From INHERITANCE Issue #5 - March 2010

Bodybuilding for Jesus
I’m a Christian bodybuilder, and I’m sick of people being unhealthy. To put it more graciously, I want to encourage every Christian to take their health seriously because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19a).

For the last five years through my work as an international level natural bodybuilder and as a personal trainer, I’ve seen some pretty bad fitness horror stories. I’ve seen 10-year-olds at 30% body fat, 20-year-olds who couldn’t do one push-up and grown adults live off 10-cent ramen because it is easier than cooking.

I think it was most shocking because they were believers who confessed that their bodies were bought by God and dedicated to Christ (1 Cor. 6:19b).

People have often asked me what health and fitness have to do with following Jesus and I tell them that Christians should be the ones who are most concerned with how they treat their bodies.

While I don’t think that everyone should be a bodybuilder, I do believe that our bodies are given to us so that we can work for the glory of God.

Our lifestyles are a reflection of our hearts; do we choose to live for pleasure and leisure or are we committed to being healthy and disciplined so that we may better serve the Lord?

Wartime Lifestyle
I remember back in college when I used to train with the Marines. We would wake up at 4 AM in the morning to go for 4-mile runs because we knew that war wasn’t easy. How were we going to lead soldiers if we ourselves weren’t conditioned and ready for the challenges ahead?

While I know the Christian life is a lot less physically demanding than the Marine Corps, no one in ministry will deny that having good physical health helps you to have an easier time as a missionary, pastor or Sunday School teacher. Who likes being sick all the time or having to be constantly hindered by their physical health?

I believe the Marines taught me a lot of things about war and it definitely showed me how physical health is important to being a soldier. It’s hard to get in the fight when you’re sick in bed.

There is a call for Christians to not waste their lives. It is stated in the title of John Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life, which calls Christians to a “wartime lifestyle.” The Bible clearly gives us freedom in what we eat or drink, but we must remember that we live in a time of war (Col. 2:16).

When soldiers are at war they start prioritizing things differently.

It’s only when we realize that we are waging a war against the kingdom of darkness and our own selfish desires that we start to see what is at stake. We should not be asking what is permissible but, instead, we need to consider what is beneficial. People who are at war do everything they can to make sure that their side wins. What would happen to an army who was more concerned with leisure than on winning the war?

Christians are required to be fit in the sense that we are called to live our entire lives for the glory of God, and our conduct is a witness to the world of riches that is God’s glory.
One of the biggest detractors from our witness is our personal sin. Non-Christians love to ask why Christians overeat and are sedentary when Jesus warns against gluttony and laziness. At times, our sins of laziness and gluttony show that we don’t make Jesus the Lord over all our lives.

The call of following Jesus means that we should live in such a way as to show that Jesus is Lord and that He is more valuable than our desires for other things. We are required to make choices that reflect our belief: that the ultimate enjoyment is not here on earth but with Christ in heaven.

Therefore, we can give up indulgence in food and drink because we know that every sacrifice here is fully rewarded in heaven. This is not a call to asceticism but a call to discipline.

Bodybuilding: Living as a Sacrifice
Interestingly enough, I am writing this article while sitting in an internet cafe in China.

Five years ago I started my ministry here by writing my first book, Bodybuilding: Living as a Sacrifice. It packages a devotional series through the Old Testament alongside articles I wrote for fitness and bodybuilding.

It’s been a great success because I have yet to meet a guy (Christian or non-Christian) who wouldn’t sit down to read a book that will guarantee to make them buff for the rest of their life. Also, because it’s styled like a fitness book it was able to pass through China’s censorship laws.

I bring this up to encourage you to think hard about your Christian witness. I have met many people in China who wonder if the Gospel has anything to say about our physical health.

Does Jesus only change our life when we die or does the Holy Spirit also renew our physical bodies?

Too many times unbelievers are turned off because they can’t see how Jesus has anything relevant to say about their life right now. I think my ministry in China has been successful because people are craving to see a people physically and spirtually transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.

The Christian Life is a Race
We discipline our bodies so that we might master them and use them to complete what Christ has given us to do. That is why Paul says:

²⁷But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV)

To me this verse has special meaning because it reminds me that we are not only soldiers but we are also runners. He says that the Christian life is a race with a prize worth far more than any earthly reward (1 Cor. 9:24-25).

We, then, do all that we can so that we might not fall out of the race, and we push with all our discipline so that we might run strong.

Life is a race that we must train ourselves for. Everyday we face potholes and obstacles that seek to block us from the goal that is Jesus. Our obstacles in America are not so much persecution, fear for our lives, or being unable to live out our beliefs; instead, we are snared by our own desires.

Our desire to satisfy ourselves with the created things rather than the Creator is a snare to us because it keeps us from running in such a way as to get the prize.

Runners must struggle through pain and exhaustion if they hope to win the prize, and Christians must do the same. We must resist every desire to give up and satisfy ourselves with only earthly pleasures if we are to gain more of Jesus.

Living our Christian life as a race means that we structure our lives so as not to receive maximum pleasure from our home entertainment systems or good food; instead, we realize that the ultimate end is to find glory in Christ.

Work While It is Day
⁴We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. (John 9:4 ESV)

This is a command for us to see that while we are in the world, we are to do the work of Him who sent us. The Puritans believed correctly that we have a short time here on Earth to work and our bodies are the vessels we use to work. How, then, can we overindulge ourselves in food and drink when the harvest is ripe for picking? Jesus told his disciples:

⁴⁴Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:44 ESV)

It is with this unexpectedness in mind that Christians must ask themselves if they have been using their resources wisely. With three billion people left in the world to be reached for by the Gospel and most of them living in dangerous and rough places, there is no shortage of work to be done.

It would be wise for us today to remember that food and rest are given for us to enjoy, but we need to be cautious to not overindulge. Gluttony and slothfulness are sins that we have forgotten about in our culture. We have lost that fear today and have satisfied ourselves too much on earthly things rather than the pleasures of God.

The Bible calls us to see ourselves as soldiers and runners. Both give us a very clear image of how we should look at our bodies.

In order to be faithful we need to reflect on how faithful we have been in using our bodies for this war and how we have disciplined our bodies for this race.

Every choice we make affects our ability to contribute to the war effort, and we need to exercise discipline so that we can stay in this race. I pray that you will be disciplined, and that God will be gracious and help you to be faithful in all areas of your life. Here’s a final question: how will you take care of the body that God has given you?