“And when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you …’.”  (I Corinthians 11:24)

These words the Lord Jesus spoke have become so familiar to many of us that it can be hard to really “hear” them.  But pause for a moment and meditate on what Jesus was saying: “MY body … for YOU.”  Jesus’ attitude was that His body was not “His own”, but was for the purpose of glorifying God, and the good that it could do others.  Contrary to slogans which have become popular in some segments of our culture today, there was no “my body, my choice” attitude from Jesus.

And if we are truly His followers, we will adopt that same outlook as well. Our bodies are not our own.  The Apostle Paul wrote just that in I Corinthians 6:19-20, “You are not your own; you have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.”

This truth applies more widely than just the issue of abortion, however. It speaks to people like you & I, who too often wallow in selfish, worldly attitudes when we don’t get to do what we’d like to with “my body” or “my time”.  But we are not our own — no, not even “my body.”  Like Jesus’ own flesh, our body was created in order to glorify God and to do good for others.  Paul reminded us of a fundamental truth in I Cor. 8:6, “We exist for Him” — not ourselves.  This is a radically different attitude than the world would teach us, but that is what Jesus calls us to — and what He Himself modeled for us here: “MY body, which is for YOU.”