Nicole’s e-Pistle “Our Bodies as Temples”
September 30, 2026
Greetings, Friends!
My husband and I just finished watching the television series entitled “The Testaments,” based on Margaret Atwood’s sequel novel to “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Both are fabulous dystopian stories about how God’s Word can be distorted and manipulated in the name of power, rather than the true Gospel message that is offered through Jesus Christ. In one of the episodes, a teenage girl who attends a preparatory school as a “Pearl Girl,” must go through painful treatments to remove a tattoo from her arm. After all, good Christian girls do not mark their bodies, for their bodies are God’s temples and must be kept perfectly pure in all respects.
I will not go into anything else that might spoil the show or the books, but everything that Margaret Atwood portrayed in her novels has happened in human history at some point, though not in exactly the same manner as in her fictional country of Gilead. In the United States, Christians differ on whether it is proper to have tattoos or piercings. Often, it is not even a matter of morality, but simply personal preference, which is completely fine… To each their own. It might scandalize some to know that I have a tattoo and have plans to someday add another. For me, each marks a time when I struggled with the circumstances in my life, and more importantly, the way God showed up to carry me through.
There are several scriptures that have been used in the past to “outlaw” markings and tattoos in Christian churches and circles. The most widely used are, again, referring to our bodies as temples. For example, in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul wrote, “16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Then, in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul again wrote, “19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”
As often happens, many have taken the original meaning completely out of context. For example, in the 1920s, a “good ole boy” in the South might have severely punished his teenage child for wanting a tattoo or piercing, while having no problem with attending the lynching of a black man. Or to go out on the proverbial limb today, some see gender affirming surgeries as desecrating God’s temples in the bodies of transgender people, but they have no qualms with police brutality or inhumane conditions in ICE detention centers. Two questions beg to be asked: which bodies are God’s temples, and how exactly are we to glorify God with them?
The answer, I believe, was also written by Paul, this time to the Romans in 12:1, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.” It is not a question of whether or how one chooses to decorate one’s body, either with ink or fashion, but whether we are willing to use our bodies to do as Jesus bid us in Matthew 25 – to feed the hungry, give the thirsty something to drink, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit those who are imprisoned. Again, sticking to a merely literal context loses some of the magnitude of how we are called to be living sacrifices. People are hungry and thirsty for more than what our Little Free Pantry can provide (though it serves a vital role as well). Welcoming the stranger must extend beyond dinner parties and casual conversations in the grocery store aisle. Clothing the naked can speak to sustainability of goods and services of all kinds, as well as ensuring a fair, livable wage for honest work. Caring for the sick reaches beyond a meal train and gets to the heart of our broken health care system. And while we as a congregation are busy trying to establish a jail ministry, there are people right here in our community who are imprisoned by more than the justice system, people who are trapped in addiction, in abusive relationships, or in racial and generational cycles that keep them from thriving.
Friends, while we draw breath in this life, we have a Spirit within us that is urging us to use our bodies to God’s glory. It is time to stand up and speak out against the injustices that are running rampant in our world. It is time to see every human face as a reflection of the Imago Dei – the very image of God – which deserves to be honored and glorified. We do not have to agree with or condone or participate in what others do with their own bodies. It has never been our calling to sit in the judgement seat. Yet tearing down the temples of others through hatred and prejudice of any kind only causes our own temples to crumble as our hearts become dusty and brittle. Instead, by recognizing the Spirit that dwells within all human temples, we enable ourselves to live and breathe more fully in the true presence of God within us. May all God’s children come to this understanding. What a world that could be!
Blessings and Peace, my friends!
