Healthy Living is Good, but It's Not God

One of my favorite verses to take over-apply is 1 Timothy 4:8,

for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

I don't like exercise much. I recently saw a "0.0" bumper sticker and loved it (for those that don't get it, it is like the 13.1 or 26.2 half/full marathon stickers, but it's the couch potato version).

I say all that by way of full disclosure.

I also want to say at the outset that I do believe exercise is good, and caring for one's body is required. God has made us spiritual / physical beings (Gen. 1-2), and we will remain that way in the new creation but with glorified bodies (1 Cor. 15). So, we have a stewardship now to care for the bodies he has given us and to use them for his glory (1 Cor. 10:31).

That being said, our physical bodies are not ultimate. Hence, giving one's physical life for the sake of Christ, if necessary, is good and necessary. We don't worship our physical life, because we know we have resurrection life. So like those 3 young men in the biblical book of Daniel, we are able to say that we will die rather than bow to a false God because God will raise us.

All that was introduction.

I recently read a story in the New York Times (published in December) called "When Some Turn to Church, Others Go to Crossfit."  My point here is not the same as that article (which is an interesting read). Rather, the article got me thinking again about something which has come to mind many times.

We can easily take good things, like eating healthy and exercise, and turn it into a bad thing. We can make it more important than God. It becomes all we want to talk about, think about, and pursue. We can begin looking to good things to be saviors to us. The same can happen in a friendship or marriage where we can turn that good relational gift into something it was never intended to be. We begin to look to that person for fulfillment, unmitigated joy, and direction in life rather than to God. Good things are good, but they make terrible gods.

I think healthy living is one category where we run this danger. All the diets, exercise plans, and supplements can be good things. But if we start looking to them as our hope for joy and "eternal life" we have a huge problem. We look just like the world that lives by the motto "You only live once."

We are a resurrection people and subjects of King Jesus. Since we know God is our creator, we have the responsibility to care for our physical bodies. That is something I need to do better at for God's glory. But let us not go to the other extreme and live for good health.

To live is Christ and to die is gain. Let's live and die for Christ. Let's strive to steward and enjoy our bodies to God's glory, but let us not fear the day when our bodies fail (and they will fail). When God is God and health is gift and stewardship, we are free to live for Christ and to see death as gain.