Virtues and Vices: Part 2 - 'Temples and Taboos'

This Sunday, Simon Lace brings us the talk in the latest of our EBC services. We encourage you to reflect on the bible text and join us in the prayer that follows below.
 
Here are some questions to consider:

Readings:

Romans chapter 12 verses 1 - 2

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 -20

Don’t you realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body.

Romans chapter 12 verse 3

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.



Prayer and Reflection:

Loving God, thank you that we our your church, we are your body, we are your temple. Help us loving God to search ourselves and to be honest in our evaluation of ourselves. Help us to love one another and value and honor one another regardless of our being all sorts of shapes and sizes. But help us O God to maintain ourselves well, that we might eat well, and feast together, and to be active in our lives and in our service of you and other people. Help us to be a good example to others in this. And bless us O God, in your mercy and in your absolute Sovereignty, with long, and healthy and fruitful lives, to your glory.

Amen



Questions to Consider

1. How would you define ‘gluttony’ and ‘sloth’?
2. Do you consider these to be harmful? Sinful?
3. What are your reasons for your answers – in what ways might gluttony and sloth be harmful and/or sinful? Or, for what reasons might you disagree with these ideas?
4. How do we walk the fine line between valuing people however well or badly they maintain their bodies, whilst recognising that the body is important, and that overweight and obesity can create real health problems?
5. What do you think about the idea that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? What implications does this have for you?
6. What is your own assessment of your physical ‘temple maintenance’? Are there any issues you need to address?
7. If you could, by your own habitual actions, change something about your health and fitness, what would it be? If it is important, why is it important, really, and what will you do about it?



Recommended Resources

Books:

  • Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn’t Food… And Why Can’t We Stop? (Chris van Tulleken)
  • You are what you love (James K. A. Smith)
  • Choose Life 365 (Simon Guillebaud)