Transcription
Samson tore a lion apart and ripped down the Philistine temple with his bare hands. Jacob physically wrestled with God or the angel of God. Joshua, Caleb, Gideon, David—the Bible is full of countless stories of strong men carrying out the will of God. Certainly, there was some divine intervention going on in these feats, but these men were not slouches.
In today's video, I'm going to share five reasons why I prioritize Fitness as a Christian and why I believe others should too. Disclaimer: I'm not a priest. I don't have any religious authority. I'm just a guy on the internet who likes to yap. I may say something wrong or heretical. I probably will, so feel free to correct me. Though I have looked into the teachings of the early church fathers, so I will be citing them throughout this video, as well as the Bible.
So, first, let's define what I mean by Fitness. So, what I am not talking about is doing harmful things to your body to reach extreme levels of leanness or put on exorbitant amounts of muscle mass. I'm not talking about stuffing your face with a bunch of processed junk for the sake of the dirty bulking. I'm not talking about having surgeries done to change the way you look, and I'm most definitely not talking about taking steroids or other exogenous hormones.
When I talk about being fit, I mean being adequately prepared for life's challenges. This means having a good balance of strength and cardiovascular capacity. It also means having some muscle mass, being within a healthy body fat range, and having a healthy immune system. Obviously, there's going to be a little variation in here based on the body you were given and what type of training you enjoy doing. However, the general concepts still apply.
Reason number one: The human body matters. My body matters, and so does yours. Christ was incarnate as a man. He is fully man and fully God. He's not just God put into a human body. His body is God. Likewise, our bodies are not just vessels of the soul. The notion that your body is just some sort of meat sack that your soul resides in is not a Christian belief. That's really more of like a Buddhist, Hindu type of thing that sort of reemerged in the New Age spirituality. Yes, the body and soul are separated at death, but that is an unnatural state due to our sin, and it's not permanent either.
St. Basil the Great says, "We must take care of our bodies, since they are instruments of the soul, and we must avoid any excessive strain that might damage them, for that would be imprudent and harmful." St. Augustine said, "The body is subject to corruption, and its weight presses down on the soul." Your body matters, though it's not in any of his writings. Another quote that's often attributed to St. Augustine that I really love: "Take care of your soul as if you were going to live forever, and take care of your body as if you were going to die tomorrow." As Christians, we believe in a bodily resurrection, right? Our soul is going to come back into our body, and then hopefully, we're going to live in this body forever. So, I think it's worth taking care of.
Reason number two: We are temples of the Holy Spirit. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you are bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." In context, this is talking about sexual immorality, but it still applies here. These bodies belong to God, so we should glorify God with our bodies.
Now, let's go back to the Old Testament for a minute. Exodus, Leviticus. We hear all about the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant, you know, the place that used to house God's presence. It was very ornate, precious metals, precious woods, precious fabrics and dyes. The Israelites, specifically the Levites, were given very specific instructions on how they were to care for these items. Nadab and Abihu, two Levite priests, didn't follow these instructions, and in turn, they were burned up. Now, the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant were very important; they housed the presence of God, after all, right? But they're still inanimate objects. How much more important are our bodies? Not only do we house the presence of God in the form of the Holy Spirit, but we are also made in the image of God and striving to be in his likeness.
Reason number three why I prioritize Fitness as a Christian: Being out of shape is the fruit of sinful behavior, often sloth and gluttony. I used to be quite out of shape. I was decently strong, but I was carrying way too much body fat, and I got winded going up the stairs. The only way that you get to this point is by consuming more calories than you expend, and I was consuming all the calories, and not just any calories, a lot of junk food too. My go-to Chick-fil-A order that I consumed quite often: I would get a Big Mac, dump in a large mac and cheese, dump in a large fry, dump in a 12-count of nuggets, pull little ranch, buffalo sauce, mix it all up, and eat that. And then, on top of that, I was having a spicy chicken sandwich and a milkshake on the side. I can't even say that I was struggling with gluttony because I didn't struggle; I just embraced it head-on. Not only was I a glutton with my food, but other things too. I played way too many video games, drank way too much alcohol, and this is the result. As with all sins, not only was I harming myself, but everyone around me too. I was so focused on me, me, me, consume, consume, consume, that I wasn't giving to others the way I should have. But more on that later.
