If We Are The Body, by the CCM group Casting Crowns, was released in 2003 on their self-titled album. The song dealt with the issue of how many in the church 
are not fulfilling the commission we have been given to go throughout the world teaching about Christ and baptizing those who believe.
The writer of this song, John Mark Hall, is also the lead vocalist for the group. John Mark felt that the Church had forgotten what the “body of Christ” looked like and wanted to write a song that would teach concerning this subject.
The Scriptures, behind the lyrics, teach specifically about how the Church is made up of many members just as a body is made up of many members. Each member having a duty to fulfill while still accomplishing their main purpose, which is to worship God (Romans 12:3-5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-26; Ephesians 1:18-23; Colossians 1:17-20, 3:14-16), but if these members don’t fulfill their godly duties then they can impede the righteous work of the “body of Christ” — the Church. One thing we must be aware of is how ineffective we can be when we are idle, lazy, shiftless, neglectful, and slack off from our calling.
And there is one thing in particular that most of us ignore, and therefore don’t maintain properly, and that is our physical body’s health and wellness. Less than twenty percent of all Americans exercise regularly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and nine out of ten Americans think they are eating a healthy diet. Yet, according to a survey for Consumer Reports, sixty-eight percent of Americans are over weight and nearly half of those are considered obese. Think on these things with me for a moment.
If we, as true believers, are considered by God to be members of Christ’s body, and yet we don’t maintain our health and wellness then how can we hope to have the strength and energy to fulfill our calling — to fulfill our duty. If we, as followers of Christ, are considered by God to be members of the Church — Christ’s body — and we refuse to maintain our health and wellness in order to act out our mission, then we are no better to the body than a cancer cell. We must maintain our physical health and wellness, just as we must maintain our spiritual health and wellness.
It does the Church, and Christ, little good for you to be a devoted member and yet become sickly because you didn’t take the time to educate yourself about the human body’s physical or spiritual needs, or because you refused to act on that knowledge. We cannot effectively fulfill our duties if we become diseased, ill, and unstable. It is imperative that Christians — true worshipers of God — maintain both their physical and spiritual health and wellness.
How can we do this? By spending time educating ourselves about the human body’s needs for nourishment and physical activity. Our body requires natural foods, or whole foods, to absorb the right kind of nourishment. The more natural the food, the better for our body it is. Focus your diet on certified, organically grown fruits and vegetables (Genesis 1:29), and less on animal fats and proteins. And most certainly stay away from “convenience” foods, or “fast” foods, that contain antibiotics, genetically modified foods, pesticides, saturated fats, steroids, and other toxins. When the human diet is filled with ninety-five percent natural fruits and vegetables, there is very little disease or illness experienced.
The human body, on average, also needs about forty-five minutes to an hour of exercise a day. This doesn’t have to be consecutive minutes, either. It can be broken out into two or three sessions of physical activity during your daily routine. By taking the time to be physically healthy and well, your body will not become a hinderance to your soul when it tries to maintain a healthy regimen, too (1 Timothy 4:8). Our spirit requires a daily nourishment of Scripture (1 Peter 2:2-3). Reading God’s Word, and spending time in prayer, every day allows your needs and desires to be made known to God. It also allows for God’s needs and desires to be made known to us; prayer is not a one-sided conversation.
Now let me quickly clarify, not all illness is due to our being idle, lazy, shiftless, and neglectful. We live in a fallen and sinful world where disease, pain, and suffering are all apart of being alive. Sickness will occur no matter our best efforts at being healthy and well. What I am trying to focus our attention on is how poorly we, as a western society, have allowed our eating and exercise habits to become. Mankind all around the globe, in fact, has allowed modern civilization to become so unnatural — so synthetic — that we have blindly embraced this way of living and have neglected to notice what it is doing to our overall health and wellness.
So don’t just rely on the Holy Bible for your spiritual nourishment. Allow Scripture to be your guide in all aspects of your life, including the physical (Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God made this natural world for us to live abundantly in. It holds everything we need to be healthy and well. But because we sinned, rebelled against God’s perfect plan, we corrupted this world and now we corrupt it even further with all of our synthetic clothes, foods, fuels, housing, medicines, tools, and so forth. Modern humanity’s civilized world doesn’t need to be rejected, one-hundred percent, it just really needs a heavy dose of godly commonsense. Mankind needs to live in a natural environment, not a synthetic one, and Christians need to lead by example. After all, we are members of the “body of Christ,” our LORD and Creator.
I leave you with this Scripture from Ephesians, chapter five: “Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17)
Living Your True Purpose by J. Scott Harden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at jasonmin.wordpress.com.
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
The “NIV” and “New International Version” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.
If We Are The Body lyrics and music written by John Mark Hall. Copyright © 2003 Reunion Records, a division of Provident Label Group.
Video made available by Jason Ministries and Reunion Records, a division of Provident Label Group; Copyright © 2004 All Rights Reserved.
If your church or organization would like to talk with J. Scott Harden about a speaking engagement, or a writing project, please get in touch with Mr. Harden through Jason Ministries‘ Twitter account or Facebook page.
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