So, who’s right about the body, Socrates or the Apostle Paul?

Is the body a hindrance to spiritual pursuits, an unseemly thing to be happily discarded when all is said and done? Or is it something that can be used for God in the present and redeemed by God in the future?

In Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, Socrates says that the true lover of wisdom ‘is entirely concerned with the soul and not with the body…He would like, as far as he can, to be quit of the body and turn to the soul…In this present life, I reckon that we make the nearest approach to knowledge when we have the least possible concern or interest in the body, and are not saturated with the bodily nature, but remain pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us. And then the foolishness of the body will be cleared away and we shall be pure and hold converse with the other pure souls, and know of ourselves the clear light everywhere; and this is surely the light of truth…And what is purification but the separation of the soul from the body, as I was saying before?’

In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul says, ‘The body is…meant…for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?…Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body’ (1 Corinthians 6.13-15, 19-20). In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul says, ‘And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies’ (Romans 8.23).

Who’s right? You make the call. Let it affect the way you live in your body today.

Posted by Stephen Witmer on Aug 7, 08:11 PM