Don’t Kill Your Horse: The Godliness of a Good Diet and Physical Exercise

Near the end of his short life, the missionary Robert Murray McCheyne allegedly said, “God gave me a horse and a message. I have killed the horse and I can no longer deliver the message.”

 

Few Christians grip the importance of taking care of their body. They seek to preach the gospel and magnify Christ, but they abuse, neglect, and eventually kill the horse that God has given them to do it with. In their thinking, an out of shape and neglected mind is a tragedy. But an out of shape and neglected body is something to joke about.

 

I firmly believe that to neglect the body is both a tragedy and a sin. God has given it to us for the purpose of glorifying Him. If we throw it away, we are spurning His gift and failing to do what He has commanded with what He has given. That is sinful. Your body is not your own. It is for the fame of Christ. “You have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). While Paul wrote this specifically in reference the sin of immorality, the point still stands: you have been redeemed in order to glorify God. Therefore glorify God in all things—including your body.

 

In fact, by neglecting the body, we harm almost every other area in life in which we strive to glorify God. We cripple our worship, service, and ability to preach the gospel. It is like a filter. Everything comes through it and it affects everything. Let us repent of this sin and begin to seek the glory of God in this area.

 

The two most basic steps are a good diet and physical exercise—every day. It does not have to be hard. It just takes discipline and self-control, both of which are commanded in Scripture. And it is not a waste of time. It is godly. Of course it must be done in moderation. Too much of an obsession with diet and exercise with the wrong purposes in mind is not godly (1 Timothy 4:8). But I see far less of that extreme than the one I am working against.

 

Don’t kill your horse. That is my thesis. In doing so, you will kill your ability to preach the message of Christ and to glorify God. Rather, care for it, nurture it, and keep it in shape, and thereby further the name of Jesus.

 

Bryan Elliff © 2008 www.bryanelliff.wordpress.com