In my last post, I explored how we should think about our bodies in light of what the Bible has to say. If you didn’t read that post, check it out HERE because it sets up what I want to explore in this post.
The church just doesn’t seem to place much emphasis on the body and physical health! Have you ever heard a sermon about taking care of your body as a way to honor God?
There just seems to be a blindspot when it comes to Christians and fitness.
I’ve heard plenty of sermons about remaining sexually pure and honoring God with our bodies in that way.
But what about something like overeating? Being overweight and out of shape? Our relationship to food and movement?
I’ve NEVER heard a sermon about those things, and I have a theory as to why.
There is a wild misconception that has been lingering among Christians for almost 1900 years now, and it very rarely gets pointed out, because if you don’t look closely, it can seem kind of…well, spiritual or even holy.
I call it the gnostic hangover.
Gnosticism was an ancient religious and philosophical movement that emerged during the time of the early church - the first or second century AD.
One of the main tenets of Gnosticism is a kind of dualism. The idea that the spiritual (non-physical) realm was good, and the material world was corrupt, evil and profane.
There are a handful of gospels that aren’t in your bible (gospel of Thomas, gospel of Philip etc) which are gnostic in their teaching and the early church condemned gnosticism as a heresy - as in, not in line with what Jesus taught.
But for some reason, this dualistic idea of spiritual = good, physical = bad has lingered in the minds of Christians ever since.
I wonder if you have a subtle gnostic hangover too?
Maybe you have some core beliefs that your physical body is somehow bad, or dirty or broken.
Maybe you believe the material world is not important compared to spiritual things.
Maybe you believe that your body doesn’t matter to God, because your heart is what he looks at.
To be honest, these are tempting notions, but I want to push back on them a bit because I think the good news of the Gospel is a whole lot better than most people make it out to be
I’m convinced that Jesus came to redeem all of creation, not to condemn it. (John 3:17)
Here’s what I mean.
Orthodox Christianity believes in something called the incarnation. This is like, Christianity 101.
That just comes from the latin word “carne” meaning flesh. It’s the idea that God took on flesh - he entered physical reality and became a man.
He didn’t just put on a “man costume”. He didn’t just look like a man. He became a man. He was human in every way we are human.
This. Is. Scandalous.
And the people in Jesus’ day thought so too. The idea of God being a man was SO offensive to the religious leaders in Jesus’ day that they condemned him for heresy and murdered him.
There simply was no room in their worldview for the divine and the physical to be smooshed together like that. And yet, in Jesus, through the incarnation, what we see is a RADICAL affirmation of God’s love for His creation, and the goodness of being human.
God loved His creation so much that he entered into it. God loved his creation so much that he became a part of it.
Like the artist painting himself into the picture.
In Jesus, we see that the physical and the divine are in the same place. They are co-mingled.
But what does this mean for us practically?
It means that your physical life - what you do with your body, the actions you take, the words you say, the way you interact with people - is not something separate from your spiritual life.
They are the same thing.
Think about this.
All behavior grounds out in your body. Every thought that you’ve ever had doesn’t become real until you act on it.
Your thoughts and intentions are made real, made concrete through your body; through the words you say and the things you do.
In other words, what you do with your body IS the expression of your spiritual life. It’s not something different and independent.
It’s true that man looks at the outward appearance, while God looks at the heart.
But what you do with your body, how you treat it, honor it and use it is a reflection of your heart.
If you neglect your body, treat it with disregard and abuse it through the things you consume, you dishonor God. Those kinds of behaviors are a physical symptom of a spiritual problem.
So do our bodies matter to God? Absolutely. Because our physical health, our mental health and our spiritual health are all connected.
We humans are strange, complex, and multidimensional creatures. Our bodies affect our minds. Our minds affect our bodies. Our environments affect both.
We talk about this a lot in H40, which is our 40-day guided sprint to better physical and mental health. One of the things I love the most about taking people through H40 is seeing the lightbulb go on for people as they realize how interconnected these different aspects are.
That’s why it’s not just a fitness program. There are a billion of those. If you just want to get shredded, there are plenty of programs to help you do that. But if you want to change the way you relate to your life? If you want to build new healthy habits that last a lifetime? If you want to improve not just your physical health but your mental health and your sense of gratitude for being? H40 is for you.
We’re starting another H40 sprint at the end of July this year, and I’d LOVE for you to be a part of it. You can find out more and sign up by clicking the button below.
Oh yeah, and it’s completely FREE. Join the waitlist today, and I’ll see you on the other side.
Live Free,
Greg
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