body may be overlooked by the world, but to spiritually sensitive
Our Experience 11
One brother was filled with an inordinate desire to know. And because he had to know the reason for everything, he analyzed everything. His mind was truly overactive; but because he knew everything, he could not trust God. Such desire for knowledge, like these other areas of the mind, truly needs to be dealt with.
4. Sins of the Body. Certain activities centering upon the physical body may be overlooked by the world, but to spiritually sensitive Christians they may nonetheless be sinful. Some pay too much attention to eating or sleeping or hygiene or adornment or life itself. These can be sinful in God's sight.
Many Christians just have to eat; they have never fasted once since becoming Christians. Eating with them will tell you immediately what kind of person they are. As they lift up the knife and fork, you know at once what they really are. One brother I have met, for example, said that his appetite was big and special. Yet I must say here that a lack of self-control in the matter of eating can also be a sin.
Some sleep just a little less than usual and they automatically look unhappy. And consequently, they become hasty in works and muddled in speech. This too is sin.
Some love to munch on food; so they spend lots of money on snacks. Others like to adorn themselves at all times. And there are some who are so hygienically minded that they are continually obsessed with a sense of danger. What is all this? It is loving of one's own life. Many love their own life so much that they cannot bear the slightest suffering or to come too near the sick. To put it quite frankly, they are under bondage to their body. Yet Paul said this: "I buffet my body, and lead it captive!" (see 1 Cor. 9.27) If we allow our body to dominate us, that is sin. Our body should be under us, not above us. Many sacrifice morning prayer because they want to sleep. Many sacrifice the time for reading the Bible because they