(upbeat music) - A couple of related emails came in recently. One woman writes in to ask this, "Pastor John, in a culture obsessed with diet, "nutrition, health, and weight loss, "and with different information coming from every side, "how can we care for our bodies to the glory of God "without making them an idol?" And Becky writes in to ask, "Pastor John, what does the Bible say "about plastic surgery and Botox?" - Well, that's a great question on how to find, I think it's right to say this, find the middle way between idolizing the body and neglecting the body.

And here's a good place to start, maybe. A massively important text on the body and God's view of it and importance of it. This is 1 Corinthians 6, 19. "Do you not know that your body is the temple "of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?

"You are not your own. "You were bought with a price. "So glorify God in your body." So five massive statements that should blow us away concerning our own bodies. God is in your body, the Holy Spirit. Number two, God, put God in your body. You didn't absorb him in some natural way.

We have the Holy Spirit from God. Three, your body does not belong to you, therefore. Four, your body was bought by the blood of Jesus. Five, you exist in your body to make God look glorious. I mean, that is a, you could write a book on that. It's just glorious theology of our bodies.

And I think every man and every woman should meditate on those statements concerning their body. When it says glorify God in your body, it means use your body in a way that shows that your body is not your God. Use your body in a way that shows that God is more precious than your body.

Paul said, one of my favorite texts, he built Christian hedonism on it, is Philippians 1:20. It's my eager expectation and hope that Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. So he wants while he's living, his body to be an instrument of magnifying God.

And when he dies, he wants to die well with his body so that people can see that his treasure is Christ and not his body and its health and its life. So we need to give enough attention, I think, to our bodies so that we keep them fit for Christ and serviceable in his cause.

And we may need to give our bodies to imprisonment or whipping or execution or death to show that Christ is more precious than the body. So there is a middle way of eating and exercise that doesn't fall off the horse on the side of neglect of the body, as though it were worthless, or the side of idolizing the body as though it were God.

It just keeps us healthy with a kind of what I would call maybe undistracting attractiveness. Like when I think about, should I comb my hair in the morning? Well, yes, because if I walk out and it's all knotted, people will be distracted from me. They will be thinking about this stupid forgetful hair.

So there's a kind of undistracting attractiveness that doesn't call excessive attention to ourselves and distract from our personhood. And that middle way of simplicity shows that God is gloriously satisfying and certainly way more satisfying than wrinkle-free cheeks or smooth thighs or flowing hair or whatever it is that is causing us to lose sleep at night and making us go towards some kind of temporary fix that is probably out of place for a person who's really content in God.

So people can tell, can't they, Tony? People around you, it seems to me, can tell if you're focused more on the inner person of beauty than the outer person of beauty. 1 Peter 3, "Don't let your adorning be external, "braiding of hair, putting on of gold jewelry, "clothing you wear.

"Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart "with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit "that is pleasing in God's sight." I think there's an application of that for men, even though it's written for women, that both should focus on the inner beauty of godliness and holiness rather than the external beauty of our bodies.

I don't think Christians should be very impressed with our bodies. I love C.S. Lewis, and I think he's quoting some medieval person who called his body brother ass, which is to say, yes, he's serviceable, he's not very impressive, he's loyal, he does what he has to do, he gets me where I need to go.

I'm just not real impressed with my body any more than I am with my donkey because 98% of the people in the world look ordinary, and if they don't look ordinary now, they're gonna look ordinary real soon. They're gonna get wrinkled, they're gonna get old, they're gonna get bent over, and all that they thought was what they had worked for is gonna go away, and the most voluptuous female body you have ever seen in your life is gonna be ashen-faced in a coffin before she knows it, and then where will be all the investments in that temporary outward beauty?

So maybe just a couple of last thoughts. I'm thinking of this for women who may be single and may want to be fit and attractive for a man someday if God would be pleased, and I would just say to them, if a man doesn't want a woman's good soul more than a woman's good body, he's not the kind of man you want.

So don't pour all your energies into trying to get his attention to the very thing that is to be secondary in his affections. And the second thing to close with maybe is God knit us together in our mother's womb. He really made our basic structures, and there's some of 'em you're just not gonna change.

The kind of hair you got, the kind of nose you got, the kind of hips you've got, the kind of height you've got, the kind of complexion you've got, these are things that are just given with our God-given genetics, and therefore it really is a matter of trust, isn't it?

Do we trust him? Did God blow it with me? Did he make a mistake with me? God doesn't make mistakes. So let's all present our bodies with all their pluses and minuses as a living sacrifice, acceptable to God. This is our spiritual worship. Yes, it is. Thank you, Pastor John, for listening to this podcast.

Email your questions to us at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org. You can visit us online at desiringgod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge. I'm your host Tony Ranke. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)