The physicality of human creation is often taken for granted.

This incredible combination of skin and bones complete with living, regenerating cytoplasm is the only medium of existence available to the man determined to keep himself alive and kicking.

So, we could say the body is a means to an end—the end being the only thing that matters.  

Right?

Then why should I worry about my body while I’m alive if I’m a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ?  After all, when He returns to the Earth, He’s going to resurrect it [or what’s left of it] if I’m dead—or, if I’m still living, He’s going to transform the mortal body I have into an immortal one:

“Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.”  [1Cor. 15:50-53]  [my emphasis]  [from the apostles Paul’s first letter to “the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who [had] been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place [were calling] on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours…”]

While flesh and blood can never inherit the kingdom, it’s still an integral part of Jesus Christ’s New Covenant temple according to Paul in an earlier part of the letter. Even though he was actually addressing the seriousness of sexual immorality, the same principle that the disciple’s body is indeed a holy dwelling place of the Spirit runs contrary to any decision one might make to neglect it:

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” [1Cor. 6:19-20]  [my emphasis]

This sentence forces me to ask myself:  “How do I honor God in [or with] my body?

This natural body that I have was created to be a temporary dwelling place of the Only One who is capable of someday transforming me into something acceptable in His flawless presence.  If I invite someone to be a guest in my home, I’d go to great lengths to make his visit a magnificent and honorable one.  

And to whatever degree I choose to do this would surely parallel the amount of respect and appreciation I have for him.

On the other hand, if I treat Christ’s New Covenant temple—that is, my body, as something irrelevant or secondary now, I wonder how eager He will be to share my new one with me in the future?

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them…” [Rev. 21:3]