The Health Message

Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

The body is not separate from the spiritual life. It is its temple. What you do with this body matters to God.

Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Eating and drinking are explicitly named. There is a way to do them that glorifies God and a way that does not.

God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It shall be your food."

The original diet of humanity was plant-based. Not as a rule, but as a designed default. Adventist vegetarianism is not arbitrary — it is rooted in Eden.

Speak to the children of Israel, saying, "These are the living things which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and chews the cud among the animals, that you may eat."

Leviticus 11 distinguishes clean from unclean animals. Adventists understand these distinctions as wisdom that predates Israel (Genesis 7:2) and continues to apply.

You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.

The clean/unclean distinction is older than Sinai. Noah knew it.

Wine is a mocker, and beer is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

Scripture's assessment of alcohol is consistent. Adventists abstain — not because a sip damns, but because moderation is hard to sustain and the cost is high.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine. Don't look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.

A medical description, three thousand years before liver disease was named. Wisdom literature was already warning us.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank. So he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself... At the end of ten days their faces appeared fairer, and they were fatter in flesh, than all the youths who ate of the king's dainties. So the steward took away their dainties, and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse. As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

Daniel's ten-day experiment — refusing the king's rich food and wine — produced visible health AND mental clarity. The story has been a touchstone for the Adventist diet ever since.

Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

The body, presented to God, is "spiritual service." There is no clean line between physical and spiritual.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy, even as your soul prospers.

John ties physical health to spiritual prosperity. They are not opposed.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. You shall labor six days, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it,

The Sabbath is itself a health intervention. A weekly day of complete rest is not an option in God's design — it is the rhythm built into creation.

Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for God's temple is holy, which you are.

A sobering verse. What we do to ourselves — overeating, addiction, exhaustion, neglect — we are doing to a temple of God.