The body matters: judgement will come [I Cor 4]

There as some who pervert the teachings of God, and two errors are corrected here. The first is that the boy does not matter. We can eat whatever we like, get unfit: we can do whatever act we want, for God will forgive us and all is well. We have been saved. The second error is similar: the body belongs to this earth, and our spirit returns to God.

Both are incorrect. We believe in a bodily resurrection. Christ walked this earth post crucifixion, and he was not a ghost: he was seen, and heard, and touched.

And we all will have to give an account to God for our lives. Something I think of with fear: for I know my sins and my habits of sin.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

(2 Corinthians 4:13-5:10 ESV)

Well, what does this mean? How do we react? Well… we need to consider our body. We need to be fit: we need to choose non obesogenic foods. Some of us need to walk the freak away from the refrigerator. Says this blogger, who has lost some weight and needs to go for a run soon.

We will be held to account for the stewardship of our bodies. Our bodies matter.

But the other half of this is that if we have problems and pain and disability we do not need to give up hope. We will be restored. In the next life, our bodies will be glorious, and we will need no velvet rope to hide the obese and ugly from the dance floor.

But forget this not: we will have to give an account. For the good and ill we have done. We may have Christ covering our flaws and faults, but we also have to live with the consequences of those actions in this life and give an account in the next.

This is not salvation by works: we cannot earn our way to heaven. It is, however, the plain reading of scripture.