One aspect of Integrity and self-control is subduing bodily impulses. What bodily impulses? The obvious ones are eating and sex, but there are definitely other things where our body pushes us in one direction or another. We need an appropriate Christian responses to all these impulses. But before we talk about that, we need to address some basic assumptions.
First, bodily impulses are morally neutral. In purity culture, one implied message was that male sexual arousal was a moral evil, one that females were somehow responsible for protecting us from. (Female sexual arousal, on the other hand, may as well have not existed.) Everything about this is wrong! We are mammals, God made us to want sex, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Augustine was just full of crap on this one.
But wait, aren't we commanded to avoid lust? Well, lust is not sexual desire! Lust is longing for anything that doesn't belong to you. Sexual arousal is a thing that happens to you. Lust is a regular thought process, a thing you do. It is opposed to the virtue we identified as Joy, satisfaction, contentment, gratitude. I've also heard it said that lust for a person objectifies them, in opposition to the virtue of Love and respect.
Second, bodily pleasures are morally neutral. The taste of sugar, the feel of an orgasm, or a good sleep-in, are not to be avoided in themselves. It is details and context that make these pleasures virtuous or not. We cannot conclude that all Christians are required to permanently abstain from a bodily pleasure. Some are certainly called to such, but to apply it to everyone is a burden that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear. We reject the idea that full-scale lifelong asceticism is the most virtuous possible path.
Third, bodily impulses can control us. I'm often reminded of how an acquaintance once described her first experience of sexual intercourse, which I'm sure is the story of a hundred million other people. She had been raised to believe sex before marriage was to be avoided, and so she and her boyfriend were maintaining technical virginity, while engaging in ever-increasing degrees of sexual intimacy. But "your body takes over" and they found they were having sex without any conscious choice to do so. There may be ways to have God-honoring sex outside marriage, but losing control of your body is not among them.
Addiction is another obvious (and more medically serious) example of a controlling bodily impulse, but there are many others we don't talk about as much. How many people struggle to resist food, or can't get out of bed on time, or just can't stop talking to their friends? How many can't control their temper, or overcome their fear? All of these are bodily impulses that can overcome our choices, make us do the things we do not want. It is not we that do them, but sin living in us.
Fourth, we can and should master our bodily impulses. Like we said before. eating cake itself is morally neutral, but the inability to abstain from cake is a failing of character. We strive to grow into the perfection of Christ; the perfected me could choose to never eat cake again, and make it stick. Again, permanent rejection of a bodily pleasure is not a goal we're interested in, and obviously we can't do without food or sleep forever. But temporary abstention, such as fasting, builds endurance, and can help us distinguish between the things we really want and the things our body is driving us towards.
What does mastering our bodily impulses actually look like? Next time.
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