Dear Friends:
This may seem like an incredibly mundane mail, but it is all part of our eclectic approach! So if you signed up only for religious mails, or are part of the "Sermons Only" brigade, or the "Endtimes Stuff Only" sect, or you don't have a weight problem, then this mail is probably not for YOU! ;o) So now you also get a Weight-Watchers' special ! You read it here first!
A lot of Christians don't bother about their appearance, or their clothes, or their fitness, or their general health, because they think it is "worldly" to concentrate on such matters. Consequently there is a large number of Christians who are pasty-faced, unfit, overweight and dowdy -- all in the supposed cause of higher life spirituality!
Now I know there will be some of you who have a weight problem because of certain genuine physical reasons, such as hormones, glandular difficulties, etc. I do not mean to be offensive to you. My heart goes out to you as you will no doubt have tried every solution under the sun and they will not have made any difference. But the Lord knows that too. So please do not take offence with what I say here.
I am chiefly responding here to those who pour scorn on fitness and dieting programmes as being vain and worldly. In order to prove that working out or dieting is ungodly, certain texts are often quoted. A favourite verse often quoted to justify being unfit and disgustingly flabby in this present life is 1 Tim.4:8: "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come". The thinking of the folks who quote this is that Paul is being derisive about physical exercise, therefore we must all be slobs in the name of higher spirituality because one day our bodies will be dead anyway! Another text quoted as a doctrinal slur on taking care of our bodies is 2 Cor.4:16-18:
"Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal".
I guess many folks must consider that the "eternal weight of glory" is so worth waiting for (no pun intended), that the "temporary weight of this present flab" must just be tolerated or ignored! But surely we must be balanced in how we view these verses. Paul is not saying that because physical exercise is this life is of no value in terms of eternal life therefore we must treat it with contempt and ignore it. For that would almost be a Gnostic view, in which all physical matter is regarded as being intrinsically evil, or the Buddhist view, which regards earthly life as a mere illusion and the body to be an encumbrance. Yet I have been told by many that they have had these verses quoted at them if they said that they went to a work out in a gym or went for a major bike ride every day to keep fit! The 'Pharisees of Phlab' shake their heads and look witheringly at you and say: "Oh brother, the Word says that "bodily exercise profits little". Don't get caught up in the vain things of this world". It's true! That's what they say. I've been there. I've heard it!
Now if a believer gets so obsessed with physical training and health that he has to have all the latest gear and clothing and has built a special gymnasium with full-surround mirrors in the living room and with state-of-the-art technology, and spends so long on it that he no longer relates to his friends and family, then I reckon that there's a little problem there!
However, spending some time each day caring for one's body and other aspects of physical health is not in the least an antichristian activity. In fact, one's body is a gift from the Lord and is not to be treated as unimportant or with contempt, as ascetics have done down the ages. It is true that "our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior"; and that the Lord Jesus Christ will "transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body" (Phil.3:20-21). But it is "lowly" only in the sense that it is a fallen body which matches the fallen world in which it lives. It is still a precious gift from the Lord. He gave us our bodies in which to live our lives here on His earth and we must exercise stewardship over them, just as we exercise stewardship over all the other things that he has given to us which are of a material nature. Stewardship implies care. We must care for our bodies and protect them from harm. The body does have some considerable importance in the Christian life. It is the central focus of the resurrection at the end of the age -- "the redemption of our body" (Rom.8:23). That is why Christians -- out of respect for the body, and it's dramatic potential -- have always advocated burial at death rather than the burning carried out by pagans.
Diligent Christians have always looked after their bodies as well as their souls, for "your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor.6:19-20). Your body as well as your spirit is God's. So look after it, as lent to you from the Lord. Just as one must avoid having sexual relations with prostitutes on the basis that the experience will defile the body (1 Cor.6:16), so one must care for the body in all other respects. The "neglect of the body" (Col.2:23) -- to treat one's body with contempt -- has always been the province of the mystic or ascetic, who regards physical matter as the source of his problems, whereas the Bible plainly shows that it is the figurative human heart which is the source of our problems (Matt.15:18-20).
There is nothing weird or unbiblical about tailored fitness and diet programmes. They do not imply vanity for the Christian but stewardship. I know that some would pipe up here that it is the Lord who decides when we die and no amount of dieting or exercise can postpone the moment that He has purposed for it to happen. Hmmm, there could be an interesting debate there (and I'm very tempted too!). But I won't get into that one right now as it would be a whole new e-mail. Certainly, we cannot endlessly postpone the moment of death, but we sure can improve the quality of life which precedes it!
Now you may ask why I am writing about this particular subject at the present time. It is simply that my mind has been turning these things over recently as I have embarked on my own fitness training programme. Having lost 18 pounds (8 kilos) in the last few weeks (I'll share my secret with you if you ask!), I have been amazed at the all-round benefits -- including the spiritual ones. Losing just 10% of one's body weight, if one is overweight, can make a world of difference to one's health and one's mindset. That has a knock-on effect in every department of one's life. One eats more sensibly and with less gluttony. One wants to get up earlier and can cope with less sleep. One can actually sleep better. One is less prone to depression. One's mind feels less cluttered and confused. One feels more balanced and in tune with oneself and others.
So if you are a hardened couch-potato, or a 'Pharisee of Phlab', then all I can say is: please don't hassle those of us who want to work out, by telling us how worldly we are! We care for our bodies out of respect for the Lord, "who gives us richly all things to enjoy" (1 Tim.6:17) and because we want to live to the full the life that He has given us. |
