Are we biblicaly obliged to take care of our bodies?

We are to be good stewards of EVERYTHING God has given us...bodies included.

 

Yes, the Bible is loaded with info regarding how we are to treat ourselves and others. It gives us nutritional information (clean and unclean foods), along with social and medical info that serves to better our over all spiritual and physical health.
If we are not Biblicaly obliged to take care of ourselves then why is the Bible full of such info?

 

Very true, which is why I reject the idea that you can sin just by what your eat or drink. I would say that intentionally harming our bodies would be wrong but to take the idea that anything that is unhealthy is sinful is ridiculous.

 

There are things more important than bodies.


1 Corinthians 13:3 (Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition):
And though I feede the poore with all my goods,
and though I giue my body, that I be burned,
and haue not loue, it profiteth me nothing.

But if you have love, would it not then be
a profit to give your body to be burned?

 

Now that is another thought that needs to be pondered!

Thanks for reminding us!

 

Hi Sopranette
Imo, this portion I highlighted in your text is taken out of context. Jesus is rebuking the pharisees for their traditions such as ceremonial handwashing, washing the cups, pitchers etc...It is certainly not saying he doesn't care what we put into our bodies. Jesus did away with the old dietary laws allowing them (and us) to eat foods considered unclean (see Leviticus 11: 2-23) “Thus did he render all foods clean.”

It is also not saying that our bodies are nothing since they will be burned later on. When Jesus came to this earth, we know that He only ate the “clean” foods diet. He was obedient to God. He set us the example. In everything that He did, he set an example of Godly living. He provided us with the perfect dietary guidelines to keep us healthy in Leviticus

Corinthians 10:31 "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

I Corinthians 3:16, 17 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”

I Corinthians 6:19, 20 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
.

 

Dietary Guidelines

Leviticus 11:2-23 "Speak to the children of Israel, saying, `These [are] the animals which you may eat among all the animals that [are] on the earth: 3 `Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves [and] chewing the cud--that you may eat. 4 `Nevertheless these you shall not eat among those that chew the cud or those that have cloven hooves: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you; 5 `the rock hyrax, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, [is] unclean to you; 6 `the hare, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, [is] unclean to you; 7 `and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, [is] unclean to you. 8 `Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They [are] unclean to you. 9 `These you may eat of all that [are] in the water: whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers--that you may eat. 10 `But all in the seas or in the rivers that do not have fins and scales, all that move in the water or any living thing which [is] in the water, they [are] an abomination to you. 11 `They shall be an abomination to you; you shall not eat their flesh, but you shall regard their carcasses as an abomination. 12 `Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales--that [shall] [be] an abomination to you. 13 `And these you shall regard as an abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they [are] an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, 14 `the kite, and the falcon after its kind; 15 `every raven after its kind, 16 `the ostrich, the short-eared owl, the sea gull, and the hawk after its kind; 17 `the little owl, the fisher owl, and the screech owl; 18 `the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture; 19 `the stork, the heron after its kind, the hoopoe, and the bat. 20 `All flying insects that creep on [all] fours [shall] [be] an abomination to you. 21 `Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that creeps on [all] fours: those which have jointed legs above their feet with which to leap on the earth. 22 `These you may eat: the locust after its kind, the destroying locust after its kind, the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind. 23 `But all [other] flying insects which have four feet [shall] [be] an abomination to you.

 

I guess that scripture kind of blows my idea of starting
a chain of bat-burgers in 2008 right out of the water :BangHead:

 

No bacon & eggs at the father-son breakfast?

No hot dogs at the campout?

No catfish dinners to raise money for the missions trip?

Who's been messin' with my religion??

 

I am amazed at the hundreds of verses about no longer being under the law and people still insist on living there.

Act 10:11 and he *saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground,
Act 10:12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. Act 10:13 A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!"
Act 10:14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean."
Act 10:15 Again a voice came to him a second time, "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy."

Gal 5:2 Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
Gal 5:3 And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.
Gal 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER; 1525: The Law of Moses Binds Only the Jews and Not the Gentiles. Here the Law of Moses has its place. It is no longer binding on us because it was given only to the people of Israel. And Israel accepted this law for itself and its descendants, while the Gentiles were excluded.

LUTHER: To be sure, the Gentiles have certain laws in common with the Jews, such as these: there is one God, no one is to do wrong to another, no one is to commit adultery or murder or steal, and others like them. This is written by nature into their hearts; they did not hear it straight from heaven as the Jews did. This is why this entire text does not pertain to the Gentiles. …

LUTHER: But we will not have this sort of thing. We would rather not preach again for the rest of our life than to let Moses return and to let Christ be torn out of our hearts. We will not have Moses as ruler or lawgiver any longer. Indeed God himself will not have it either. Moses was an intermediary solely for the Jewish people. It was to them that he gave the law.

LUTHER: We must therefore silence the mouths of those factious spirits who say, "Thus says Moses," etc. Here you simply reply: Moses has nothing to do with us. If I were to accept Moses in one commandment, I would have to accept the entire Moses. Thus the consequence would be that if I accept Moses as master, then I must have myself circumcised, wash my clothes in the Jewish way, eat and drink and dress thus and so, and observe all that stuff.

That being said, I quit smoking. It made me feel bad and cough.

 

No Bug Burgers either Ed!

I wonder why God thought He needed to tell us not to eat bugs?

 

Since you're clearly replying to my post, I will respond. No where did I indicate we are bound to the OT laws. There was no mention of OT law until you brought it up.

These dietary laws were followed by Christ in the NT. He is our example for Godly living so this Lev. diet is, imo, the correct dietary guideline to healthy eating.
Regarding our health, it's in our best interests to follow it, but it's not a requirement.

This diet is extremely easy to follow. Most people only need to cut out shell fish-(bottom feeders who ingest feces which drop down to the bottom of the ocean where he scavengers like crabs/lobsters feast) Cut out crab & lobster (all shellfish) No Pig (bacon, pork chops, ham, ham hocks) either. & need to cut out a few types of fish like catfish but tuna, salmon, and rainbow trout are all allowed. Cut out a few birds we usually don't eat except as a delicacy. All of the other unclean animals are meats we usually don't eat anyways, or they are rare delicacies.
This is not even a vegetarian diet, so it's not very restrictive.

 

:laugh: Maybe He was afraid we'd never grow out of it if He didn't tell us it was bad! Come on now...admit it...you ate a bug at least once as a kid, didn't you?! :laugh:

 

John the Baptist ate locusts. Was he sinning? :saint:

 

Didn't John the baptist eat locusts.

edited to say, sorry Sue, didn't see your reply until I posted this.

 

Jesus followed OT dietary laws becasue He was a jew following jewish laws, we are not, we are christians, after Jesus' death and resurection those things changed, the law has been fulfilled, in Jesus, not in keeping OT laws.

 

I was posting the law stuff just in case you were going that direction. I highlighted another answer to your post. What God has cleansed, call not unclean. We know the vision was meant for Peter to go to the gentiles, but he used food as the point. I think when you talk about "The diet is extremely easy to follow", maybe you are talking about "The Makers Diet"? I'm sure that would be healthy, but I'm just as sure that were probably fat people in the OT. You can abuse anything, even healthy food and end up unhealthy. But I mostly thought you were going for the law angle was why I posted the verses and Luther. Just for balance. From your picture you look pretty healthy. I'm sure that bike also has something to do with it. I don't think I could take a lot of that diet, goat cheese stinks and is just plain nasty.

 

Jesus had another purpose for resting at the well, He was waiting for the woman. I don't think resting is in question here.