A physiologist’s perspective

I find that people tend to look through their scholastic lens when they are first met with a topic. I find this is true for myself. I first look through a biological or anatomical lens or use theories and principles like the repeated bout effect or SAID principle to describe my perspective on topics; and I find myself many times using exercise analogies for novel topics. So as a lover of the Bible, I sometimes find myself reading and stumble across something that makes my exercise and health centered brain light up. Sometimes weird thoughts like, “huh, I wonder is God desired the fat as a sacrifice in part because He knew high dietary saturated fat was going to be unhealthy for the Israelites.”
Reading the Bible with this perspective, one thing has become clear, God created human beings to move. This is apparent all throughout the Bible from Genesis to Wisdom Literature, to the writings of the Apostle Paul. My hope here is to share a few of these perspectives.

God created us in the beginning to move, work, and be active.

Genesis 1:28 “…be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea…every living thing.”

Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and keep it.”

Before there was sin in the world, before Adam and Eve took a bite out the apple, their destiny was to work. They had roles, they were to have children, they were to manage the garden, cook food, plant and grow food, and “subdue” and have “dominion” over the entire Earth. The world “subdue” is “kabash” in Hebrew and it means to conquer and take control of; while the word “dominion” in Hebrew is “radah” which means to have royal authority over or administrative power over. In that way we were placed in charge of the entire planet. This is apparent from the verses above and also Genesis 3:17-19 where God explains the consequences to Adams actions, “cursed is ground because of you…in pain you shall eat it (the fruit from the ground)..thorns and thistles it shall bring forth…by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread.” God’s punishment is not that the man will have to labor, but instead that the ground will fight against him now, and he will toil more than before. Anybody who has hoed a garden row in the North Carolina heat has felt these ramifications all too well.

While the Bible doesn’t mention formal exercise, it does tell us to work hard

The closest verse in the Bible that discusses formal, structured exercise is found in 1 Timothy 4:8, “For physical training is of some value, but Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” Paul insinuates that physical training and being physically fit is of value in this earthy life. Outside of that verse we can only say two things for certain. One, being active and working is good behavior. Two, that being lazy, or sedentary, is a poor trait. Evidence for this can be seen in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, some of them had become fervent believers and said to themselves, “since Jesus is coming back soon, I think I am just going to kick back an relax then.” Paul urges them to stay active, and work! Chapter 5 of 1 Thessalonians states, “And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” Paul again addresses this in his second letter in chapter 3 starting at verse 6 where he says, “…brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle… We were not idle when we were with you… we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. ⁹ We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. ¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” When we work, and produce, we have something to use as a blessing to others. Furthermore, Paul seems to insinuate later that being “idle” can lead to unbecoming attributes. Also, Paul is anything but short on exercise analogies. He mentions running, boxing, training, and racing in his letters regarding one’s spiritual journey. Perhaps he was a fellow fitness enthusiast. Lastly, if you read Proverbs for any amount of time you will be met with negative comments about the “sluggard”, which is a person who is lazy or idle. Proverbs 6:6, 6:9, 10:26, 13:4, 21:25, and many more, all tell the poor outcome for someone who is sedentary to the extent that they don’t work, that they are lazy and irresponsible.  

Believers are instructed to take care of their bodies

Another well-known verse in this realm is Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.” At the very least from this we get the lesson of good stewardship of our bodies. If we extrapolate that out a bit, we can make a case that actions such as exercising, eating healthy foods, maintaining healthy weights, etc. fall in line with being a good steward of one’s body.

So, to summarize, we absolutely know that God created us to move, to work, and to be responsible for our bodies. We know that while we are here on Earth, we must do work: Kingdom work God has laid out for us ahead of time (Eph. 2:10), occupational work to be a blessing to our family and others, personal and spiritual work aimed at becoming more like our Savior (1 John 2:6), and more. And, lastly, we absolutely know that being lazy, idle, or sedentary is a poor attribute. What I feel like we can extrapolate from this is; anything that improves the health of our body and better enables us to complete our work is a good thing – such as exercise. I think a more nuanced question here is, how do we bridge the gap between God having already “decreed the number of [our] months and hav[ing] set limits [we] cannot exceed” and the data on healthy habits and longevity? Does God simply know what behaviors we will adopt and wont? Does it only play into our function and not our longevity? God knows what we will do, what we will choose, when we will pass, and where we will go – but he hasn’t decided it for us, we have free will. So, let’s use that free will to be more active and improve our ability to do kingdom work.