Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing what is on your heart. The desire to be loved and to feel at peace in your own body is deeply human, and God understands those longings. Scripture helps put both of them in a true light so you can seek what will truly satisfy.
The Bible teaches that a person is body, soul, and spirit. When the body and its appetites are in control, the mind stays fixed on physical needs, on food and drink and appearance and sexual desire. A life dominated in that way becomes like the life of an animal, always absorbed with bodily needs, and while a person lives that way he has no fellowship with God, because God does not deal directly with the body on that level. To be ruled by the body is to have the mind of the body, and that mind leads to spiritual death.
That is why Scripture makes careful distinctions about love. There is a word for love that is only physical, a self centered desire that seeks its own gratification and is better called lust. There is also a word for love that is emotional, the affection of the soul. And there is a different word entirely, a word the New Testament uses to describe the love of God. That love is spiritual and divine. It is self sacrificing and giving, not taking. It does not seek its own. When the apostle John writes, let us love one another, for love is of God, he is speaking of this divine love. Everyone who loves with this love is born of God and knows God, for God is love. Much of what our culture calls love today is only the first kind, physical attraction, and it can deceive us if we think that is the love we need.
The same is true of the desire for an ideal physique. Your body is real and it matters, but it is temporal. Scripture describes this present body as a tent, a temporary dwelling. The real you is spirit, living in this body for a time. The same elements that make up the soil make up your body, and when your spirit leaves, the body returns to dust. Jesus said not to fear those who can kill the body and after that have no more power, but to consider what matters for the soul and spirit. We do not look at the things which are seen, because the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. God has promised for those who are His a new body, a building from God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That does not mean you should neglect your body. To care for it with discipline and health is good stewardship. But when concern for appearance becomes the ruling desire, it takes the place God should have and keeps you from walking in the Spirit.
There is good news that can steady you in both areas. The love of God for you in Christ is constant and eternal. It is not caused by anything in you, not by your appearance, your performance, or your worthiness. It flows from His own nature, because He is love. For that reason nothing present or to come, no height or depth or any created thing, will be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Even if you give all you have to the poor or are willing to give your body to be burned, without this divine love it profits nothing. With it, your life has meaning.
If you say you love Jesus who has given you new birth, that love will show itself in loving those who have also been born of Him, your brothers and sisters in Christ, and in keeping His commandments. Jesus gave a new commandment, that you love one another as He has loved you, and He said by this all will know you are His disciples. Love is proved by obedience to the one you love, by submitting to what pleases Him. That is very different from following bodily appetites. And Scripture is clear that the place God has designed for sexual love is within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. Outside of that, what is called love does not reflect His will, and He will not bless what contradicts His design. True love waits, honors God, and seeks the good of the other above itself.
May you grow in knowing how much God loves you, not because you have attained an ideal form or because another person affirms you, but because He loved you first and sent His Son to bear your sins in His own body on the cross so you could be reconciled to Him. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit so that His love flows through you, love for God and love for others. As you walk in the Spirit rather than being ruled by the body, He will teach you to love with His love and to care for your body in a healthy, balanced way without making it an idol. When your body can no longer express who you are as it once did, His love will still hold you and one day release you to that new, eternal body He has prepared.
I pray that God will increase your understanding of His grace and His love, that you will abide in that love, and that the evidence of His Spirit will be seen in your life in genuine love for Him and for His people, and in a quiet confidence that you are already fully loved in Christ.
The Bible teaches that a person is body, soul, and spirit. When the body and its appetites are in control, the mind stays fixed on physical needs, on food and drink and appearance and sexual desire. A life dominated in that way becomes like the life of an animal, always absorbed with bodily needs, and while a person lives that way he has no fellowship with God, because God does not deal directly with the body on that level. To be ruled by the body is to have the mind of the body, and that mind leads to spiritual death.
That is why Scripture makes careful distinctions about love. There is a word for love that is only physical, a self centered desire that seeks its own gratification and is better called lust. There is also a word for love that is emotional, the affection of the soul. And there is a different word entirely, a word the New Testament uses to describe the love of God. That love is spiritual and divine. It is self sacrificing and giving, not taking. It does not seek its own. When the apostle John writes, let us love one another, for love is of God, he is speaking of this divine love. Everyone who loves with this love is born of God and knows God, for God is love. Much of what our culture calls love today is only the first kind, physical attraction, and it can deceive us if we think that is the love we need.
The same is true of the desire for an ideal physique. Your body is real and it matters, but it is temporal. Scripture describes this present body as a tent, a temporary dwelling. The real you is spirit, living in this body for a time. The same elements that make up the soil make up your body, and when your spirit leaves, the body returns to dust. Jesus said not to fear those who can kill the body and after that have no more power, but to consider what matters for the soul and spirit. We do not look at the things which are seen, because the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. God has promised for those who are His a new body, a building from God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That does not mean you should neglect your body. To care for it with discipline and health is good stewardship. But when concern for appearance becomes the ruling desire, it takes the place God should have and keeps you from walking in the Spirit.
There is good news that can steady you in both areas. The love of God for you in Christ is constant and eternal. It is not caused by anything in you, not by your appearance, your performance, or your worthiness. It flows from His own nature, because He is love. For that reason nothing present or to come, no height or depth or any created thing, will be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Even if you give all you have to the poor or are willing to give your body to be burned, without this divine love it profits nothing. With it, your life has meaning.
If you say you love Jesus who has given you new birth, that love will show itself in loving those who have also been born of Him, your brothers and sisters in Christ, and in keeping His commandments. Jesus gave a new commandment, that you love one another as He has loved you, and He said by this all will know you are His disciples. Love is proved by obedience to the one you love, by submitting to what pleases Him. That is very different from following bodily appetites. And Scripture is clear that the place God has designed for sexual love is within the lifelong covenant of marriage between one man and one woman. Outside of that, what is called love does not reflect His will, and He will not bless what contradicts His design. True love waits, honors God, and seeks the good of the other above itself.
May you grow in knowing how much God loves you, not because you have attained an ideal form or because another person affirms you, but because He loved you first and sent His Son to bear your sins in His own body on the cross so you could be reconciled to Him. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit so that His love flows through you, love for God and love for others. As you walk in the Spirit rather than being ruled by the body, He will teach you to love with His love and to care for your body in a healthy, balanced way without making it an idol. When your body can no longer express who you are as it once did, His love will still hold you and one day release you to that new, eternal body He has prepared.
I pray that God will increase your understanding of His grace and His love, that you will abide in that love, and that the evidence of His Spirit will be seen in your life in genuine love for Him and for His people, and in a quiet confidence that you are already fully loved in Christ.
