The Goodness of Distinctions: Gnostic Heresy & The War on the Body
Whether through starvation or indulgence, we echo the Gnostic heresy “the body doesn’t matter.”
“The rejection of the flesh is the rejection of Christ. Believe the resurrection of the flesh; for the whole work of salvation depends upon it. With it Christ was born; with it He was baptized; with it He was tempted; with it He was crucified; with it He was buried; with it He rose again. He showed that same flesh to His disciples, so that they might believe. With it He ascended into heaven, and with it He sits at the right hand of the Father. It is this flesh which is the pledge of salvation.”
-Tertullian
Over the past couple of months, I have talked about many physical distinctions and how we should indeed keep them distinct. Ironically, that thesis leads to today’s post that, on first glance, flips things on its head a bit.
Not all distinctions are meant to be divisive. In fact, every distinction we’ve looked at so far works rightly only when it operates in harmony with the others. Leaders and followers are distinct but not opposed. Men and women fit together by design. The same is true for body and soul. When we keep them in their proper relationship, we reflect God's wisdom. But when we tear them apart, elevating the soul and neglecting the body, we don’t just lose balance, we invite heresy.
Gnosticism is an ancient Christian heresy that says not only is the physical not yet perfected, but it’s actively evil. This heresy had a few different flavors, but the most extreme ended up reversing Christian theology by claiming that the Creator God of Genesis was actually an evil, ignorant being, a false god who trapped divine sparks inside physical bodies. According to these Gnostics, salvation didn’t come through Christ’s atoning death and bodily resurrection, but through secret knowledge that awakened the divine self and allowed escape from the material world. The incarnation was dismissed as a trick, the crucifixion was meaningless or faked, and the resurrection was spiritual only. In their view, Jesus didn’t come in the flesh to redeem it. He came to help the enlightened abandon it altogether.
It’s incredible how such a small idea, that the spirit is more holy than the body, can create such an obviously dramatic heresy, isn’t it? Yet what happens when the church and culture take in that idea more subtly? Let’s dive in.
We tend to think ancient heresies stay buried in ancient times. But Gnosticism didn’t disappear. Today, its core idea shows up everywhere in secular culture: the belief that the body is a problem to overcome and that the “real you” is something internal, emotional, and detached from physical reality. Simultaneously, the culture insists that our physical bodies must be reshaped to match our inner perception. This is transgenderism. Instead, we should recognize that the true versions of both body and soul were designed to work in harmony when properly ordered.
We know the culture embraces Gnosticism by denying the body, but the modern evangelical church often does the same through pietism. We don’t openly reject the body; we simply act like it’s irrelevant. Faith becomes a feeling. Obedience becomes emotional sincerity rather than embodied spiritual discipline. In pietistic Christianity, devotion is measured by how deeply you feel during a worship song, not how faithfully you steward your time, health, or household. It's a spiritualized apathy dressed up as holiness. It leaves the body untended, undisciplined, and seemingly unimportant.
Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.
- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (CSB)
In many churches, we are happy to call out sin in culture, which is good, but we are slow to call out sin in our midst. We rarely address the quiet sins of the body, especially the loss of self-control. And one of the most obvious examples of a lack of self-control is gluttony. It isn’t just about food; it’s about failing to steward our bodies through discipline and restraint. This has many spiritual consequences, but one of the clearest and most visible is how it distorts the physical distinctions between men and women.
Gluttony is far from the only type of sin of this type, but it is a clear example that is rarely dealt with. Yet it is quite clear indeed. Christians are called to treat their bodies as temples. Our gendered existence is a wonderful distinction, but obesity squashes those beautiful differences.
The first way obesity obscures proper distinctions is simply in the physical representation. Male and female distinctions are obscured behind layers of fat, the evidence of sin for all to see. Everyone starts to look the same, because everyone starts to look like a circle. Shoulders, waists, hips, and faces blur into one softened silhouette, until what was once obvious must now be guessed. And this layer of sin does more to the body than simply androgenize the silhouette. It causes drastic changes to the hormone production of both genders that make this transformation even more extreme.
In men, excess body fat leads to increased aromatase activity. Aromatase is the enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen. As body fat increases, testosterone levels drop and estrogen rises. Yes. Estrogen. This hormonal shift leads to reduced muscle mass, breast tissue development, lower energy, and weakened libido. The male form softens, and so does the strength, drive, and edge that accompany healthy masculinity. What begins as unchecked appetite ends in a body that, aside from what hangs between their legs, no longer bears the clear mark of manhood.
In women, obesity often leads to insulin resistance. This is not only a precursor to type 2 diabetes, but also triggers the body to produce more androgens, which are male hormones like testosterone. These hormonal imbalances can cause irregular cycles, facial hair…. Yes… and masculinized fat distribution. Even when not visibly pronounced, the underlying shift is real. The female form thickens and coarsens, often losing its natural grace that announces feminine beauty and design. The result is not just physical change, it’s hormonal confusion that blurs the distinctions God built into womanhood.
What we’re seeing is more than poor health. It’s not just the loss of fitness or aesthetics; it’s the quiet erosion of our God given identity. The body, once a visible testimony to the glory of His design, is reduced to a blurred echo of its former purpose. It no longer speaks clearly. What God meant to be seen at a glance becomes something that must be guessed.
In that way, obesity is just transgenderism-lite. It isn’t driven by ideology, but it produces the same results: a body out of harmony with its design, and a person increasingly detached from the distinctions God created.
Obesity isn’t the only thing that distorts personhood, and even hormones specifically, in this way. Disorders like anorexia and bulimia do the same, not through excess, but through denial. These are not merely medical or psychological issues; they are spiritual at the root, distorted views of the body and the self that reject God’s truth in favor of fear, shame, or control. The hormonal effects are just as real, though. Estrogen and testosterone drop, reducing reproductive functions. Curves vanish, muscle disappears, and sexed identity is chemically erased. One path tries to indulge the body into comfort, the other tries to starve it into submission. Both blur the distinctions God called good.
What lies behind both paths, indulgence and deprivation, is not just weakness or confusion, but all-out war. Satan has always hated the image of God, and that image is not merely spiritual. It is embodied. It is visible. It is male and female. When Satan cannot erase the image directly, he works to distort it with chaos. Whether through gluttony or starvation, passivity or obsession, he doesn't care. So long as we forget what we were made to be, his mission succeeds.
Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen.
- Romans 1:24–25 (CSB)
And so, Christ came in the flesh for a reason. He rose physically because the physical is indeed good. He did not forsake the gift of food and friendship after he rose but rather sat and ate with his followers to show us the importance of our bodies and the future of the physical. A new body both like and unlike anything we see here.
And in a similar fashion, we too will rise. Christ’s scars were visible in his glorified body. Will our scars, the ones that bring God glory, be visible too? I think it’s prideful to assume not. But just as we must not sin for the sake of abounding grace, we must not scar ourselves for abounding glory.
This is our ultimate hope. Not of escape but resurrection. Our physical body is not rejected but glorified in Christ. The scars that remain will not be monuments to sin, but testimonies of grace. Our bodies are not temporary housing for a holier soul; they are part of God’s original design, meant to glorify Him, not despite our physicality, but through it. The more we distort it now, the more we forget that glory it is meant to carry, but the more we honor it in faith and discipline, the more clearly we reflect Christ in us.
So let us live like someone who will rise.
Our future is embodied. Our obedience should be too.
In design, reverence; in discipline, faithfulness; in all things, glory to God.
“Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.”
- Philippians 3:20–21 (CSB)