The good news is that by disciplining our bodies through a healthy diet and physical exercise, not only are we fighting against the sins of sloth and gluttony directly, but we're also training ourselves to do battle against the temptations of all other sins. Quote from St. John Chrysostom: "If we take pains to discipline our body and bring it into subjection, we shall be able to trample underfoot all the machinations of the devil." Similarly, when I'm disciplining my body, I give myself more credibility when I go out and share my faith with other people. I interact with, like, how can I say that temperance is an important virtue if I'm not actually practicing it in my own life? Another quote from St. Paul to the Corinthians: "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified."
All right, reason number four why I prioritize Fitness as a Christian: It allows me to better serve my neighbors. And this is both in a spiritual sense and a physical sense. In the spiritual sense, like I was saying earlier, by turning away from gluttony, I'm less focused on myself. Before, it was always, "What do I want? What do I need? What can I take in and consume for myself?" both in food and media and all sorts of other things. Now, I still struggle with gluttony, but to a lesser extent. I'm less focused on myself. I have more capacity to think about other people and how I can serve them and be a better neighbor to them and focus more on giving rather than consuming.
And then, obviously, in a physical sense, I'm more able to get up and do things. If somebody needed help moving out of their fourth-floor apartment, this guy would have been pretty useless. And if something like real serious would have happened, like a natural disaster, bro, this guy wouldn't have been able to help out much. He would have had to sit down every five minutes. By getting in better physical shape, not only do I have more of a spiritual capacity to give to others, but a physical capacity too.
And the fifth reason why I prioritize Fitness as a Christian, this one in particular is a real big one for me: Being fit allows me to better serve my family. Similar to the last point, all the same things still apply, but this sort of takes it another layer further. As Christians, we are supposed to be providers. In his letter to St. Timothy, St. Paul writes, "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." Certainly not something I want to be.
By becoming healthier and getting in better shape, you're going to improve your mental clarity. You'll become less impulsive and become a better decision-maker. The discipline that you build up through your diet and exercise will carry over into your job, then you can provide a home and food for your family or cater to whatever other needs they might have. As men, we are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of our own family. St. John Chrysostom said in his 20th Homily on Ephesians that "the home should be a little church." You know, I have a wife, we have a baby on the way. How can I expect to lead them to repentance if I'm not repenting for my own sloth and gluttony?
Furthermore, as Christians, we got to be healthy enough to reproduce. In Genesis, we're told to be fruitful and multiply, and that's pretty hard to do if you're not physically healthy enough to reproduce. And if you're not married yet, it probably makes it harder to find a spouse, too, right? Like this guy would not have been able to land the wife that I have now, not solely because he was out of shape, but because he lacked drive and discipline and temperance. This guy still lacks those things, but to a lesser extent. Even if he had been able to somehow reproduce, he definitely would not have been in good enough shape to run around with his kids and play with them into his old age. I want to be able to play with my kids and wrestle with my son until he's into like high school age or older. I want to be able to provide for my wife into old age and see my grandkids and maybe great-grandkids too. And that's just not going to happen if I don't intentionally prioritize eating healthy and training hard.
So, that being said, well, I do believe that physical fitness is very important for Christians. Remember that it should support your relationship with God, not take away from it. Ouch, ouch, ouch. St. Paul writes, "For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that is now and of that which is to come." If I ever start caring about my appearance or the weight on the bar more than I do about God, then I know I've lost the plot. The goal with taking care of this body and building it up is so that it can be a tool for God's eternal kingdom. That's why I prioritize Fitness as a Christian.
If you're a Christian who works out, let me know down in the comments why you do too. Or if I'm a heretic, go ahead and let me know why. That's going to be a wrap for this video. If you enjoyed the video, check out my free Discord server down in the description. Don't forget to leave a like and check out this video next. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time. [Music]