A Christian prisoner was faced with this difficult question when he was thrown into a German concentration camp. One day a Nazi general called the Christian into his office and declared pompously, “We will destroy your churches and burn your Bibles until there is nothing left of Christians like you or your God! You are under Nazi authority now!”
What would you say if you were that Christian? Who has authority over our bodies (our health) and our minds (our worship)? These questions have surfaced throughout the ages, and even Jesus, Himself, was challenged by the religious leaders on this topic.
The Bible records a time when the chief priests and scribes sought to bring Jesus under their control by testing Him on the power of civil law through a carefully-worded trap. Luke 20:20 states: “So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor” (Luke 20:20 NKJV). The Bible warns of their true motives: their purpose was to bring Jesus under their control through the force of civil government.
The Pharisees and scribes cunningly realized that one of the most effective ways to destroy one’s spiritual influence is to mingle religion with worldly politics. They secretly hoped that Jesus would not uphold the biblical principle of respect for civil authority which could lead to His arrest, but even if He did, they thought that they could trap Him, so they said:
“Teacher, we know that You are true, and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For You are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” (Mark 12:14, ESV)
The religious leaders thought that no matter how Christ answered, He would be in trouble—either by the Romans or the religious zealots.
Sometimes today, do we ever feel that no matter what we say about certain topics we are going to create problems for ourselves either with the government, the church leadership, or with other fellow church members? This dilemma over authority might leave us wondering, what is Caesar’s, and what is God’s?
Jesus has a profound solution to this problem! But instead of giving these false religious leaders an immediate answer, Jesus asks them a question that holds the key to understanding the distinction between civil authority and God’s:
But He (Christ) knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it?” So they brought it. And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” (Mark 12:16, NKJV)
The coin was created in Caesar’s image and his inscription was on its face. Therefore, it belonged to Caesar. He was the overseer of civil commerce and law.
Unlike the coin that was created by Caesar, our bodies and minds were created by the Lord. The Bible says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in OUR IMAGE, according to OUR LIKENESS’…So God created man in HIS OWN IMAGE; in the IMAGE OF GOD He created them” (Gen. 1:26-27, NKJV). Because our bodies and minds are created in God’s image and not Caesar’s, the government has no jurisdiction over them.
The Lord makes the question of biblical authority very clear in His answer to the scribes and Pharisees. He gives this profound reply:
“Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Luke 2:25).
This simple but amazing principle leaves the religious leaders marveling! Christ’s response echoes down throughout the ages to the time that we are living in today. He reminds us to give dutifully to what belongs to the State, but with our bodies and minds, we must honor God who has paid dearly so that we can have freedom of choice.
Furthermore, the Bible teaches that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we are not our own. I Cor. 16: 19 states: “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (I Cor. 6:19, KJV). Because our bodies are the temple of Holy Spirit, we are not our own. We do not even have final authority over our own bodies and minds, only God does.
In fact, when sin entered the earth, Satan gained rulership over every human being’s body and mind (Job 2:1-7); however, Christ came and redeemed us to Himself. I Cor. 6:20-21 states:
“For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor. 6:20).
Jesus bought back our right of ownership by dying in our place on Calvary. This freedom of choice was so important to God that He gave up His One and Only Son so that we could have the opportunity to reject Him or worship Him with our minds and serve Him with our bodies. Truly, then, as Christians, we are not our own, but we were bought with an astounding price—the precious blood of our Savior!
Moreover, God has inscribed His law upon all true Christian hearts and minds. He says,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them...” says the LORD. “I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them” (Heb. 10:16, NKJV).
According to this text, God inscribes our minds with HIs Law as a part of His covenant with His people. So If we have been created in the image of God and have the inscription of His laws in our minds, then our bodies and minds are subject to God and God alone! We can enjoy the freedom that comes from knowing that we are both created and redeemed by our Savior, Jesus.
