"Gold Medal Living pt.1: A Tool, Not Toxic"

Aug.15/04 (Opening of 2004 Summer Olympics) 1Cor.9:24-27

Participant or Potato?

Excitement is mounting in the world of sports. For 4 years athletes have been preparing for the summer Olympics. Now they're here, from the 13th to 29th of this month, back in their ancient home of Greece. From wrestling to water polo, from table tennis to the triathlon, athletes from nations all over the planet will be vying for a gold, silver, or bronze medal.

      And then there's the rest of us, who will be watching -- the vicarious victors, cheering and celebrating when our country's sportsters win a medal as if we had a part in it ourselves. The armchair athletes. Howard Hendricks once described a football game as "70,000 people desperately in need of exercise watching 22 people desperately in need of rest." Thanks to modern telecommunications, from radio and satellite TV to high-speed internet, we'll all be there at ringside, in solidarity swallowing our snacks as the athletes sweat. We'll gladly be the couch potato rather than the participant.

      In October 1998 in Beaver, Pennsylvania, the official Couch Potato Marathon got underway in true sedentary style with contestants relaxing on a well-worn couch and watching a videotape of the course they did not run. Two couches were parked in front of a TV set. On the screen was the course video, with a red arrow pointing to the centre of the screen that said, "You are not here." Participants in the non-marathon collected pledges for each of the 26 miles of open highway none would ever jog. The proceeds would help finance Beaver's first homeless shelter. The local housing program coordinator explained, "We were trying to think of something novel to help the homeless." Her first thought was to run a marathon, but as she puts it, "That's too much work for us."

      It's fun to be a couch potato and watch sports devotees stretch and strain to win world medals. But too many of us adopt a similar attitude when it comes to our spiritual life. The church has been likened to that football game - dozens or scores of people desperately in need of exercise watching a small handful of church workers desperately in need of a rest. But the Bible tells us that, when it comes to exercising our spiritual muscles, God's counting on each one of us to be a participant not a potato, to be doing our part.

A Trusty Tool for God's Contest

It is possible to place too much emphasis on sports, to the point that it becomes an idol, the sole motivating factor in an athlete's life, outweighing God. Or non-athletes may fall into the trap of worshipping their favourite sports hero. The Bell Summer Olympics Viewer's Guide that came free in the mail says, "It is with reverence to these individuals carrying the weight of the country on their shoulders that we dedicate this publication." Respect and honour and appreciate, yes; "reverence" though is in danger of idolizing someone.

      The apostle Paul showed respect for athletes when he said that those who compete in the games go into "strict training" to get a crown that won't last. He implies there is an even more important competition, the Christian life. Believers in Christ run a different kind of race, to get "a crown that will last forever" (1Cor.9:25). That is the prize God's sons and daughters in Jesus strive and yearn for: His "well done" and reward on the day of judgment. (Mt.25:21,23)

      Even gold medals have limited usefulness. They're of no value to you once this life is over. And they can even be spurned by those who are very young. Simon Whitfield won the gold medal in the 2000 triathlon. He keeps it in a shoe box, taking it out mostly to show to kids when he visits schools. If you look at it closely, you'll see tooth marks near the Olympic rings. He explains, "The kids think it's made of chocolate and keep biting the medal." These youngsters don't prize what's gold, but what's good to eat! So too, older adults often are fooled by what's highly valued among people. Gold and other earthly prizes won't matter when our eternal destiny hangs in the balance.

      So, in view of the passing nature of life, are we supposed to spurn sports and things athletic? A Biblical view of the body sees it as a tool useful in attaining God's objectives. Paul says, "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (1Cor.9:27) Our bodies are very necessary instruments in living for God and accomplishing His will.

      The Christian worldview arose in an atmosphere in which material things were suspect, if not downright evil. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato wrote of a "demiurge" or "craftsman" as the divine being which formed the visible world. Gnostic teaching distinguished between the "demiurge" or "creator god" and the supreme, remote, unknowable Divine Being. They viewed the world as imperfect and antagonistic to what was truly spiritual. "Gnosis" or secret knowledge, and the rites of Gnosticism, were supposed to rescue the spiritual element of a person from its evil material environment. Spirit was super, body was bad - or, as held by some heretics, indifferent. You could sin through the week and still go to church on Sunday, blaming your sin on the body as having hopelessly incurable appetites. Docetism was an early Christian heresy that maintained Jesus couldn't physically have died on the cross -- it was unthinkable that the Son of God should be so closely identified with sinful, perishable flesh.

      The Bible, though, does not say our bodies are evil or not to be taken care of by those who are "spiritual". Our bodies are good tools. Genesis 1(26f,31) says God created man in his own image, male and female, and everything God made was "very good". It's a beautiful description in Gen.2(7) when "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." We're not good ghosts trapped in rotting husks, but a marvelous unity, earth-dust infused with divine-breath making a living soul, a whole being. Our bodies, along with the rest of us, are part of the goodness and mystery of the original creation. Paul and Peter do call it an earthly "tent" (2Cor.5:1,4; 2Pet.1:13), but it's not the type you walk out of each day; that's a one-time irreversible undoing.

