'Tone up' your spiritual identity

For the lesson titled "Soul and Body" from May 14-20, 2012

Brian Hall

Whether we’re watching television commercials, looking at the covers of magazines, or listening to conversations in the workplace or at school, it’s hard to escape the feeling that our lives are ruled by our bodies—their shape, their size, or their condition of health. Thankfully, this week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Soul and Body,” clarifies the truth about such issues.

The Golden Text tells us from the very beginning we should be turning to God by placing our hope in Him because He is the source of our health, which includes our body (see Psalm 42:11). The problem of the material body and its proper role in our lives is not a new one. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato referred to the body as a prison cell; it was something that must be endured and dealt with for a period of time. Several hundred years later, the Apostle Paul would remind the church in Corinth of primitive Christianity’s perspective on the body: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8, citation 9). Paul seems to be suggesting that we can make the body less significant in our lives as God becomes more present in our experience. And the first Science and Health citation in this Lesson gives some insight as to how this might happen for us: “Christian Science explains all cause and effect as mental, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and body” (p. 114).

We can make the body less significant in our lives as God becomes more present in our experience.

When this veil is lifted, one thing that becomes more apparent is the relationship between the body and food. Current—sometimes conflicting—wisdom says many different things about what and how much food one should eat to maintain a healthy body. In Section IV, Jesus answers these concerns when he says, “Take no thought for . . . what ye shall eat” (Luke 12:22, cit. 12)—apparently making the point that thinking too much about food elevates it to a point where we bow down to it and abide by its rules. If we are eating to increase strength or achieve health, we are minimizing or even missing our relationship with God, since these qualities come from God. Jesus also chastised the Pharisees for thinking the disciples defiled their bodies by eating the wrong thing. He explained that it isn’t what goes into the body that counts most. The problems we experience have a mental origin in a person’s heart or consciousness (see Matthew 15:1–20, cit. 10). And Science and Health explains: “The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life” (p. 388, cit. 16).

Another issue that is clarified when the veil is lifted is how to properly care for the body. A passage in Science and Health questions what society deems necessary: “Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to baths, diet, exercise, and air?” (p. 174, cit. 19). A “flesh-brush” was a product sold in the back of magazines in the 1880s. It had magnets embedded in the handle and claimed to improve circulation, help with nerve problems, and improve one’s vigor. From today’s perspective, it may seem silly to think that a device like that could have curative power, but that question challenges us to consider who and what we are listening to in caring for ourselves. Are we looking away from the body to find the spiritual path to health and well-being? Because that’s where we find lasting harmony instead of trying to tone up the body through diet, exercise, or even flesh-brushes.

This Lesson clarifies many of the world’s misconceptions about the body and its relationship with Soul. It helps us realize that when we truly understand this relationship, we’ll be “masters of the body, dictate its terms, and form and control it with Truth” (Science and Health, p. 228, cit. 14).

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