July 27, 2013

1 Tim. 4:8 — For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

I was in the gym on Thursday night. (Anyone who says they’ve seen what I look like, and no way do I go to the gym is just being mean!). It occurred to me as I burned calories on the treadmill that the people I saw around me were pursuing their physical fitness with a lot more passion than I see being applied to the pursuit of spiritual fitness by some of the people I see around me on Sunday!

Strangely enough, I think Paul might have been thinking a similar thought when he wrote to Timothy as part of the first mentoring program for beginning pastors! He would be very aware of the Greek view of fitness – almost a religion – that had been adopted all over the Roman Empire. Even the Romans themselves recognized the need for balance. One of their poets said “ You should pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body.” (In the original

Latin, “orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano.” – Juvenal, Satires).

Paul asked for more than balance. In fact he sees only a little value in physical activity – because it is valuable only for this life, whereas godliness has advantage for this life and the next. It might even be doubted if he is really talking about gymnastic exercises. He might rather be saying “the physical presenting of the body in religious worship is good, but without godliness it’s really not that valuable”.

There’s more to this business of the body and the Spirit though – Paul also says (1 Cor 6:19-20) “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. There can be no doubt that we need to take care of this earthly, temporal body, for while we live this life our body is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, the helper Jesus sent to us. What a shame so many of us do such a poor job of keeping the temple in good shape! What kind of message am I sending about my God if I keep Him in a run-down, beaten up wreck of a place!

But the Spirit doesn’t just need a good home. It needs regular care and attention. Godliness is that business of making the Holy Spirit feel at home. The bible doesn’t offer a precise definition, but I saw a list of characteristics of a Godly life (from Loren Warkentin, then Registrar at Northwestern Baptist Seminary):

• Our pursuit of godliness involves determined effort (2 Peter 1:5)
• Our pursuit of godliness requires strict training (1 Tim. 4:7)
• Our pursuit of godliness entails a renunciation of ungodliness (Titus 2:12)
• Our pursuit of godliness will be characterized by/produce a zeal for good works (Titus 2:14)
• Our pursuit of godliness has been resourced richly (2 Peter 1:3,4)
• Our pursuit of godliness has an ultimate goal in view (Titus 2:13 and many other passages)

Spiritual conditioning, properly considered, should be every bit as strenuous as physical conditioning. I’m off to exercise!