I wasn’t long after my decision to receive and follow Christ that I was confronted with the reality that people really will attempt to control what you ingest into your body. The story begins staying after work one late afternoon to work on my car. The owner of the company to which I was employed, was gracious to allow me to stay and use their tools to finish installing a radio. The business shared a parking lot with a fence company which would work later into the day. It was on this particular Friday, that the employees of the fence company came speeding into the parking lot in the back of a large truck shouting and laughing as they had obviously stopped by the bar to down a few (or more) beers before calling it a day. They were obviously drunk and generally happy. So happy, that one of the fence company employees made his way across the parking lot to invite me to their celebration. I politely declined, as the Holy Spirit had been dealing with me about my former life’s destructive habits, which included drinking.
My refusal, despite its polite presentation, offended the man who brought the invitation. He loudly proclaimed my refusal to the group and with equal volume communicated his offense at my declining of his offer. It was a matter of “respect”, he shouted, and I had obviously disrespected him. The only redemption, he stated, was to “down a few beers with him immediately”. The repercussion, as convoluted as it was, was to endure an “a**-whoopin’”.
And here is where I first arrived at the crossroad of bodily jurisdiction. Who gets to control what is put into my body? Can I be forced to ingest something, no matter how benign the instigator may think it to be, into my body? After all, one beer couldn’t get me drunk and actually deescalate the situation in front of me. If I was to be “all things to all men that I might win some”, would it not be an act of love to relent and identify with my neighbor?
OR
Am I allowed to control my bodily jurisdiction without violating the command to “love my neighbor”?
As we continue to navigate our way through our era of mandates and how to respond to them, we turn our attention to the second step of religious exemption which involves bodily autonomy. If state theologians are correct, and we really “loved our neighbor” as Jesus commanded, then we should yield to mandates, no questions asked.
There is no argument that the Bible does tell us to prefer our weaker brothers and sisters. We should not willfully attempt to make them stumble, even yielding our own liberty at times for the greater good of their conscience. But do those verses apply in this current situation? Was Daniel not “loving his neighbor” (the king), or causing Nebuchadnezzar to stumble? Of course not! Daniel understood the interpretation and application of Scripture to the moment which he faced.
Jesus faced a similar moment with the devil in the Wilderness. The devil quoted Scripture to Jesus wanting Him to apply certain verses to the challenges that were before Him. Jesus, aware of this slippery temptation, was able to quote the correct verse which applied to His immediate situation. We are facing a similar situation today. People are cherry-picking scriptures and leveraging their application in our lives without considering the WHOLE counsel of Scripture and its application to this moment.
Most certainly we love our neighbors and respect civil government in as much as the demonstration of such love and respect does not violate the Scripture or our conscience.
Let me illustrate this by offering a (quick) three-point theology of the body:
1. GOD OWNS MY BODY
My body is not my own (I Corinthians 6:19-20). I am a steward of this shell called, a body. It was arranged that way from the very beginning as the Lord defined the boundaries of what could and could not be ingested into the human body (See Genesis 3). The serpent enticed Eve, who in turn solicited Adam, to eat of a forbidden fruit. The fruit apparently, could be ingested and it would be seemingly innocuous; except for the fact that God had forbidden it. You see, God determines what is good and what is evil, not us. God determines what goes into the body and what does not.
I cannot usurp His ownership.
Therefore I cannot abuse my body. I cannot commit suicide under some convoluted sense of self-autonomy. Government does not own my body. My neighbor does not own my body. The only scriptural exception to another’s “ownership” is the relationship you enjoy with your spouse because you made a covenant for that shared relationship (I Corinthians 7:4).
2. THE BODY IS THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
A temple is jurisdictionally off limits to governments and others. (I know abortion advocates use this to justify murder of the pre-born. Again, they are twisting Scripture to suit their selfishness. You cannot murder a baby in the womb because that is their body.) It is a sin for a person to abuse or murder another person’s body. THE SANCTITY OF THE BODY IS CRITICAL! (I cannot ask another person to violate their body. “If you love me, you will get drunk with me, take drugs with me, let me do things to your body you are uncomfortable with.”) Under this logic, rape could be convolutedly justified under, “If you love me”.
You cannot defile a temple. Just like a church sanctuary has boundaries for usage, so does one’s body. It is sacred space. It is dedicated space. It is a place designed for God’s presence and authority. No one else can dictate what goes into it or how it may be used.
3. ACTS OF CONSECRATION OF THE BODY ARE DESIGNED TO BE INDIVIDUALLY SUBJECTIVE
While there are certain things all of us may do as an act of obedience to the Scriptures with regards to our bodies, the Bible also teaches that each one of us are allowed “convictions”.
For example, the Bible never says that drinking wine is wrong, or that abstinence is required (exception Nazarite vow); however, if I have a conviction about alcohol, you can’t force me to violate that conviction which God has impressed upon me. The Bible never says, “Thou shalt not smoke”. While it may not be wise to do such a thing, if I have conviction concerning this habit, you cannot make me smoke.
Jewish Law was in part based on certain food regulations (kosher). Not all foods were forbidden, but some foods were disqualified as God created a “special” people set apart for Him. You cannot force a Jewish person to eat pork ribs. In fact, if pork ribs were found to be the answer to COVID, you cannot simply force that cure into an orthodox Jew. You cannot say, “If you love your neighbor, you will eat ribs, shellfish, bacon, ham…” This is an affront to the act of consecration by a believer. And while Christians have a much more relaxed understanding of food requirements, that doesn’t disqualify the reality that some will have consecrated their lives unto the Lord in this regard.
If government mandates are to be considered valid, then maybe we should require multi-vitamin mandates, or Probiotic mandates, or water consumption mandates, or you simply name your food or drug of choice.
Governments (and corporations) do not own your body. I understand that we have created a familiarity and comfortability with boundary busting civic government, but this is the hour we need to keep it in its jurisdiction if we desire to be a free people.
(Our next blog will explore the sanctity of the conscience)
No Comments