchase white shorts that I needed for the parade. I asked my father to go purchase them for me. To make his point, he purchased daisy duke shorts. I recall this moment as if it happened yesterday. I remember feeling so uncomfortable and naked as I did my dance formation for the parade. I did not have to say a word to my dad because his point was made. I recalled him saying, since you want to sell your dignity to the world, I thought I would help you. God, in the scripture above, is telling us that our body is the temple where he lives. I can't comprehend why some who profess Jesus is Lord and Savior continue to defile God's temple by the clothing we wear. It's one thing to decide that the covering of our head to enter God's presence is optional (1 Corinthians 11:5) but it's another discussion when our clothing can lead Christians and non-Christians to struggle. Yes! We might think that whether we show any parts of our body, if anyone is attracted to impure spirits they will sin. But my question is, why should we promote Satan's scheme to make it easy for people to fall into temptation? Matthew 18:7, Jesus says "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!" Do you believe as members of Christ’s body everything that we do is not for our praise or glory? When we died in baptism and raised into a new spiritual living body, everything that we were, died with us (Romans 6:4). Which includes changing to a more modest and presentable vessel before God. We must be set apart from how the world treats their body (Colossians 3:12-17). We no longer live but Christ lives in us. So, as we live for Christ, our goal should be to make sure as long it depends on us to not become a stumbling block by causing any person to struggle because of how we dress, whether they are part of your congregation or in the world. How are you treating and covering God's temple, your body? If you were going before Jesus would you wear the shirt, skirts, pants or dresses that you are wearing? Let us be mindful of the different ways we can defile God's temple, by the choices of our clothing style.
