As many teenage girls do, I struggled with feeling happy and comfortable with my appearance. Like many other girls and women, I started to listen and accept what the world thought was beautiful and the way a body should look. I became self-conscious, anxious and sub-consciously reduced my body’s purpose to its aesthetics.
It’s hard sometimes to be happy and grateful for the body you have. Some of our bodies have experienced pain or trauma, and we often don’t see our bodies as something precious until something goes wrong.
The cultural issues
So, do our bodies matter? Our culture has conflicting answers to this question. The message is to love yourself and not to be ashamed of the body that you’re in, but at the same time we are told to shape them and change them into what we want them to express. We are taught that confidence comes from being able to alter the way we look, but this a fake confidence built on the unrealistic standards set by others. In parts of our culture the aesthetics of the body have become a high priority and a way in which we can express our individual selves.
There are many examples of this happening in culture. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) reports that 75% of facial plastic surgeons are seeing an increase in patients under the age of 30 and the demand for cosmetic surgery is at an all-time high. In 2024, the adult entertainment industry was worth $58.59 billion, with men and young people being most likely to watch porn. Just look to adverts and the way the fashion industry uses the body to make money. Filters and editing are extensively used on social media and the line between reality and online gaming is becoming blurred. Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has developed technology that combines with human consciousness. Issues surrounding the body affect everyone.
In other areas of our culture, the body has become something to try and escape from. The rising interest in spirituality has shown this. With so much suffering in the world, for some people there is increasing desire to be out of their physical body and fully in the spiritual self as a way of coping.
At the same time as idolising the body, our culture also undervalues it. With all these mixed messages, our culture doesn’t seem to know whether or not our bodies are important and, more critically, why they are. The purpose of our bodies has become contested as we try and navigate this contradictory and complex narrative.
The church has also struggled to recognise and talk about the importance of bodies. The overvaluing of the spiritual and therefore undervaluing of the physical has led us to neglect the importance our of bodies and the plan God has for them. But our spiritual life and physical life work simultaneously – they aren’t disconnected. To be human is to have a body and a soul, both of equal importance.
Our bodies have become objects for consumption and their value reduced to just practical and aesthetic function. Our identities are constantly compromised and scrutinised. They have become something that we critique and analyse, which in turn disconnects us from their real purpose.
The God story – why our bodies matter
When we look to the God story, we see a beautiful, freedom-giving and unique alternative to the narrative that culture gives us. Our bodies are part of what makes us human. We use our bodies to be physically present with each other, to communicate and form connections.
We only need to look at the way in which God chose to be among us to see that bodies matter. Throughout the Gospels, we see that Jesus used His fully human body to be physically present. The places He visited, who He met and how He used His body are all crucial details that point towards the importance of physical presence.
Our creative God has designed all bodies to be unique. He created you to look like you. We are divine image bearers. Bodies mean so much more than their outward appearance or what they can physically achieve – our bodies are precious gifts from God. Although our bodies are sometimes not what we wished we had, they are a fundamental part of God’s plan for us. We have a body now and will always have a body. This is the amazing hope that Jesus brings: we will be fully restored, and this includes our bodies too.
Learning to see the importance of your body isn’t easy. As our bodies change, grow and age there will be times when we struggle with them more than others. For me, discovering God’s plan for the body and realising the connection between the physical and spiritual has helped me develop a deeper and more complete understanding of what being human truly means.
This is a big topic to try and get our heads around. Listen to this episode of the Being Human podcast to further explore the purpose of our bodies.