Physical Strength In A Digital Age
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”
Yesterday, we discussed the slow creep of the remote work worldview into the church, where busyness has slowly displaced fruit, and the Christian life has largely been reduced to the tone of one’s digital footprint. Today, a person can be the world’s greatest, most fearless, outspoken evangelist online, but a functional atheist in real life.
But it’s not our social media identity or personal brand that will ultimately be judged, for each of us will receive what is due for what we have done in the body (2 Cor 5:10), whether good or evil.
One way we can resist the digitization of our faith is to cultivate physical strength. This idea is widely portrayed as if it’s some fringe, “muscular Christianity” movement, consisting of disgruntled, perpetually online, far-right youths. In reality, maintenance of the body is an essential part of Christian life and obedience.
God did not create us as nonphysical spirits who simply fly around the cosmos, but as unique creatures with bodies and souls. Professor and theologian J.V. Fesko says, “We must not therefore view our bodies as simply the wheelbarrow for the soul. They are instead an integrated whole—when the soul suffers maladies it can affect the body, and when the body suffers harm it can affect the soul and its faculties—intellect, will, and affections.” There is a crucial link between the physical and the spiritual self. Therefore, our Christian duties extend to both.
To pretend like we must choose between the two is folly. Critics point to Paul’s guidance that bodily training is merely of some value in an attempt to minimize the relative importance of strength and conditioning to spiritual development. But it’s still of some value, and so should be given its proper place in our daily lives. Here are a few reasons why:
Stewardship of the body
Our bodies are part of God’s good creation (Genesis 1:31) which we are called to steward well. We are commanded to glorify God with our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit within us, which come from Him, and which were bought with a price.
Man was made to work and to subdue the wilderness around him. But how will he rule anything if he cannot rule himself? How will he subdue the earth and practice self-denial if he can’t even control his own appetite, lethargy, or slothful spirit?
A wise man once told me that the body is the barometer of the soul. With few exceptions, a disordered (obese, or especially frail and weak) physique is a symptom of a disordered soul, and evidence of misplaced affections.
On the one hand, bodily weakness says to the world, “the physical realm doesn’t really matter,” like a Gnostic who rejects the material world for the higher, more pure spiritual one.
Obesity is similar in that it treats the state of the body as unimportant, but it also betrays an unhealthy love of food and drink. If you know someone who’s severely overweight, it’s highly likely that they lack discipline in other areas of life, too. It’s almost impossible to compartmentalize impulsivity, which is why the strongest, fittest people you know are probably also the most disciplined in the kitchen and other areas of life.
In other words, the body largely betrays the state of the soul. Our appearance speaks volumes about what we actually believe about the world God has made.
The doctrine of vocation
All of life, including physical labor and service, is under the lordship of Christ. Physical strength enables us to fulfill our calling in the world through our earthly occupations in the workplace, the church, and the home. Through the cultivation of strength and fitness via physical discipline, we are able to serve God and others more effectively, through caregiving, physical labor, protection, etc.
God commands that men work and provide for their families, and to do all for His glory. Even if your work is primarily “thought-based” (haha), there is still a direct link between your fitness and your mental acuity. The studies unanimously prove that positive health metrics (a higher VO2 max, lower body mass index, smaller waist circumference, and better grip strength) are directly correlated to a higher quality of life, increased work quality, clearness of mind, etc. Anyone who works out knows this to be true and doesn’t need a study to confirm it. Walk into any Fortune 500 company and observe how many of its executives are severely overweight. Probably few, or none.
To slip into the malaise of a sedentary lifestyle, then, is to say that the quality of your work isn’t as important as fleeting, momentary pleasures. This extends to every area of life, from not being able to throw your toddler in the air at the pool, to calling in sick to work over and over because your body’s a wreck. If we are committed to doing all that we do for His glory, we must keep our greatest tool, our body, sharpened and ready to go.
Discipline and sanctification
Sanctification is a lifelong process of becoming more like Christ which involves self-denial, discomfort, humility, and suffering. Of course, there is no world in which an especially difficult squat workout even compares to what Christ endured for us, or where physical discomfort is somehow akin to the purification and refining which God puts His children through for their own benefit. But I do believe that it is a means, a type of training ground for spiritual sanctification.
Of course, physical discipline is not ultimate, as Paul tells it is of some value, while godliness is of value in every way, holding promise for the present life and the life to come. It complements our spiritual growth by training us to live with self-control, perseverance, diligence, and commitment, virtues which are essential to the Christian life.
