Keeping the Body Under: Discipline as Dignity

"I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:27).

The body is a bad master, though it may be a good servant. St. Paul does not wish to be rid of his flesh, but desires to place it in its proper station. High morality requires a respectful sense of the body's dignity. Our Lord Himself was pleased to wear flesh and wears it now; therefore it must be honourable. His teaching and wonder-works addressed themselves equally to body and soul.

The racer, wrestler, and boxer do not despise their bodies—they glory in them precisely because they value them highly and discipline them rigorously. So too must the Christian treat the physical frame.

At creation, man was made in the image and likeness of Elohim. Sin entered through both body and mind. Christ redeemed both equally. Yet here lies the critical distinction: in the renewed man, the soul is immediately transformed at conversion, but the body remains unchanged until the resurrection. Every physical temperament carries its peculiar danger—youth to pride, age to weariness, health to self-indulgence, sickness to despair.

Yet every member and nerve is capable of expressing either great sin or high virtue. Every part admits of sanctification. Our task is not destruction but guidance—not contempt but elevation—not rejection as an enemy, but employment as a servant in glorifying Adonai.