Week 40—Thursday 1 Corinthians 15:44-46
1 Corinthians 15:44-46
NOT GHOSTS BUT EMBODIED BEINGS
We turn now again to Paul’s exhortation: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1, KJV). This “therefore” picks up the thread of the discourse broken by the interlude of the three intervening chapters and emphasizes the “in.” If the victory is to be “in,” then you “must present your bodies.” The Word of victory must be wrought out in physical relations or not at all. We are not ghosts, we are embodied beings and the victory must be wrought out as embodied beings.
But why “by the mercies of God”? Does it mean that it is a merciful thing for God to invite us to present our bodies a living sacrifice? Yes, for if you do not present your bodies as a living sacrifice you will be in for trouble, deep trouble with your bodies. For the body that isn’t offered to God is offered to Trouble and Sorrow, both with capitals. For the body that doesn’t fulfill the purpose of God will be a body that is full of conflicts and self-created diseases. Why is there more aspirin sold in the United States than in all of the rest of the world? It is because we need these painkillers to rectify homegrown pains. Dr. Sadler, the great psychiatrist, said that “if we lived in a truly Christian way half the diseases would drop off tomorrow morning and we would stand up a new healthy human race.”
So it is not sacrifice if you offer your body back to the Creator for God to teach us how to live with it. The sacrifice is the other way round. For if you don’t offer your body to God, you have to offer your body to doctors, to pharmacists, to hospitals—you offer your body to the altar of Trouble. So it’s by “the mercies of God” that you are asked to offer.
O God, our Father, our bodies made by you, and for you, live in you. Outside of you they fulfill the description—“this body of death.” So we come with our bodies to learn how to live and to live abundantly. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My flesh and my spirit in partnership with you will be partners in your Cause.