Let’s go to another example in the Old Testament that illustrates this principle of division between civil and spiritual authority. In the the book of Daniel, chapter 1, we find Daniel and his three friends in the king’s court being faced with the life-threatening decision of whether to eat the king’s food that was mandated for all the Jewish captives in Babylon. We read:
“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” (Dan. 1:8, NKJV)
Daniel refused to defile himself by what the king had commanded to be put into his body. He chose to go against the king’s command to eat his appointed food, and God honored this difficult and risky choice by granting Him wisdom ten times greater than all the other wiseman in the realm. Interestingly, this test on health proceeded the test on worship that occurrs a few chapters later when Nebuchadnezzar commanded his subjects to bow down to an idol. Notice how closely our bodies or our health affect our minds and our worship. Daniel received wisdom in his mind because of the choices he made concerning what he was willing or not willing to put into his body.
The question then for today is--do we have the biblical right to choose what we put into our bodies, even if it is mandated by the government? Moreover, do politicians have biblical authority over what is put into one’s body, even if it could be proven to be effective and helpful? Furthermore, does civil law have the biblical right to mandate what is put into an individual’s body, even if it is for the common good of the society?
Paul admonishes us in I Cor. 3:16-17:
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (I Cor. 3:16-17).
God is a God of freedom of choice. I Cor. 7:23 states that we “are bought with a price, be not servants of men.” The Lord does not force the will of any human being. We must respect all people’s freedom to choose what they want to put into their bodies and minds because all of us will be held responsible for how we choose to treat our temples of God.
Moreover, according to the Spirit of Prophecy,
“God never forces the will or the conscience; but Satan’s constant resort—to gain control of those whom he cannot otherwise seduce—is compulsion by cruelty. Through fear and force he endeavors to rule the conscience and to secure homage to himself. To accomplish this, he works through both religious and secular authorities, moving them to the enforcement of human laws in defiance to the law of God” (GC 591).
Because our bodies are the temple of God, no human being has the biblical right to mandate what goes into them. God reserves all rights to His creation which include authority over our health and our worship; whereas, Satan and men under his direction are the ones who seek to destroy freedom of choice.
So if the government does not have biblical authority over our bodies and minds, what about the church? Does God give the church as a whole biblical authority over its individual members? We have an example in the New Testament of Saul receiving misguided church authority from the religious leadership of his day. We read in Acts 9:14 that Saul was given permission by the church to arrest Christians and even kill them for not believing the way that the religious leaders did at the time. They considered the suffering of Christians to be for the betterment of the common good. This same argument was used against Christ Himself. Was it not Caiaphas, the high priest, that declared, “Is it not better that one man to die than for the whole nation to perish?” (Jn. 11:50). Was this church authority given by the Lord? John 5:26-27 states, “For as the Father has life in himself; so He has granted the Son to have life in himself. And has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man.” Who has God given authority to? The Son of Man—Jesus Christ—not the church or its leaders, when it comes to judgement over individual members’ bodies or minds.
Therefore, in summary, we have learned from God’s Word:
1. We must acknowledge that our bodies are made in the image of God and are the temple of the Holy Spirit; therefore, the government does not have any biblical authority over what goes into them.
2. We must always honor the individual’s God-given freedom of choice over his or her body and mind, not the so-called common good of the society.
3. We must choose for ourselves, not rely on church leadership, when it comes to what we put into our bodies and minds because God will ultimately hold us responsible for our own decisions.
Let’s return to our story about the Christian prisoner in the German concentration camp. You will recall that the Nazi general declared: “You are under Nazi authority now!”
This Christian turned to the man and simply replied, “But you will leave the stars in the sky. And they will continue to proclaim that there is a God who created the world and all that is in it!”
You see, this Christian knew that the Creator of the Stars was the ultimate authority over his body and soul, not the Nazi regime. We are promised in Daniel 12:3, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Dan. 12:3, NKJV). As we prayerfully maneuver through these dark and confusing times in which we are living, let us not forget that we are called to display God’s glory like stars through what we decided to do with our bodies and minds.
Therefore, may the Lord give us wisdom to know how to keep them holy temples so that others can see God’s glorious character shining through our lives and never lose hope because—“When the sun goes down, the STARS come out!”
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Melissa Hanson