Exercise, Diet, and Jesus

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your . . . strength."  -Mark 12:30

Last semester at Southern, I lost about fifteen pounds. I accomplished this mainly through counting calories and walking 15,000 steps a day. When I got back to Maryland, I got compliments from folks on how much weight I had lost. It felt good to receive this praise. (Don't laugh too loudly. I am in no way praiseworthy today; perhaps only slightly less unpraiseworthy. Over the holidays, I erased a lot of my progress.) This has sent me into a conundrum. Why do I exercise? What's my motivation? Do I exercise for the purpose of receiving others' praise? 

Narcissus was a young lad from Greek mythology who died fawning over his own reflection. Today, you can go to the gym and see a lot of Narcissus' proteges. People are planted in front of the mirror, lifting and twisting and flexing for self. In fact, the mirror is the ultimate symbol of gym culture. Come and build yourself for yourself. Come exalt yourself in your own eyes and the eyes of others. Come and look into the pool of Narcissus. (Yes, I know there are plenty of folks who use the mirror to check their form, me included. But everyone who's been to a gym has seen plenty of folks preening in front of the glass.) 

Compare our culture's fitness obsession with its flipside: the national obesity epidemic. Americans are overweight. According to the CDC, "The US obesity prevalence was 41.9% in 2017 – March 2020" (see here). This means that about 4 out of every 10 people were obese between the years of 2017 and 2020. And this is not just a cosmetics issue. Obesity dramatically increases one's likelihood of contracting a host of diseases and health conditions, including high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, many types of cancer, coronary heart disease, mental illness, and much more (see this CDC article). 

How should we think about food and fitness as Christians? Do we need to become Narcissus, relentlessly pursuing a sleek or shredded appearance? Or should we run to the opposite end, saying that our food choices and exercise habits do not matter? 

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." In the direct context, this is about sexual purity. But as Christ's death was a whole-person death, so his purchase of us was a whole-person purchase. If we belong to Christ, then our entire being belongs to him. He bought us with the price of His own body and blood, so now we must "glorify  God in our body." 

This has radical implications for our exercise and eating. It guards against both self-centered body-crafting and wanton sloth and binge-eating. The former seeks to receive others' applause and sideways glances. The latter seeks soul-satisfaction outside of God and His goodness, and fails to steward God's gift of embodiment. Both fail to enthrone Christ as Lord. Both fail to "glorify God in the body." 

So what are some godly motivations for exercise? There are a host of them. When you strive to be fit, you can strive to be fit for use by Christ. Imagine if the Lord called you to the mountains of Papua New Guinea next week--would you have put in the work to be available to Christ for this purpose? The Bible compares us to vessels (2 Timothy 2). Have you maintained yourself so that you are "useful to the Master of the house"? (2 Tim. 2:21)

The healthier you stay, the better you'll be able to serve the Lord and those around you.* When you exercise daily, you potentially stave off a host of future diseases and improve your overall well-being (see here). Regular exercise increases your energy levels, giving you more strength to put into your church, family, and job (see here). Exercise helps to improve your mood and mental health (see here). Exercise can also improve sleep, allowing you to be more energized in your service to God and others (see here).

Also, regular exercise and healthier eating habits can increase your lifespan (see here and here). If by laziness and misuse, your lifespan is cut short, how is that offering yourself wholly to Christ? We want our lives on earth to be "fruitful labor," (Phil. 1:22), and we can often prolong our stay in this vineyard by eating right and exercising regularly. We should not seek long life for itself, but we should strive to be faithful stewards of the life Christ has given us, seeking to make the most of it for his glory.

Indeed, it might be said that physical fitness is a gift from God. We were intended to be healthy, and improved fitness carries a truckload of benefits. Yes, we receive ice cream and pizza and wings as good gifts from God, but we can also forego them as we pursue another good that he has for us: improved overall health.

We can hit the gym, and hit it hard, not for our own exaltation, but for our usefulness to Christ and our neighbor. We can make wise food choices not ultimately in pursuit of a slim appearance, but out of love for God and desire to please Him and be used of Him. Unlike the world, which lives and eats and works out for self, we have the privilege of living our embodied life for Another, the perfect and glorious Lord Jesus. As it says in 2 Cor. 5:15, "He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." We don't exercise like Narcissus, staring down into that deadly pool, but rather with our eyes upward and outward toward Christ and others.

At the end of the day, our ultimate joy and delight is Christ himself, not fitness, muscles, or food. He is our greatest good. May everything we do, in body, soul, and spirit, be done to Him. "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." -1 Cor. 10:31

For further reading: 

"Fit for What? The Spiritual Habit of Physical Exercise" by David Mathis, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/fit-for-what 

Embodied by Gregg Allison, https://www.amazon.com/Embodied-Living-Whole-People-Fractured/dp/1540900053

"Exercise for More of God: Five Reasons to Train Your Body" by Stacy Reaoch, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/exercise-for-more-of-god

*This entire post deserves a million nuances. 

1. I am certainly not a medical professional. 

2. There are some folks who are obese but not because of overeating or inactivity.

3. Exercise often helps to improve mental health, but not always. 

4. Even the fittest get sick, and sometimes the least active live long lives. 

5. There are plenty of people who are prevented from going to the mission field, or even church (or even outside) for physical reasons they have no control over. I'm only addressing here the things that God has given us some amount of control over. 

My point with all of this is not that those who are more fit are more spiritual. Rather, my point is that Christ must be at the center of everything we do, including our eating and exercising.