Basic HTML Version
Glorify God in our Body and Spirit, May 4
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in
your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:20
.
How shall we follow Him to learn of Him who is our teacher? We can search
His Word, and become acquainted with His life and works. His words we are to
receive as bread for our souls. In every sphere where man shall be placed, the
Lord Jesus has left us His footprints. We do well to follow Him. The Spirit by
which He spake, we must cherish; we are to present the truth as it is in Jesus. We
are to follow Him especially in heart-purity, in love. Self must be hid with Christ
in God; then when Christ who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with
Him in glory....
By the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Paul the apostle writes that “whatsoever
ye do,” even the natural act of eating or drinking, should be done, not to gratify
a perverted appetite, but under a sense of responsibility—“do all to the glory of
God.” Every part of the man is to be guarded; we are to beware lest that which is
taken into the stomach shall banish from the mind high and holy thoughts.
May I not do as I please with myself? ask some, as if we were seeking to
deprive them of a great good, when we present before them the necessity of eating
intelligently, and conforming all their habits to the laws God has established.
There are rights which belong to every individual. We have an individuality
and an identity that is our own. No one can submerge his identity in that of
any other. All must act for themselves, according to the dictates of their own
conscience. As regards our responsibility and influence, we are amenable to God
as deriving our life from Him. This we do not obtain from humanity, but from God
only. We are His by creation and by redemption. Our very bodies are not our own,
to treat as we please, to cripple by habits that lead to decay, making it impossible
to render to God perfect service. Our lives and all our faculties belong to Him.
He is caring for us every moment; He keeps the living machinery in action; if we
were left to run it for one moment, we should die. We are absolutely dependent
upon God.
A great lesson is learned when we understand our relation to God, and His
relation to us. The words “Know ye not that ... ye are not your own? For ye are
bought with a price” should be hung in memory’s hall, that we may ever recognize
God’s right to our talents, our property, our influence, our individual selves. We
are to learn how to treat this gift of God, in mind, in soul, in body, that as Christ’s
purchased possession, we may do Him healthful, savory [pleasing] service.—
Special Testimonies, Series A 9:58, 59
.
[139]
135