Note: this is Part IV of a series exploring the implications of Christian stewardship relating to vaccinations. Here I go over the implications of the stewardship that God has given us of our bodies and the high standard of bodily care we should exercise, especially since our bodies are the temple of God. This is an edited passage from my original request to be excused from my employer’s mandatory vaccination policy. Click here to go to beginning of the series.
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The Bible teaches Christians that God has entrusted us with the care for our bodies in a stewardship capacity. A steward is someone that is tasked with making decisions about the personal property of another person in their best interest. In this case, I believe Christians are enlisted as caretakers of our own bodies since they are God’s property. While God does not directly say that we are stewards of our bodies, such a fact can amply be inferred from Scriptural references as well as nature itself. He expects us to nurture and care for our bodies in the very best manner possible. That high standard demands that we be very careful with our health and well being – exercising discretion with everything that we put in them: food, medicines, or vaccines.
“I beseech you therefore brethern, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” – Rom. 12:1
“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it.” – Eph. 5:29
The end goal of such stewardship is to glorify God, that is, to simply tell or show the true worth of God since he alone is worthy of eternal renown. To do this with our bodies means that we treat them in a way that shows, what Christians believe to be, the full reality of the human experience. That is, we must treat our bodies with the dignity and honor that is rightfully due them as a possession of God.
“Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.” – 1 Cor. 10:31
The Bible tells us also that our bodies are the dwelling place (temple) of God in the person of the Holy Spirit as well as our own spirit, so we have a further responsibility to care for our bodies as the dwelling place of God himself. God has made it clear that he is not a tame Lion and is a great Lord – far above any ruler of this world – so appropriate care of our bodies at a minimum requires that we be careful how we conduct our physical affairs.
“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…ye are not your own?” – 1 Cor. 6:19
“For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts.” – Mal. 1:14
“And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you [your bodies] are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. – 2nd Cor. 6:16-17
The exercise of our stewardship entails both avoiding bodily sins and the wise use of the resources available to us. The Bible teaches that somethings are clearly sinful for us to subject our bodies to: immoral sexual relations, defacing or deforming the body, or permanent sterilization, to name some of the most common. Otherwise, the latitude and scope of authority given to us as stewards is very large. However, we are expected to use that flexibility wisely. We have the responsibility before God to make choices for our bodies that, when weighed in the balance, will not be harmful to them.
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.” – Rom. 6:12
“Every sin that a man does is without the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body.” – 1 Cor. 6:18
“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” – 1 Cor. 9:27
*From the painting “An Old Man Writing by Candlelight” by Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588–1629).
