July 12 - 1 Corinthians 6: Creature before a Creator

What came to mind, as I read the second part of this chapter, was the song from the TV series Fame, "I Sing the Body Electric." I can still hear Irene Cara belting it out,

"I sing the body electric... 
I celebrate the me yet to come... 
I toast to my own reunion 
When I become one with the sun..."

I was never sure what the lyrics actually meant (still not sure), but that didn't stop my 15-year-old self from singing them with great passion. As I read the words today, it's more obvious that they're all about self - my body, my future, my rise to the top. A sharp contrast to how Paul is exhorting us to view our bodies.

You know the old saying, "First you eat to live, and then you live to eat"? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that's no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!

God honored the Master's body by raising it from the grave. He'll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master's body. You wouldn't take the Master's body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.

...Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.  (6:13-20)

Honor God with my body. God owns the whole works, everything that is me. Let people see God in and through my body. He'll treat it with the same resurrection power He honored Christ's earthly body with. Wow. That's more than I can comprehend. Where this convicts me with laser-precision is in my mindless comfort eating and in my numbing escape into TV watching. I don't believe the Holy Spirit is calling me to increase my good habits and decrease my bad ones. Nor is He asking me to find a diet plan or gimmick that will fix my eating problem. He's asking me to gain His perspective - a reality check on Who should be in control of every part of me. He's leading me to truth and to "take [my] place as a creature before [my] Creator" (Crabb).