We belong to God as a showcase of light before the world. In that light, we Christians are to be seen as the race that He has chosen to be His royal priesthood. Therefore, ministers we have become — exhorting, teaching, reconciling — preaching the love and ways of God.
As such, so as not to lose credibility, we are to be holy because He is holy. That then has to do with our lifestyle. And one of the most notable features of our lifestyle is the treatment of our bodies.
We know God wants us to remember that we are His possession, having been redeemed by the blood of Jesus; that our bodies have been declared to be temples, in which resides the Holy Spirit.
Since that is the case, we should be concerned about what goes into; what is put on; and what is done to the temple of God.
Going in the body. As with a brick and mortar temple, we should be reverent about what is allowed in our body-temple. Things that would harm the inside shouldn’t be ingested. Cigarettes, other nicotine products, alcohol, and illegal drugs should obviously be avoided. Entertainment should be filtered, and certain foods are not good for us (for guidance in this area, read more on biblical food).
Put on the body. Wearing modest clothing and functional accessories is the suitable and proper way to dress our body-temple. That’s what pleases our Father. I know this because modesty is called for in 1 Tim. 2: 9, 10. (Though the passage focuses on women, the principle obviously applies to men as well.)
Throughout the Bible, the church is often likened to a woman. We don’t want to dress as the apostate woman/church in Rev. 17: 4. Her glory is the loud colors of dress calling attention to herself and the flashy, colorful jewelry she wears: gold, precious stones and pearls. We want to dress with a simplicity that reflects God’s righteousness, as expressed by God’s true woman/church in Rev. 12: 1.
Done to the body. Finally, we shouldn’t want to deface our body temple nor subject it to sexual immorality.
We certainly don’t think drawing and writing graffiti on the brick and mortar temple, or turning it into a place of fornication is appropriate.
Nor, then, is it appropriate to mark the body temple with tattoos. The same holds true for tearing the flesh with piercings (Leviticus 19:28). Some, of course, have done these things before coming to the Lord, but that’s acceptable to Him under those circumstances. He wants us to come, no matter our condition.
But once we’ve come to the Lord, we need to leave those worldly, cultural things behind. In line with that, it is not appropriate to retain our proclivity to engage in sex outside of marriage. In the name of Jesus, we must tell the other person that we don’t do that anymore.
In the sight of the world, God’s people are a peculiar people. And that’s okay. We are supposed to be. We want to be able to provide a holy alternative to the ways of this world.
In the holy lifestyle, one of the best ways to highlight that difference is to glorify God with our bodies.