Brothers and sisters, do not think for a moment that you can relax your rein on the demands of the body. You have to realize that laxity and discretion are two entirely different things. You must exercise discretion to care for your body, but at the same time, you must take full control of your body. To buffet the body does not mean that you starve all the time. It means that you can go on without food even when your stomach is empty. At the same time, you should still take care of your body. However, if you are involved in God's work, yet are very inflexible with your eating, you will not be able to go on as soon as the food falls below your accustomed standard. We are not for asceticism, and we do not agree that the body is the source of sin. We acknowledge that God is the One who has created in us our physical needs. We readily agree that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. But at no time are we under any obligation to follow the needs of the body. This does not mean that we have to be without clothing, food, and sleep all the time. If at all possible, we should clothe and feed ourselves properly and rest properly. Our eating can be the result of our buffeting the body, or it can be the result of not buffeting the body; the two things are entirely different. The problem today is that many brothers and sisters are very loose with their body. If we cannot put our body under strict control, as soon as we face any trial in our work, we will grumble, complain, or run away. We have to exercise endurance before the Lord. We should say, "Lord, my troubles can never match the troubles You faced when You were sojourning on the earth." The Lord lowered Himself from the loftiest height and descended to the lowest depth. Today we have not lowered ourselves from the loftiest height nor descended to the lowest depth. We should say, "Lord, we can never come up to what You have done." We must learn to accept all the restrictions imposed upon our body.
Some people have allowed their body to go unchecked for a long time. These ones need to spend more time to learn the proper lessons. We hope that they can be useful in the work within a short period of time. But if they do not deal with their problems and cannot overcome them, they cannot participate in God's work. Those who have never buffeted their body or made it their slave will fall back as soon as they are put in a race. We must remember that the work of the gospel is like a race. If we have never exercised ourselves and our body has never been under our control, we will fail and not be able to run when God puts extra demands on us. Running is an extraordinary demand that one imposes on his body. We can never be loose with our own body. All the great servants of the Lord are under His strict rule; they all exercise strict control over their own body. If we do not rule over our body, we will fail as soon as we are challenged by additional needs. All extraordinary and valuable works are performed under extraordinary demands. If we cannot work under extraordinary demands, how can we be useful in any way? We should not be loose. We should not allow our body to relax. We have to tightly hold the rein and put our body under strict control. We must be able to give up our sleep, give up our food, and give up our comfort when we are called to do so. We have to persist in the work and insist on our body being our slave. Today we take our body along with us to the work, and even when our body is sick or in pain, it still has to obey us.
Paul said, "See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand" (Gal. 6:11). He was doing more than what his capacity allowed him to do. We can sense our brother's feeling here; he was forcing himself to do what he could not do. Throughout the ages, this is how the Spirit is expressed. If a servant of God is in good health at ordinary times and experiences no hardship in the environment, sleeping well and eating well, yet finds his body uncooperative when the need arises, he is not a useful servant of the Lord. Paul said, "I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest perhaps having preached to others, I myself may become disapproved." In other words, he was afraid that others would receive the gospel while he would miss the reward and the Lord's commendation: "Well done My servant." Remember that a man who loves himself cannot serve God. Those who are loose in their living and who cannot discipline themselves strictly cannot serve God. If we want to learn to serve the Lord, we have to exercise ourselves, control ourselves, and rule over ourselves every day. If our love for the Lord is strong enough, we will not be led away by the demands of the body. If our spirit is strong enough, we will not allow our flesh to remain in weakness. When the resurrection life in us multiplies, it will give life to our mortal body. We have to be brought on until our body will obey us and us alone, until it no longer frustrates us. When this happens, we will be able to serve the Lord in a good way.