Love Your Body (4 of 11)
Series: Church Matters
Keith Krell
1 John 4:7-21
Today the physical body is one of the most promoted entities in the world. If you watch TV, you've seen exercise infomercials guaranteed to transform your body. If you surf the Web, you've come across diet and supplement advertisements. In the past two weeks, MSN has carried separate headline stories on the right cut of swimsuit for women and men who look good in swim trunks. We are bombarded with the idolatry of physical bodies. The media seems to be saying, ''Love your body.'' In other words, nourish and cherish your own physical body. You deserve to look the best. Work out at the right gym. Take the right supplements. Get that enlargement. Get that reduction. Whatever you do, be sure to ''love your body.''
I'm sorry to say that you and I have been sold a bad bill of goods. While diet and exercise are important, they are never to result in self-love. However, the New Testament is clear that you're to love your body. But this form of ''body love'' is in reference to your love relationship with the local church. You're commanded to love your body, meaning that you're to have God's love for the Christian brothers and sisters that He's placed in your life. The apostle John, the beloved disciple, discusses the importance of love in 1 John 4:7-21. In this section, John provides two principal reasons you should love your body.
1. Your love for believers reveals God (4:7-12). In this section, John answers the question, ''Why should Christians bother loving one another?'' Since millions of Christians throughout the US are abandoning the church, why should we persevere with a community of imperfect Christians? John writes, ''Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God'' (4:7). On three separate occasions in this chapter, John uses the word ''beloved'' (agapetos) to address his readers (4:1, 7, 11). It's important to not ...
Series: Church Matters
Keith Krell
1 John 4:7-21
Today the physical body is one of the most promoted entities in the world. If you watch TV, you've seen exercise infomercials guaranteed to transform your body. If you surf the Web, you've come across diet and supplement advertisements. In the past two weeks, MSN has carried separate headline stories on the right cut of swimsuit for women and men who look good in swim trunks. We are bombarded with the idolatry of physical bodies. The media seems to be saying, ''Love your body.'' In other words, nourish and cherish your own physical body. You deserve to look the best. Work out at the right gym. Take the right supplements. Get that enlargement. Get that reduction. Whatever you do, be sure to ''love your body.''
I'm sorry to say that you and I have been sold a bad bill of goods. While diet and exercise are important, they are never to result in self-love. However, the New Testament is clear that you're to love your body. But this form of ''body love'' is in reference to your love relationship with the local church. You're commanded to love your body, meaning that you're to have God's love for the Christian brothers and sisters that He's placed in your life. The apostle John, the beloved disciple, discusses the importance of love in 1 John 4:7-21. In this section, John provides two principal reasons you should love your body.
1. Your love for believers reveals God (4:7-12). In this section, John answers the question, ''Why should Christians bother loving one another?'' Since millions of Christians throughout the US are abandoning the church, why should we persevere with a community of imperfect Christians? John writes, ''Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God'' (4:7). On three separate occasions in this chapter, John uses the word ''beloved'' (agapetos) to address his readers (4:1, 7, 11). It's important to not ...
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