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Exercise Counts

 

1 Timothy 4:8 - For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. 

If a person wants to be healthy, they must watch their food and exercise and keep both in the right proportion. Too much food without proper exercise will make a person overweight and sluggish, and too much exercise without the proper diet will make a person sick.

What is true of the outer person physically is true of the inner person spiritually: the inner man needs the proper food and exercise. In 1 Timothy 4:6 – “If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained,” we see there the nourishing food of “faith and of good doctrine.”  And he warns about the wrong diet in verse 7, “profane and old wives fables,” that is empty doctrines and traditions of men, doctrines that cannot be supported by the Word of God.

But along with spiritual food there must be exercise. Paul is not saying that bodily exercise is not profitable, because everyone knows that it is. Rather, he is arguing that bodily exercise is profitable for only a little time, while spiritual exercise is profitable in this life and in the life to come. The balanced Christian will invest their time in both, but you must remember that spiritual exercise must take the priority.

To “exercise unto godliness” means to put into practice the rules and requirements for a godly life. Certainly, it includes prayer and witnessing, meditation on God’s Word, and the good works the Spirit enables us to perform. It implies disciplining the life, exercising the conscience, and using the “spiritual senses” God has given us.

From – “Thoughts for Men on the Move” by Warren W. Wiersbe