Last week we talked about how our bodies are God’s idea, and each is its own unique masterpiece of design. While that’s true of every person, we talked about it in the first person:

God designed my body; it is breathtaking.
God bought my body; it is his, not mine.
God inhabits my body; it is his temple.

And the practical outworking of believing these things is that we should appreciate, respect, and steward our bodies so that they’re ready to go at a moment’s notice, “prepared for every good work.” that God might call us to.

I was standing in the hallway as people were leaving, and Evelyn walked by the kitchen, which of course had leftover doughnuts in it. As she walks by she says, “Get thee behind me, Satan!”

And then on Thursday I’m here picking out the music when Kay texts me,

Hey, I see you’re at the church and I need you to come back and grab these brownies that Heidi dropped off. They’re the best brownies I’ve ever had in my life, and I’m afraid I’ll eat the whole thing.

Turns out the reason Heidi gave them to Kay was so she wouldn’t be tempted, either! So I’m glad that you all were listening last week, hopefully your life hasn’t been disrupted too much.

Last week, we mostly looked at the positive side of physicality, how amazing our bodies are and how we’re to care for them as God’s temple, God’s possession, and God’s creation.

But the downside we didn’t talk much about was that these bodies we have are not perfect. Not by a long shot. We live in a broken world, which leads to not only bodies that are constantly breaking down, but also broken ideas about the bodies God has given us.

Our main text last Sunday was from the end of 1 Corinthians 6, which says…

You are not your own, for you were bought
at a price. So glorify God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20

That is simple… but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Just like loving him with all our heart, all our mind, there are forces from both inside and out that make doing that a challenge.

Here’s the question we’re tackling today: How do we do that with a body that we hate and/or a body that certainly seems to hate us?

Let’s start by dealing with the first half—how do I be faithful with a body I can’t stand? I mean, you’re telling me in response to the mercy of God, I’m supposed to present this as a living sacrifice? How could God ever be pleased with this? Maybe you wouldn’t use those words exactly, but how familiar is that feeling?

Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
Romans 12:1

A Body that I Hate

The term most people use for this is body image. It’s that subjective picture you have of your own body, how you see yourself when you look in the mirror, the mental picture you have of what you look like, and how you feel about it.

A lot of the time, this internal perception we have of our own bodies is not an accurate representation of reality. Which is ironic, because it’s my body, I’m the one who deals with it, feels its aches and pains, you’d think I’d be the one who knows it best, right? Seems logical… but it’s almost never true.

Because you are more than your body. Your body is a primary aspect of what makes you you, but it’s certainly not the only part. “God made us not just as souls, but as wholes,” and when other people interact with us, they’re interacting with the whole of who we are.

My wife Kay is objectively attractive to me. But if I had never met her, and just passed her on the street, I would think, “Wow, there’s a cute girl walking towards me.” But that would be about it; probably not even be a conscious thought, just an awareness.

But when I see her sitting back there, after 15 years of marriage (minus a month), my reaction to her presence involves much more than just her looks. What makes her laugh. What makes her cry. What we’ve been through together, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. Who’s she’s been, who she is now, and who she’s becoming.

That’s the way we see people we know & love; not just their body, it’s their voice, their laugh, their hugs, their unique catchphrases, even their smell.

Our problem is that the those same factors affect the way we view ourselves.

A lot of the time, starts with how you were raised, how your parents talked about the different people around you. If they made disparaging remarks about people of a certain size, you naturally internalize that negativity.
Even more so if they happen to say the same kind of things about your own body. Maybe you get to those tween years, you’re eating them out of house and home, and they make regular comments about how you shouldn’t be eating so much. Or maybe it’s just an offhand remark about how you’ve outgrown the clothes they just bought.
Maybe a well-meaning aunt said you were “pleasantly plump.” They might have even meant it as a compliment, but that’s not how you heard it.
And then maybe there’s an incident (or multiple incidents) at school that still sticks with you all these years later, where another student (or worse, a teacher/coach) pointed out your changing body, your weight, your height, the style of your clothes, whatever it was. Everybody laughed, and you felt the flushing in your cheeks and the hot tears in your eyes. You might even start feeling it now if you think about it too long.

All of those experiences stack up, one on top of the next, and then when you look in the mirror, a reflection of reality may be reaching your eyes, but each of those experiences is like a filter, changing the color, size, shape, shifting the focus to certain “problem areas” so strongly that everything else is blurry.

So by the time your reflection has been processed, your perception of it is a vastly different image than when it started.

Now while I may be over-simplifying things, not by much. A UCLA study in 2015 showed that people with anorexia and those with body dysmorphic disorder have similar abnormalities in their brains that affect their ability to process visual information. When viewing an image of a person, especially one that had perceived flaws, it showed that they focused on those most minute details rather than the whole image. And those abnormal parts of the brain lit up as early as one-tenth of a second after the image was viewed.

In other words, they cannot see themselves as others
see them. For them, mirrors only reflect mirages.
Haley Green Scott

Now you may be going, “Okay, I understand that body image issues are a big deal. But is it really something that we need to be talking about on a Sunday morning? Is it something that Scripture really addresses?” Fair question.

