A Healthy Body

I frequently hear old people complaining about joint pain and organ pain and stiffness and lack of energy and many other physical issues. Their bodies are not serving them well.
The Complete Jewish Bible translated something Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus (5:29-30) as “Why, no one ever hated his own flesh! On the contrary, he feeds it well and takes care of it, just as the Messiah does the Messianic Community, because we are parts of his Body.”

Many of the attitudes, interactions, and failures of believers create issues in the Body of Jesus that are effectively rendering Him crippled in the Earth. When our devotion to Him and to each other becomes strong, we will rise up in His strength and under His instruction and moved by His desires to be an appropriate manifestation of Messiah in the Earth.

Each one of us, however, has been given grace to be measured by the Messiah’s bounty. This is why it says,
“After he went up into the heights,
he led captivity captive
and he gave gifts to mankind.”
Now this phrase, “he went up,” what can it mean if not that he first went down into the lower parts, that is, the earth? The one who went down is himself the one who also went up, far above all of heaven, in order to fill all things. Furthermore, he gave some people as emissaries, some as prophets, some as proclaimers of the Good News, and some as shepherds and teachers. Their task is to equip God’s people for the work of service that builds the body of the Messiah, until we all arrive at the unity implied by trusting and knowing the Son of God, at full manhood, at the standard of maturity set by the Messiah’s perfection.
We will then no longer be infants tossed about by the waves and blown along by every wind of teaching, at the mercy of people clever in devising ways to deceive. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in every respect grow up into him who is the head, the Messiah. Under his control, the whole body is being fitted and held together by the support of every joint, with each part working to fulfill its function; this is how the body grows and builds itself up in love.
(Ephesians 4:7-16, Complete Jewish Bible)