Again, none of these things exists in a vacuum. The times in my life when I’ve been the most disciplined spiritually were the direct result of my body leading the way. I rarely feel so motivated to read the word of God and pray as I do after my body has been tested, broken down, and built back up in the gym for His glory. If either body or soul is out of whack, chances are, the other will soon follow. Likewise, if we’re dialed in physically, then we become more disciplined people, and the other areas of our life adjust accordingly.
We tend to over-spiritualize every command from God to the point that the whole of the Christian life can be lived out from a computer chair. Christ’s call to self-denial is usually portrayed mostly as a spiritual battle, and there’s truth to that. But man is both body and soul. Our bodies crave comfort as much as our minds do, and through the cultivation of physical strength and fitness, we are telling our bodies that our feelings and desires in any given moment are not in control. We deny the natural man’s love for sloth, gluttony, and an easy life. And again, in time, this self-denial becomes easier and easier and carries over to the spiritual temptations of lust, infidelity, idleness, etc.
Converts
This final reason is just my own opinion, but I think it’s an important one. We often bemoan the lack of young converts we have in our church pews today, blaming it on generational trends. “Our churches are just too feminine,” we say, and our liturgies cater to middle-aged women who watch Nicholas Sparks movies. There’s some truth to this, I’m sure.
But I think another reason young men often walk in the front doors of a church and turn around and walk right back out is because they don’t see anyone there who they want to become. Whether it’s the pastor who is 150 pounds overweight, the elders who devour fried food at the church potluck following the sermon, or the frail, skin-and-bones resident theologians who could speak for eight hours unassisted on church polity in Calvin’s Geneva but couldn’t pick up an empty barbell, it really should be no surprise that young, fit, aggressive, competent men, men we read about throughout the Bible, are often turned off by what they see.
Men need a positive vision, a striving toward something. For a man to stand in the pulpit and deliver a one-hour sermon about self-control while his love handles spill over his waistline and his three chins jiggle around his face is the height of hypocrisy, and the young men will simply head back to the gym on Sunday mornings. Some of the people there may be vain and shallow, but at least they’re consistent.
If we want to attract the type of young men who will carry the church into the future, who will refuse to bow to idols, and who will speak truth to a corrupt and degenerate State apparatus, we must give them something besides sweet, romantic platitudes about the “warm embrace” of Jesus. Men were made to bear burdens, for war, aggression, hardship, and suffering.
We should give them such challenges and call them to something higher, something harder, something that requires their very best effort, beyond simply sitting in a pew taking notes like a good altar boy. The days of just-say-this-prayer-and-be-saved theological minimalism are over; men need to be called higher, both in body and soul.
I try not to over-qualify, but this doesn’t mean the average Christian man needs to bench 405 or look like he’s on steroids. Were that true, most of the heroes of the faith in Scripture would be disqualified. David, the warrior-poet, Christ, the suffering servant, Paul, the physically weak but spiritually fierce apostle, these are all great examples of Biblical manhood.
But even they held a baseline level of physical fitness as they traveled around the region by foot, transported raw materials and built heavy things, and even went out to do war against Israel’s enemies. Clearly, the time period in which they lived basically made obesity an impossibility, but the principles stand; Christian men should be agile, fit, able to serve where and when they are needed, not sedentary blobs unable to get out of their recliner to roughhouse with a kid or move some sandbags around the church.
There will always be those who read an article like this and feel the need to remind us that “Biblical masculinity isn’t about being a bodybuilder,” arguing that we “make idols of the body.” K, yeah, got it. If we did that, it would be bad. But walk into any American church, and do a quick scan of the first ten men you see, and then tell me with a straight face that the church over-emphasizes maintenance of the body. We war against many idols; fitness ain’t one of ‘em.
In a day where countless personalities and institutions are fighting for the affections of young men, we must lead the way with strength, not in a spirit of vanity, but from a heart which desires to serve God well in the physical world He has made.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship
The beauty of cultivating strength is that there’s very little opportunity for flattery or self-deception. The weight on the bar doesn’t lie. There’s great value in participating in physical training to pull us out of our digital malaise and remind us that God is Lord over the physical world and the body, in a way that the cross-functional-digital-task-force-brainstorm-session-e-mail side of the world has forgotten.
Good luck!
Happy hoisting.
T