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Why Your Body Matters
Where was the Staples “That Was Easy” button when I needed it? I was face to face with a man who was experiencing multiple physical problems, plagued by insomnia, digestive and excretory complications, blood in his urine, lethargy, and attention deficit. He wondered what spiritual causes could lie at the heart of these physical symptoms, and he wanted my advice about how to become well again. I hardly needed to probe much, but my questions caught him off guard because they focused on physical matters: What are you eating? (Junk food.) Are you scheduling rest periods? (Too busy for relaxation.) How are you exercising? (No need for that.)
A Physical Problem, Not a Spiritual One
Becoming irritated with my line of questioning, he offered the following: Because his body was going to be sloughed off at death anyway, he did not need to be concerned about eating well, resting well, and exercising well. I countered with an observation: His body was (literally) breaking down before his eyes, and he would soon be no good for himself, his family, and his church ministry. And, I added, I thought the problem was a physical one, not a spiritual one. But that was not the answer a “spiritually minded” evangelical like him was accustomed to hearing. Besides, he had come to me with an expectation that I would share something with him from the Word of God. But I was not prepared to do so.
A Theology of the Body
Over the course of a few blog posts, I want to sketch a theology of human embodiment, the fruit of years of study flowing from the encounter related above. It is my contention that evangelicals at best express an ambivalence toward the human body, and at worst manifest a disregard or contempt for it. 
Many people, often due to tragic experiences with the body (like physical or sexual abuse), abhor their body. Many Christians, due to either poor or non-existent teaching on human embodiment, consider their body to be, at best, a hindrance to spiritual maturity and, at worst, inherently evil or the ultimate source of sin. At least in part, this view reflects the damaging influence of Platonic philosophy—the human spirit or soul is inherently good, while the human body is inherently evil. By contrast, in my study of Scripture, I have discovered a remarkable perspective toward the body, one which impacts how we live out our existence as created beings, how we view and experience our salvation, and how we trust and obey God as maturing believers in Jesus Christ. I hope that my reflections on human embodiment will pique your interest in thinking biblically, theologically, and practically about life in our bodies. To be continued. This series is adapted from an article first published in The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.