Interesting question here from an anonymous young woman to start this new week off.

We'll get right to it.

Pastor John, hello to you, our friend writes.

I know the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, but I struggle to accept some things Paul wrote,

particularly Ephesians 529, that no one ever hated his own body.

I have hated my own body for most of my life.

I was bullied for my looks and weight as a child, felt neglected by my parents because of it,

and developed such intense self-loathing that I hurt myself, abused my body, and even starved myself.

I know I'm not alone.

Many people hate their own bodies and harm themselves in various ways.

This makes it hard to believe.

Paul is speaking literally when he says no one ever hated their own body.

If Paul were alive today, wouldn't he see how widespread this problem is?

Was he speaking figuratively, or was the statement more reflective of his time when body hatred might not have been as common?

What do you think Paul meant in this passage?

That is an important question.

Yeah.

It's right at the heart of Christian hedonism.

It's right at the heart of understanding marriage.

One of the reasons I feel that it's weight is because it's just so easy for us Bible lovers.

Like me, I love the Bible, to repeat what the Bible says as though it presented no

problems whatsoever when for the ordinary reader didn't grow up on the Bible, reading it maybe

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