Yield your bodies to the Lord

[MW]

Thomas Boston, Works, 3:405-406:

Yield your bodies or outward man to the Lord. “What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” The Lord hath redeemed the body as well as the soul, and by the tenor of the covenant, he is as to believers their God, not of their souls only, but of their persons, soul and body. Now as he is for it, it must be for him. For the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. It ought then to be consecrated to him as a living sacrifice, and be employed and spent in his service; our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Whatever way it can be serviceable to him, it should be.

 

[FCC]

Great thoughts, now for the application. How do we apply Boston's words? It is certainly worth meditating on and applying today. How does it affect our eating, our choice of clothing, our choice of physical activities and so on and so on? Or does it affect us at all? To me it is a broad command that covers a variety of lifestyle choices, ranging from eating habits to whether or not to get a tattoo to clothing. If my body belongs to God, as it so clearly does, then the choice really isn't mine at all it is His. How do I glorify God with my body?