      Against the Gnostics and other heretics, orthodox Christian teaching has held that Jesus was fully God and simultaneously fully human. Our body was a holy enough receptacle or medium for God's Son to completely occupy and be "at home" in. John 1(14) says "the Word became flesh". Paul wrote to Timothy, "God was revealed in flesh" (1Tim.3:16 NRSV). Jesus looked after His body as anyone would; He must have had a healthy, well conditioned physique to survive through His sufferings as He did: to come through a maximum flogging that occasionally killed other people, and still be able to drag a heavy wooden cross.

      Ultimately our flesh does perish. 1Pet.1(24 NASV) says, "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass.The grass withers, and the flower falls off..." Paul reminds us that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." (1Cor.15:50) So our physical dimension is not to be regarded as something eternal; "dust you are, and to dust you will return." (Gen.3:19)

      But here again Christianity is unique, different from other religions. The nihilist would say that's it; eastern religions promote reincarnation, spirit coming back in another form. But Christians understand from Jesus' resurrection that there is some kind of 1:1 spirit/body correspondence: we shall be raised from death with glorified physical bodies in recognizable form. Rising again, Jesus has redeemed even our physical natures. Paul wrote to the Romans (8:23), "...we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." Somehow, mysteriously, wonderfully, in the twinkling of an eye, Jesus "will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body." (Php 3:21) No more spare tires or aching joints, no more embarrassing bald spots or troublesome tumours -- won't that be wonderful! Hallelujah!

      So Christians view their bodies as good gifts from our loving Creator God, although perishing and in bondage to the groaning decay that afflicts all the created order. (Rom.8:21f) Your body is good; it is also a tool, a valuable and incredible instrument to be used for carrying out God's will.

      You can now buy, for a few thousand dollars, your own personal robot. I've seen a vacuuming robot that goes about the floor all day while you're out, and works quite well at keeping the floor clean. But reviews of the more sophisticated robots have been somewhat discouraging: they're so limited in their function, compared to what we're used to as living beings. Next time you're walking, analyze how many muscles and feedback control mechanisms are required just to take a step! And we do it without even thinking. Now, once you've got your million-dollar robot prototype designed, make it so that it can reproduce itself... Unthinkable!

      Paul wrote to the Romans (6:13,19), "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness...Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness." Our bodies are to be offered or yielded to God's control, instruments for Him to use as He pleases. The Bible tells us to put to death the body's misdeeds; instead, offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Him; Paul terms this "your spiritual act of worship" (Rom.8:13; 12:1). Real "spirituality" has a lot to do with how we deploy our body.

      Another metaphor the apostle uses is that of a temple, a holy dwelling. 1Cor.6(19f) asks, "Do you not know that your body is a temple 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 body." If we believe in Christ, we have God's very Spirit dwelling in us; so our bodies really are sanctuaries or temples, locations where God's presence is known.

      It used to be the practice, a few decades back, to keep a front room in the house (often called the 'parlour') particularly neat and tidy so company could be ushered into it when they came. This often resulted in it being the least-used and most-dusted room in the house; but the connotation was important, setting aside space to honour guests in an especially good manner. Now, what better guest could you invite than the Lord Himself? So our bodies can be viewed as portable "parlours", holy spaces to give God accommodation within.

Champions over Toxins - Cleansing the "Temple"

So while we don't idolize athletics or worship our bodies and their abilities, we don't belittle them or neglect them either. Our attitude toward our bodies can be fundamentally positive - God made us "very good", our body parts can be offered to Him as tools for doing what's right. They are walking "temples", houses for the Holy One.

      It is a crime to deface public property or wreck the entrance to someone's building. How much more a disgrace it would be to spray graffiti on a place of worship! Yet when it comes to the "temples" of our bodies, it's very easy to let things interfere with them being in top condition. As the Olympics get under way, before each event athletes must undergo strict drug testing to ensure there's no interference from steroids or other performance-enhancing substances. In short, their bodies have to be "pure", free from chemical influences. In a parallel sense, as Christians the Lord wants us to not be impaired or affected by that which is not fitting for His dwelling in us.

      There are many drugs available in today's culture that tempt the embodied to mind-altering experiences and an ever "higher high". We live in a chemical culture, where even the food we eat is shot through with preservatives, colourings, and other modifiers all of varying effect on our systems. The "drug of choice" most widely available and accepted is the bottled one, alcohol. It's one of the oldest mind-modifiers - Gen.9(21) records that even Noah got drunk and lay uncovered in his tent not long after the flood - so Scripture has more to say about this chemical than others which weren't invented back then, but similar principles apply.

      Our denomination has a sound comprehensive approach to the issue. Section 5.8 in the EMC constitution says, "Believers are not to be conformed to the view and lifestyle of the world of which they are a part, but, on the contrary, are to function as salt to prevent the spread of moral corruption, and as light to dispel spiritual darkness. High standards should therefore be set for their personal and collective life including the following:...3) their bodies be treated as temples of the Holy Spirit thus making it inconsistent with both Christian testimony and sound principles of health to compromise their influence and injure their bodies through inappropriate practices or substance abuse." Note it doesn't simply say "Don't do this" but expresses the deeper principles of respecting the body as the Spirit's temple; not compromising one's influence, or injuring one's body, by any means.

