A Detox of Biblical Proportions

So I’m doing a detox. My sister works for Arbonne and she’s been encouraging Marisa and me to think about doing their particular detox for awhile now. So we decided to give it a go over this past month. We’re in our final week and we’re both feeling great! I’ll admit that I thought this thing was going to be brutal, given how differently I typically eat, but it’s actually proven to be a fairly painless transition for us. Sure, there are things we miss and things we crave, but all in all it’s been easier than expected. I’d say a major factor with that has been the fact that I feel better than I can remember and have lost some much-needed weight.

While I miss the occasional beer or glass of wine, and I miss having bread in one form or another, I knew the most difficult food group of which I’d be depriving myself would be dairy. You see, if you know the Gravrocks you know that ice cream is our 6th food group. Like my parents, Marisa and my freezer is stocked full of various kinds of ice cream at all times (Marisa has acknowledged that she was never a big ice cream eater…that is until she became a Gravrock). So having to deprive myself of that evening indulgence has been rather difficult; yet, surprisingly, not as challenging as I had imagined. This detox has helped me to realize just how much dairy I consume (cheese definitely rivals ice cream in my diet, and I sure do miss my morning cup of creamer with a dash of coffee). Not that dairy is necessarily bad, as I definitely plan to return to eating it in moderation post detox, but it’s probably an issue when your consumption of it necessitates the creation of an additional food group.

As we’re nearing the end of this 30-day detox, I’ve started thinking about what if we were to go even deeper with this whole detox idea? That got me thinking about what the Bible has to say about purging things from our lives, and believe me it says a lot. When I think of a detox guru in the Bible my mind first goes to John the Baptist. After all, he was a very earthy dude who was on a rather strict food regiment of locusts and wild honey. (Unfortunately for John, honey isn’t allowed on the detox, but I’m thinking locusts may be fair game; somehow those were left off the list of foods to include or eliminate.) On a deeper level, John’s message was all about repentance (i.e. turning away from ungodly things and being baptized into God’s Kingdom), so he was absolutely proclaiming a kind of spiritual detox. John was followed by Jesus, who took up John’s message (minus the questionable diet) of proclaiming a spiritual detox. However, Jesus ultimately was the worst detox participant of all time in that He came on the scene free of all toxins (aka sinless), but then rather than remaining toxin-free, He opted instead to take all of our toxins (aka sins) upon Himself which ravaged His body and led to His death. We should be grateful that Jesus was such a detox failure because, as a result, we were all detoxed once and for all through the cross. Be this as it may, toxins remain in our lives; hence the need for regularly engaging in a biblical detox. So in this post I want to focus on a few scriptures that hopefully can help us as we seek to live a healthier faith-life.

While John and Jesus have already been discussed, I want to turn my attention to the Apostle Paul, who I believe is the Bible’s ultimate detox coach. Paul was definitely a bad dude when we first encounter him in the Bible as Saul, as his relationship with those early Jesus-followers absolutely would have been defined as toxic. However, he undergoes a dramatic detox (i.e. conversion), which propels him to the forefront of coaching Christians on how to live out their faith. In order to see that, I want to focus on two particular passages: 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20 and Ephesians 4:17-32. In the 1 Corinthians passage, Paul makes the statement, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” Now I didn’t select this passage simply because Paul talks about food, but rather because of what he says next: “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” In other words, just as food is meant to fill the stomach so that we won’t be hungry, our bodies are meant to be set apart for the Lord so that we won’t be ungodly. Just as we’re not to pollute our bodies by eating junk, so too are we not to pollute our bodies by engaging in immoral behavior. While that’s good advice from Paul on the detox front, he really hits his coaching stride in verses 18-20 where he writes, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” We often hear people talk about their “body being a temple” in relation to nutrition, exercise, etc., hence why it’s a helpful reminder when it comes to engaging in a detox like the one I’m doing. However, Paul clearly is more concerned here with spiritual health than physical, so this verse takes on much greater weight in that context.

While sexual immorality is absolutely something from which we’re called to detox, that’s obviously not the only toxin which needs to be addressed in our lives. Hence my reason for likewise including the passage from Ephesians. In it, Paul once again uses detox language when he writes, “[You who are in Jesus were taught] to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Paul follows that up with a list of behaviors of which we’re called to purge ourselves. He writes, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” If sexual immorality doesn’t apply to our lives, then no doubt we can identify with at least one of the behaviors in this list. (In other words, we’re all in need of a spiritual detox.) A definition of detox reads, “A process or period of time in which one abstains from or rids the body of toxic or unhealthy substances.” As is quite clear from the passages above, Paul is exhorting Jesus-followers to be rid of all toxic or unhealthy behaviors that would keep us from truly following Him. The big difference between what Paul’s teaching and the typical detox is that Paul’s not talking about doing so for just a set period of time (such as 30 days), but rather about a permanent life change. While elements of a detox can absolutely be adopted as permanent behavior, it would not be recommended that one attempt to remain on a detox program indefinitely. Paul, on the other hand, is advising such a permanent transformation, as he writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Given Paul’s rather radical approach, how are we to be successful at a detox of such biblical proportions? As I reflect on my current experience, I’ve learned that a detox consists of both elimination and ingestion. We are to take certain products that help to cleanse the body of toxins, while likewise consuming clean foods that help to nourish the body. If we relate this principle to our faith, I believe we’ve been given two powerful tools for helping us to accomplish these goals: Prayer and Scripture. The former provides us with an outlet for confessing our sins and brokenness to God, which allows us to be continually cleansed from the toxins that would keep us from Him. In my opinion the ultimate biblical example of this type of expression through prayer comes from King David who writes in Psalm 51, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!…Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” The latter provides us with the spiritual sustenance we require to live as God’s people, both in the present reality of this life and in anticipation of the life to come. Although I facetiously identified Jesus as the worst detox participant ever, it’s His words to Satan amidst His temptation (quoting Deuteronomy 8:3) that provide the ultimate example of the life-giving power of God’s Word: “It is written, ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.'”

So as Marisa and I near the end of this detox, will this Gravrock be kissing ice cream goodbye for good? Not a chance! But I do intend to partake in this indulgence in greater moderation. As I consider my faith-life moving forward I do, however, intend to strive for the level of commitment championed by Paul. That Ephesians passage concludes with these words: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” While I may have a sweet tooth for ice cream, what could be sweeter than if we all lived our lives according to these words?!