Biblical Perspectives on Health and Fitness

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Much of the world is obsessed with the body image and self. All that one has to do is look around at the excess ways offered to us for the health and well-being of our physical bodies. We have gyms and exercise rituals galore, food fads, countless diet programs, numerous nutrition-based ideologies, and heaps of other things that are thrust at us almost daily. When it comes to caring for our bodies, even Christians can fall into a kind of idolatry as it relates to health, nutrition, and physical fitness. But if we’re willing to be honest about it, it’s really a very modern preoccupation; for most of human history, this has not been the case. So today, on the Straight Truth Podcast, Dr. Josh Philpot asks Dr. Richard Caldwell to talk to us about the physical body and what kind of care we should have for it. How should Christians think about the physical body? Should we view it differently than the world? Should Christians care about physical fitness? How much time and effort should be exerted in caring for our bodies? Does the physical body actually matter in the end?
First, Dr. Caldwell tells us that the physical body is not evil. There have been philosophical movements in the past, even in the name of Theology, that have spoken differently about the immaterial/spiritual and the material/physical, but the Bible does not do this. God’s creation/design of mankind is both body and soul; we are physical and spiritual. The Scriptures teach us that we are to honor the Lord with our minds and our bodies. However, when the Scriptures speak regarding our bodies, Dr. Caldwell sees the primary emphasis there to be the mortification of sin. We’re not to allow sin to reign in our mortal bodies; we’re to make sure that we are honoring the Lord not just in our hearts but also with our physical nature. This, of course, relates to sexual purity. But it also relates to things like gluttony, working hard, and a whole slew of other things. So, as Christians, we want to think carefully about this. We are to labor and strive to honor Christ with both our minds and our bodies.
When it comes to the fitness craze, we want to consider what Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4. Beginning in verse 6, Paul makes it known to Timothy that to teach the church the things Paul has written to him about, by putting these things before the brothers, he will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, having been trained in the words of faith and good doctrine. Instead of Timothy getting himself wrapped up in worldly things, Paul tells him to train himself for godliness. He mentions that bodily training has some value but points out that the value of godliness is that it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. Paul acknowledges in verse 8 that there is some value in taking care of yourself physically. Yet we must see that he places the greatest emphasis on training for godliness.
This does not mean that our bodies do not matter; they do. We should want to steward them well so that we are physically able to serve God and others as long as He gives us. However, we should not be mainly focused on our physical fitness. We want to take care of ourselves because it represents order, discipline, and self-control. It represents all those things that have value that’s lasting in nature. But how we look physically has no lasting value. All those things are external and are fading away. In 1 Peter 3, Peter teaches wives who have disobedient husbands not to focus merely on the external but on the internal beauty of the heart; that which has lasting value, that which is precious in the sight of God. When we understand this kind of lasting beauty, then even if we were to become physically marred in this life, we can live on with joy.
Every one of us is going to die. We all began dying the day we were born, and so we are all headed to the grave if Christ doesn’t return in our lifetime. These bodies are not forever; they are not our heavenly bodies. God has numbered every one of our days; they were written down before there was even one. Each of us has a day when our life will end, and we don’t know when that will be, so we want to be preoccupied with what matters the most; that which holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The greater place for our focus is training ourselves for the purpose of godliness, and that’s where our focus needs to be.