Our Bodies Are the Lord's

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 8
 
Before I was converted to God, I was very fond of gaudy dress. All my spare earnings went to pay my dressmaker and milliner’s bills, and I was seldom, if ever, free of debt. At the time of my conversion, I had no thought of any change being wrought on outward things. I was under the impression that an inward change—a change of heart—was all that was affected by the gospel. And I still believe that there the work of grace begins. The heart is won for Christ; a new life is begotten, and new desires spring up instead of the old lusts and desires for earthly things.
But conversion is more: it includes a change in the body as well as the soul. Our bodies become the Lord’s. He bids us present them “a living sacrifice, holy” (Rom. 12:1). They are the “temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. 6:19). Surely then we ought to see to it, that there is nothing allowed about them, out of keeping with that holy and honorable calling.
Nobody said a word to me about my dress, although I am sure it must have grieved the hearts of not a few of my fellow-believers, it was so worldly.
When I learned that my body was the Lord’s, I became exercised about some of the things I wore. They seemed rather to exhibit the pride of the flesh, than the meekness and lowliness of Christ. I instinctively laid these aside, before I had read the Scriptures that gave the Lord’s commandment as to the Christian female’s dress (see 1 Tim. 2:9; 1 Peter 3:3-4), and I was much happier in soul, and less occupied, thinking about my personal appearance. I afterward saw in the Word, that “the life of Jesus” was to be manifest in our “mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11), and that our members were to be “instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:13).
These great truths received, and allowed to act upon the heart and conscience, will regulate the dress and habits of the believer, as well as his inward thoughts. The result was, I was soon free from debt—which every Christian ought to be—and I soon had a little money wherewith to purchase a good Bible, and gospel tracts to give among my fellow-workers.
I would earnestly ask my young sisters in Christ to think on these things, and especially to remember that our bodies are the Lord’s, and that all that we wear upon them, should be of such a character that He will be glorified.