MAKING GAINS FOR GOSPEL INFLUENCE
How exercise and eating habits can either hinder or help your global witness for Christ
I want to start off by saying that though I have been walking with Christ for six years, I have only been a physically healthy person for the last year and a half. I’ve used eating as a form of escapism; running from responsibility and into the arms of a donut. I have struggled with and lost to the sin of gluttony. I’ve stuffed my emotions by stuffing my face.
But not only eating, I have also lost to the sin of laziness. I’ve had periods of weeks and months where I refused to wake up to my first alarm (or even my fourth snooze). I’ve abused gifts and blessings that God has given me to celebrate and turned them into an unhealthy lifestyle. Cakes, coffees, coffee stouts; if you can name it, I’ve had one too many. What I mean to say is this: don’t think you’re reading an article from a guy who has always prioritized his health to the glory of God.
But two years ago, right around the time, I began working for The Traveling Team, one of my closest friends was home on Christmas break from a missionary training program in Mexico. I asked him about his day-to-day experience, and I was shocked to learn that he and all his classmates were doing CrossFit in the wee hours of the morning on a daily basis. His training program has this crazy notion that to be a missionary, you need to be in decent shape.
As I read the New Testament, I’ve been struck by Paul’s commands to believers in how we are to treat our bodies. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul says:
Or 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.
He then goes on to make this point in 1 Corinthians 10:31:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Unfortunately, there was a time in my Christian walk when I believed that how I treated my body (diet, exercise, sleep, etc.) had no relationship to my spiritual health. I was seriously misguided. In fact, Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 4:8:
...for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way.
For years, I would come to this verse and I would read it correctly but interpret it incorrectly. In my mind, this verse meant: bodily training is of no value, but godliness is of value in every way. But that’s not what the verse says. It actually says that bodily training is of some value. This is not a comprehensive call to vanity. I hope and pray that we repent and abstain from self-discipline for the sake of worship among our peers for how attractive we are.
What I hope to show is that Paul’s exhortations about how we treat and live in our bodies can have serious implications for our lives and ministries today. Especially if our aim is as lofty as going overseas long-term for the sake of the gospel being preached to all nations. I don’t believe this list is comprehensive, but I hope you see the importance of being physically healthy to the glory of God. Here are three major reasons that bodily training is of “some value:”
First: Your Body is Different Than, But Not Disconnected from Your Soul
Bodily training (including healthy eating and getting adequate rest) is of some value because your body is different than but not disconnected from your soul. Ponder this: you have never done anything outside your body. It sounds obvious, right? But we have never: prayed, read our Bible, meditated on promises, sang praise to God, shared the gospel, preached a sermon, led a bible study, or partook in communion or baptism without our bodies and minds being engaged.
Exercise can even strengthen the power of our minds; therefore, aiding our Bible study, memorization, and meditation. In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that “regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning” [1]. Having good eating, exercise, and sleep habits is no guarantee of spiritual health, but it can certainly aid in your pursuit of knowing and treasuring Jesus Christ.
Second: God Sees the Soul, But Man Sees the Body
In John 7:24, Jesus tells his followers:
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.
Jesus is saying that it is problematic and wrong to judge by appearances. It’s not good; in fact, it’s bad. But the fact that Jesus is saying this should alert us that Jesus is assuming his followers have been judging others by their fitness, clothes, and beauty. This is the way the world (twisted in sin) works because man judges by the body.
Therefore, if your intention is to take the good news of the gospel to those who are lost, we need to consider that they are lost and will judge us according to what they see (our body), not according to what God sees (our soul). Even as followers of Jesus, we often are quick to judge and show partiality based solely upon looks. I am by no means endorsing, excusing, or justifying this corruption. As I stated earlier, this is not a call to vanity. This is not a call to waste one’s life pursuing a perfect beach body for the sake of building a following of people who could lust after and envy our looks. The goal is to remove any barriers that a person might have when hearing the gospel coming out of our mouths.
These reflections changed my outlook significantly. Are signs of gluttony the first thing someone sees when he or she looks at me? Is laziness or sloppiness obvious in my personal hygiene? Is it clear to anyone who looks at me that I do not try to take care of myself?
How does this change your outlook? Do you look like someone who honors this temple of the Holy Spirit that God has blessed you with? Do you look like someone who believes that they were made in the image of God? Do you appear as someone who knows that you were bought with a price?
Third: God’s Mission is Physically Tough
In Matthew 16:24, Jesus turns to his disciples and says:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me…
He is making a tough point. In this life, there will be many hardships—physical and spiritual—if we would be followers of Jesus. Are we prepared to take those burdens on?
During college, I got to take a six-week mission trip to the 10/40 window with my campus ministry. I was excited to go but I was wildly unprepared for the physical toll that a foreign context would exact on me. It was 100+ degrees and a minimum of 60 percent humidity. I was walking roughly 7.5 miles per day. I had no access to hot water for showering and only during sleeping hours could we run our rooms’ air-conditioner. I lost 22 pounds without trying. My body was adjusting but I think if I’d been better prepared beforehand, I could have focused more on the gospel opportunities instead of finding ways to get comfortable. Physical preparation is equally as important as spiritual preparation.
Before an astronaut is launched into space, they must undergo an extreme amount of physical conditioning. Their discipline in diet and exercise must be perfect. They do so in the hope that they will be launched off this earth and out of the atmosphere into a radically different environment: space. They must train radically because their bodies are accustomed to the atmosphere on earth. Their body was perfectly adapted to the conditions they lived in before. In order to prepare for a wildly different environment, they must put their body through serious strain and work so they don’t completely fall apart when they get into space.
In a less dramatic but similar fashion, a person taking the gospel to a different place will need to prepare for a new environment, challenges (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) that they’ll meet. In fact, this has real implications if we wish to go overseas to be a witness of Jesus Christ to peoples who have never heard of him. I got a small glimpse of the implications when I was in the unreached world and I wasn’t even there for two months. Think of the wonderful comforts and blessings that many of us have grown accustomed to living in our home country. Many of us are blessed with cars, air-conditioning, smart phones, overnight shipping, streaming services with every show imaginable, one million food genres and options, electrical power, internet access available everywhere, and more.
But to go overseas to a vastly different environment to reach an unreached people group, you might be sacrificing several or most of those comforts. Have you stretched yourself physically, emotionally, and spiritually to be able to endure such a feat? Making a Spirit empowered effort to live a healthy life is honoring and pleasing to our God. It can positively impact our pursuit of knowing him, remove stumbling blocks for unbelievers coming to faith, and make us resilient to stand firm for the gospel in this nation and among all nations.
1 Corinthians 10:31:
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
By Will Watson
Will has served The Traveling Team as one of our travelers since Spring 2020. He is a graduate of the University of Arkansas. His passion is to see the next generation of World-Christian goers and senders raised up to finish the Great Commission.
[1] Godman, Heidi. “Regular Exercise Changes the Brain to Improve Memory, Thinking Skills.” Harvard Health, April 10, 2014.
All Scripture comes from the English Standard Version, published by Crossway.
