Diet, exercise, and Christian service

Diet and exercise are hot topics today. Many of the best-selling books and highest profile online companies are those who offer help either with what we eat or how we move. Yet Christians don’t often think of the connection between diet and exercise and our faith.

There are two extreme positions here that we need to avoid: the cult of health and the neglect of our physical bodies. If we are to serve our Lord well, we will need to be aware of the practical aspects of our health without changing our focus from serving God to living for something else.

Let’s consider one extreme first. It is possible to have achieving physical fitness as an idol, something that we have as the highest priority in our lives. We could spend all of our time and energy on improving our health and building our muscles. This could be driven by any number of underlying issues, many of which we might not have thought consciously about. Maybe our insecurity about our appearance drives us to such activity. Perhaps we are driven by how others think of us, or we could be terrified of growing old and be trying to stave this off as long as possible. Any good thing can become an idol if it takes our prime time and energy and leads to us taking our eyes off serving Jesus.

But the other extreme is also a problem, and one I have been thinking through for the past few months. It is easy to downplay physical fitness as a Christian. After all, we are concerned with the spirit, not the body, right? And we believe there will be a new creation where all we have now won’t be the same, so surely spending too much of a focus on diet and exercise seems to be a waste of time to many. Yet this view cannot be right either. It neglects the fact that God made us to have bodies and cares what we do with our bodies (as Paul memorably uses in his discussion on sexual immorality in 1 Cor 6:19). It can lead us to think that what we eat is irrelevant and whether we are functionally strong enough is a side issue. As people with physical bodies, we should be looking after our bodies appropriately as part of the bigger picture of glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. Neglecting our health is failing to be good stewards of the bodies God has given to us. Such neglect will also eventually compromise our energy and ability to serve Jesus well.

There is also a very strong connection between what we eat and our use of our bodies and our mental health. When I explored this earlier this year, I was told that eating certain foods or failing to exercise can have a huge influence on our attitude and mood. This is certainly true as I have found through my own experience. A significant way that we can be sustained to serve God in the long term is to eat well and exercise regularly in some form. (This is not a diet and exercise blog, so I won’t include any specifics here; there are many people with far more expertise than me who can help with these things in a practical way).

Even the apostle Paul shows concern for the physical health of his readers. He tells Timothy that physical training is of some value, not no value (1 Tim 4:7-8). Even though it is a lower priority than training in godliness, it is not to be neglected as irrelevant. Paul is also concerned for Timothy’s common illnesses and gives him diet advice to include some wine in his routine for the sake of his stomach (1 Tim 5:23).

We should look after our bodies as gifts from God and temples of the Holy Spirit. Let’s maintain healthy bodies in order to serve our God well now and well into the future.