While Scripture may not use the same language, like “body image”, that we do, it absolutely speaks to these issues—sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly.

The first verse we read last week was Psalm 139:14, but if you look at the whole psalm, it’s all about…

how God knows everything about him
how God watches over him (sit, stand, travel, rest)
how God is always with him (east, west, heaven, grave)
how God always guide him (“darkness & light alike to You”)
how God loves him, and how he loves God.

And in the middle of this beautiful song, you find the verse we read last week.
Let’s start with verse 13 this time:

For it was you who created my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have
been remarkably and wondrously made
Your works are wondrous,
and I know this very well.
My bones were not hidden from you
when I was made in secret,
when I was formed in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw me when I was formless;
all my days were written in your book and planned
before a single one of them began.
Psalm 139:13–16

Wouldn’t it be out of place if instead of that, he said, “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you for everything else, but boy, you really screwed that up, huh? What were you thinking?!? Your works in this area is mediocre and doesn’t measure up, and I know this very well.”

Doesn’t have quite the same ring, does it? Do you think if David had said that, the next words would have been…

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
Psalm 139:17, NLT

…? Somehow I doubt it.

Scripture is clear that what we believe leads to how we feel and behave. And a distorted, disfigured concept of our own bodies leads to all sorts thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, none of which lead to more passionate praise of God or more effective work in his Kingdom.

So how do we fight and win this battle?

1. Recognize and remove distorted lenses

Think through those early formational moments that made you feel the way you do about your body. Work through them with the Holy Spirit, a journal, a friend, maybe even a counselor or therapist.
Be aware of how your media consumption is teaching you how to think.

We are troubled by our body because we find our value in accordance with cultural expectations of physical appearance.

Men, for example, are to be chiseled with steel-like abs. They should be tall, dark, and handsome, preferably young and muscular, and have thick hair.

Women likewise are to be shaped according to a certain ratio between breasts, hips, waist, and legs. They should be beautiful, young, and fit, and have a glowing face.

Gregg Allison, Embodied

We have been sold a bill of goods.

Cellulite is not real.

April 1968, Vogue became the first English-language magazine to print the term “cellulite”, and so began both a new word and a fashionable new way for American women to hate their bodies. Here we are, 55 years later, and untold billions of dollars have been spent—wasted—on trying to solve a problem that’s not a problem.

Dove Evolution Video

Gabi, Ava, Joan, Emery, even Cambree… I want you to listen to me in particular right now, not because I’m calling you out, but because you’re in the middle of this battle right now, maybe more than you ever will be in your life.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:1–2, NLT

Don’t copy the behavior, customs, or perfect images of the world, but let God transform you into a new person.

2. Reconstruct your mental image

What God thinks about you is most important.

For it was you who created my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have
been remarkably and wondrously made
Your works are wondrous,
and I know this very well.
Psalm 139:13–14, NLT

3. Retrain your eyes to be far-sighted

Have an eternal perspective on your body.

I’m near-sighted in my right eye and far-sighted in the left, myopia vs hyperopia.

I need to look in the mirror with my left eye.

You’re not going to win the battle against time,
regardless of how many surgeries you have.

Elizabeth Taylor, spot on forehead, belly button!

A Body that Hates Me

During 2021, an estimated 51.6 million U.S. adults (20.9%) experienced chronic pain, and 17.1 million (6.9%) experienced high-impact chronic pain.
CDC Report, April 2023

Part of life in a fallen world—we age. Parts wear out.

sometimes, they’re not right from the beginning.

Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:7–10

We are in Christ, his body on earth, his hands & feet… in a mysterious way, our suffering and even our deaths, are connected to his death.

And while we’re alive, we’re to be displaying the life of Jesus in our bodies.

Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16–18

I know it seems like it’s taking away from you… but this says that’s it’s also producing something in you—an “absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory”

Think about the power of those words. If I’d have written that sentence down in my notes this week, I’d have probably come back to it and said, “Nah, that’s too much. That’s over the top.” Holy Spirit didn’t seem to think so.

Yes, your outer person is being destroyed. Yes, it hurts physically, emotionally, spiritually. Yes, your suffering seems almost unbearable at times.

(Why) Won’t God heal me?

He can. We ask for it, believe it, have faith that he will… and then hold it with open hands.

Either way, it comes down to trust.

At all times, God’s grace is sufficient to sustain his people.
At some times, he will physically heal them.
Gregg Allison, Embodied

As the story of Job underscores, suffering is ultimately mysterious. For this reason, we aren’t called to figure it out but to place our faith in the sovereign, good, and wise God and his will for us.
Gregg Allison, Embodied

Hope in the Resurrection

While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.
2 Corinthians 5:4, NLT

Mad at God because of how you look.

You’re body will be made perfect one day… and so will your view of your body.

Mad at God because of how you hurt.

You will look back and say, “It was light, momentary, and worth it.”

So whether we are here in this body or away
from this body, our goal is to please him.
2 Corinthians 5:9, NLT