Your Body Is Not The Enemy

It’s quite interesting how we generally demonise the body in our bids to attain holiness. The body’s seen as the tool of the Devil; the enemy that stops us from serving God fully.  In fact, someone once wrote a “letter” on WhatsApp to his body, accusing it of trying to take him to Hell! (His body should sue him for libel).

This notion of the body being evil is not only unscriptural, but plays well into the hands of the Devil. Firstly, it takes our focus off the real culprit – our MINDS. When a man tells you the sin he just committed was his body’s decision, you don’t take him to church; you take him to a psychiatric hospital! That’s where we take people whose bodies act independent of their minds to. Normal bodies act only in obedience to whatever their minds dictate.

Secondly, it makes us have a hateful attitude to God’s dwelling place! The Believer’s body is holy, in the literal sense of the word. 1 Cor 6:19 clearly states that “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Isn’t it amazing how the Devil, who we’ve all known to try to take people to Hell, has conveniently shifted the focus off himself to God’s living quarters?

You’ll find the demonization and ill view of the body in Buddhism, Hinduism, and other works-based religions, but not in biblical Christianity. Flogging your body, crawling on nails, defacing yourself, etc. all in a bid to “mortify” the sin nature is not only senseless but insulting to the Holy Spirit.

If we desire to live holy and consecrated lives, our Lord says we should bother less about the body and spend our energies... on the MIND:

“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies”  – Mat 15:19.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Tripartite, Bipartite, Appetite

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1Th 5:23

For centuries, theologians and Bible scholars have engaged themselves in the petty debate over the exact nature of the composition of Man. Are we tripartite beings made up of three parts (Spirit, Soul, Body)? Or are we bipartite, made up of only two parts (Spirit/soul and body)? Typical of such historical squabbles, both sides have scriptures to back their respective stands.

You’ll notice, interestingly, that both parties consistently keep the BODY separate. As though it was obviously not part of the equation. Nevertheless, these distinctions are moot. I’ve never seen a Spirit-Soul-Body walk into my office; and your neighbour that said “Hello” to you this morning was definitely not a Spirit/soul-Body.

Man is Man wherever you find Him – whether here, or in eternity. Adam sinned and brought death into the world, causing a time when the body is left behind. But 1 Corinthians 15 explains that God will give us another body in eternity. So clearly, the body is an integral part of Man. Jesus didn’t only die for the Spirit; or for the soul; He died for the Body as well. As a matter of fact, His passions at the crucifixion started with provisions for the body: the stripes for its healing (Is 53:5; Jn 19:1).

Spirituality does not have to mean the neglect of the Body. Your body is as just a part of the salvation package as any other part of you is; the sooner we acknowledge that, the smoother our Christian walk will be. That’s why Paul in 1Th 5:23 (squashing the whole tripartite/bipartite brouhaha?) says his prayer is that we are sanctified WHOLLY – spirit, soul, body. 

For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. – 1Co 6:20.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Confidence in Death

But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. – Ps 94:22

In 1Th 4:13, Paul counsels the Brethren not to react to death “as others who have no hope.” Many a Believer’s perception of Death is still a carryover from their Old Man nature. Yet Rom 8:2 says that, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.”

Death has a sting. It goes beyond the spectre of pain or loss; there’s a deeper reason man lives in full terror of death. This dread is an anthropologically proven fact; all cultures from everywhere in all of history live in fear of Death.

The source of this fear may be philosophised and theorised by sociocultural scholars and anthropologists. But the Scriptures say the source of that fear is Sin! 1Co 15:56 says it plainly: “THE STING OF DEATH IS SIN.”

Therefore, for a Believer whose sins have been forgiven to still quiver and tremble before death is a sign of ignorance of the salvation principle, or what death actually means. And of course, you can be sure that the Devil will exploit that ignorance to full effect. And one way he does that is through the dread of judgment – exactly the way he used to do it before salvation.

Beloved, of what value is the salvation experience if it doesn’t settle something as fundamental as Heaven? Christ is our defence and shelter on the Day of Judgement, (John 3:18, Rom 4:7-8; 5:1; 8:1).

If you’ve not settled that matter in your heart and still live in constant anxiety for your eternal fate were you to die today, I recommend that you make this (death-themed) Sinner’s Prayer from the last stanza of Rev Toplady’s timeless hymn. Say this prayer to Christ, your “Rock of Ages” today:

“While I draw this fleeting breath,

When mine eyes shall close in death,

When I soar to worlds unknown,

See Thee on Thy judgement throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

Let me hide myself in Thee.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

“Nothing in My Hand”

“For everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.” – Luk 18:14.

Our Lord’s parable of “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector” (Luk 18:9-14) highlights a fundamental problem many people have with respect to salvation. God does not judge us relative to our neighbour, our siblings or even humanity in general. Many people like to gloat at the sin and iniquity of the world around them: the corruption, the immorality, the shameless fashion trends, the apathy…

And why wouldn’t they? In a sense, the evil around them makes them saints, in comparison. But God’s judgment isn’t like our educational system – he doesn’t grade us on a curve. Instead of looking at ourselves and our contemporaries to determine our moral grade, we look to God and rate ourselves by his perfect standard of Holiness.

When we do that, like the prophet Isaiah, we’ll cry out, “Woe is me! For I am undone;” (Is 6:5) this is a core requisite of salvation; an acknowledgement of our helplessness and utter sinfulness. Anything else would be arrogant and foolish pride.

When we come to the Cross, we must cry, like the Rev Toplady in his hymn:

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to Thy cross I cling;

Naked, come to Thee for dress;

Helpless, look to Thee for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Saviour, or I die!

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The Response For Sin

The apostle John in 1Jn 2:1,2 says, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous And He is THE propitiation for our sins.”

There’s a thin line between being sorry for sin and attempting to propitiate for it. Sometimes, the actions we take after sinning are tantamount to adding insult to the injury. Sin is a grave issue with God that required Him sending His Beloved Son to die on the Cross for its propitiation. Therefore, to expect something bad to happen in your life because you sinned is tantamount to a boy etching “GARY WUZ HIA” with a nail on your brand new car and afterwards telling you, “I’m so sorry for what I did. To show you how sorry I am, I’ll not smile when I eat my sweets for the next three days” Would you find that show of remorse appealing? No, as a matter of fact, you would be even more offended as he seems to be trivialising his actions.

Some people say they are so remorseful for their sins that they go on a fast. Some say they’re so sorry that they decide to flog themselves, some decide to wash the church’s toilets, others still cry their heart out. While these may be legitimate instincts we feel for falling short of God’s holy standard, we must be careful not to think that is what God requires or wants to see in us.

The wages of sin is not contrition, the wages of sin is death - eternal separation from God, (Rom 6:23). Remembering this fact puts all our acts of penance into perspective. God’s justice is only fully satisfied by the death of Jesus on the cross.

This is the lesson we learn from the second stanza of our hymn “Rock of Ages”

Not the labour of my hands,

Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone;

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN