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Genesis 1:31 says God looked at everything he had made — including the human body, the one you have — and called it "very good." Not adequate. Not functional. Very good. That verdict was spoken before the Fall, and nothing in Scripture reverses it. The Incarnation reinforces it: God thought the human body was worth inhabiting. Recovery from an eating disorder does not begin with getting the body right. It begins with receiving the verdict that was already spoken over it.
Get These Verses Daily — Free“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? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
Paul's conclusion from 'your body is a temple' is not shame — it is worth. The body has been bought at a price. It is valued, not judged. The call to glorify God in the body is a call toward care and freedom, not performance.
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
The Hebrew word yare — 'fearfully' — carries the sense of awe-inspiring. David is not offering generic affirmation. He is describing the body as something that produces reverence in the one observing it. That body is yours.
“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
God's original verdict over the physical creation — including the human body — was 'very good.' The Incarnation confirms it: God thought the human body worth inhabiting. No subsequent religious tradition has authority to revoke that verdict.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
The word 'now' matters. Not after recovery. Not after a perfect week. Now. The shame cycle that drives many eating disorders is directly addressed by this verse: condemnation is not the operating framework.
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”
Paul says contentment was something he had to learn — it did not come naturally. The Greek word for 'instructed' — mueō — means to be initiated into a mystery through experience. This is not instant peace. It is a practiced orientation, acquired over time, through difficulty.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 is often deployed as a shame weapon — "your body is a temple, so you must treat it perfectly." But Paul's argument moves in the opposite direction. The premise is that your body has extraordinary value — it is where the Holy Spirit lives, it belongs to God who made it. The conclusion Paul draws is not shame but liberation: "therefore glorify God in your body." The body is worth caring for not because it must be perfect but because it is loved.
Recovery from an eating disorder is not linear, and Scripture never promises linear healing. Romans 8:1 speaks a word that cuts through the relapse cycle: "there is therefore now no condemnation." Not "no condemnation once you are well." Now. In the struggle. Seeking professional help — a therapist, a dietitian, a medical team — is wisdom applied to a body God values, not a substitute for faith.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
Psalm 139:14 — "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" — uses two Hebrew words that deserve attention. Yare (fearfully) carries the sense of awe, the feeling produced by something extraordinary. Palah (wonderfully) means to be set apart, distinguished, unique. The verse is not describing a generic positive self-image. It is describing a response of reverence to the specific, unrepeatable nature of the body you are in. David is not being flattering. He is being accurate about what God made.
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