Por: Roger Oliver December 27th, 2016
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19,20
They say you can tell your out to breakfast with your old, literally old, buds if everyone is checking out how many pills the other guys are taking and you are comparing PSA scores. Ha! If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself. Probably more accurate to say, if I had not grown up a pietist and a premillennialist I would have had a healthier more holistic view of what it means that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
When I was a young soldier, I thought I’d either be raptured or go out in a blaze of gunfire by the time I was 30. Not very fair to my lovely and faithful wife and my children, I know, but such is the folly of youth. I was a bit of an adrenaline junkie. My mother said I had two guardian angles and they were exhausted at the end of each day. I’m still here because I have lived a life drenched by the mercy of God’s. He has not benched me. He still has something for me to do.
Inevitably, I’ve been thinking about diet and health and wanting to live to 110. I’d like to live to see the grandchildren of the children in the Learning Center as students and their parents running the school.
Now, I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions but things slow down a bit this time of year and you get a chance to think about stuff you tend to miss in the noise and busyness of daily life the rest of the year. It is a good time to give a shot at resetting bad habits. So I have been studying the dietary laws in the Bible, specifically Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. From R.J. Rushdoony’s commentary on Leviticus, specifically Leviticus 11:1-8. Something to think about.
“Returning again to the Biblical view of man, we must remember that uncleanness is a religious fact which affects man totally. Socrates could give a discourse on virtue while engaged in homosexuality because the Greek view located virtue in the spirit and depreciated the body. No such thinking is permitted by Scripture. The careful Biblical legislation of things physical is offensive to the Greek mentality, which believes at times that a man’s life is as noble and virtuous as a man thinks himself to be. Thus, these laws are religious, moral, hygienic and more, because God gave them.” p. 109
If the careful Biblical legislation of things physical is offensive or bothersome, can I expect God to bless me with many years of life to advance his Kingdom? Me thinks not. Rushdoony continues,
“Diet is very personal, and, in a sense, very private, no matter how publicly we may dine. At the same time, it is the fact of eating, or nourishing ourselves, which is made central to our worship of God, the communion service. The very private act is made a public sacrament, because we are required to serve God with all our heart, mind, and being, i.e., from the privacy of our lives to the most public of acts, we must be totally the Lord’s.” p. 109-110
“Because ours is a total faith, and because of the unity of our being as mind and body, we must recognize that the law is a unity which speaks to our lives as a unity. These laws thus speak for our physical health, but, above all, for our necessary holiness before God.” p. 113
And finally this: “With the modern emphasis on health foods, it is a remarkable fact of human perversity that God’s proven dietary laws are so commonly bypassed.” p. 117
God has blessed me with good health. I’m more active than most men my age, or so I’m told. I am slowing down and feeling the years but there is no such thing as retirement in the Bible. I plan to die with my boots on. Besides, If I weren’t busy I’d be underfoot and driving my wife crazy. And if statistics mean anything, I’d be dead within three years of quitting work anyway.
I’m still going pretty strong for being within two years of 7 decades, nevertheless, I can improve. At age 99, the comedian, George Burns, said the secret to longevity is to keep breathing. He had is ever present lit cigar between his fingers. He didn’t make it to 100. As long as you’re still breathing, you can learn and change. Maybe better to give up the cigars though.
What is most important is obeying the command to, “Be holy as I am holy.” That includes taking care of your physical body which is fearfully and wonderfully made. So I am studying, taking good advice from trustworthy and knowledgeable friends, getting more exercise, all that and more that is simply part of a faith for all of life. Hope you do too.
Here’s to your health!
