How should you steward your body? Are all bodily pleasures inherently sinful? In order to grapple with these questions, we take a tour through the Bible from the Garden of Eden through to the time of Jesus to observe the balanced biblical perspective between asceticism (denying all pleasures) and hedonism (living for pleasure). As it turns out, God designed us to experience pleasure, but within his boundaries. We discuss several of these before considering how sometimes we may need to enter a period of abstinence to recenter ourselves. Lastly, we look at how legalism can sneak in and wreak havok when we impose our own personal boundaries on other Christians.
To continue reading this Bible article, click here.
Author: Sean Finnegan
Keywords: ascetic, asceticism, garden of earthly delights, abstinence, abstaining, abstaining from pleasure, pleasure, Self mortification, Mortify, Mortification, Going without food, bodily pleasures, hedonism, hedonist, hedonic, denying the flesh, alcohol, celibacy, celibate, sex, orgy, orgies, eating, drinking, eating and drinking, eat drink be merry, glutton, gluttony, drunkenness, drunk
Bible reference(s): Psalms 103:5, Proverbs 5:18, Proverbs 21:17, Proverbs 23:20-21, Proverbs 31:7, Ecclesiastes 2:1, Ecclesiastes 2:24, Ecclesiastes 3:13, Ecclesiastes 5:18, Ecclesiastes 8:15, Ecclesiastes 9:7, Luke 12:19, Romans 13:13, 1 Corinthians 8:8, Colossians 2:16, Colossians 2:20-23, Ephesians 5:18, 1 Timothy 4:3-4
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.