      As for myself, I am an abstainer from alcohol by choice, partly by conscience, partly by my parents' positive example, and partly as a result of hearing of negative experiences of relatives and previous generations in which alcohol had a destructive influence. (I have in previous years taken an occasional glass of champagne for a toast or had a "cooler" for a special occasion, but not recently.) It would be easy for me to present my way as the only way, and I would highly recommend it - my parents maintained 'you should be able to enjoy yourself without having to drink' - but Scripture does not support an abstainer's stance absolutely.

      The biggest hole in the argument is that Jesus apparently drank. In Matthew 11(18f) He stated, "For John [the Baptist] came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners."'" It could well be that it was safer to drink mild wine than the unsanitary water of the day; and that wine generally was less potent back then than it is now, as some have argued. But Jesus did change water into wine at a wedding - good quality wine (Jn.2:9f). And Paul recommended that Timothy drink a little wine for the sake of his digestion (1Tim.5:23). Psalm 104(15) does seem to mention wine in a positive sense: "wine that gladdens the heart of man" is listed as one of the products God provides, along with olive oil and bread. Prov.31(6f) also seems to suggest allowing wine to those "who are in anguish" in an anesthetic sense, "let them drink and...remember their misery no more."

      So it would be wrong for me to forbid alcohol altogether on all occasions since that is not really Scriptural. But what the Bible does forbid is drunkenness. In Lk.21(34) Jesus Himself warns, "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day [of Jesus' coming] will close on you unexpectedly like a trap." Paul wrote, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery..."; "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery" (Rom.13:13; Eph.5:18). He warned that those who live in "drunkenness, orgies, and the like" will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21)

      The Old Testament warns of the injurious effects of alcohol. Prov.23(29-35) lists woe, strife, bruises, bloodshot eyes, poisoning, illusory thinking, confusion, blocking of the senses, and addiction as possible consequences of drinking. "When will I wake up so I can find another drink?" VV20f warn of economic fallout: "Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags." Prov.31(4f) warns those in authority not to drink wine or crave beer "lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights." Any policeman will tell you it slows your response time and impairs your judgment!

      Old Testament prophets like Hosea(4:11) and Isaiah(5:11) warn that strong drink takes away the understanding; inflames; creates error in vision and judgment, and prompts vomiting. In Esther 1(10) we read of King Xerxes making a rash decision when he "was in high spirits from wine" - the alcohol had been flowing freely at the party, as much as anyone wanted. 1Kings 20(12,16) tells how the Israelites defeated King Ben-Hadad and the other kings of his confederacy by attacking while they "were drinking in their tents". Alcohol impairs one's body in many ways.

      Interestingly, the OT prophet who had the clearest understanding of visions, dreams, and the end times was one who learned to keep the temple of his body pure. Daniel and friends "resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine" and ended up out-performing all their colleagues after a 3-year trial period - "ten times better" in fact (Dan.1:8,15-20).

      Although the NT doesn't forbid drinking, church leaders are to model sobriety. 1Tim.3(3,8) stipulates that the overseer must be "temperate, self-controlled,...not given to drunkenness." (cf Titus 1:7f) Paul tells Titus that older men in general are to be "temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled" and that the women are "not to be...addicted to much wine..." (Titus 2:2-3) So, while alcohol is not totally forbidden, there is a very strong caution light. Is the temporary high really worth all the risks?

Keeping up with Teddy

The bottom line is that the Lord has entrusted us with a beautiful creation, a masterpiece of delicate and sturdy engineering called our body. Even more wonderfully, He promises His Holy Spirit will indwell us and empower us for effective living when we commit our lives to living for Jesus. We need to be careful in the way we treat our physical selves so that we can "run in such a way as to get the prize". Paul subjected his body -- he said, "I...make it my slave" -- so that he would not be disqualified in running for the prize Christ offers.

      Former US President Theodore Roosevelt made a conscious effort to develop his physical ability so it would not hold back his potential. Roosevelt was a man of great energy and practiced what he called the "strenuous life." He enjoyed horseback riding, swimming, hunting, hiking, and boxing.But this didn't just happen, it was quite intentional. As a young child, Theodore was nearsighted, puny and frequently ill. He suffered greatly from asthma. When he was about 12, his father told him that he would need a strong body to give his mind a chance to develop fully. His dad built a gymnasium in the family home, and Theodore exercised there regularly. He overcame his asthma and built up unusual physical strength.

      In 1901, at the age of 42, he became the nation's youngest-ever president. Once after two sets of tennis with the French Ambassador, TR suggested jogging. After the jogging there was an intense workout with a medicine ball. The president, not even panting, slapped the suffering ambassador on the back and asked heartily, "What would you like to do next?" The ambassador replied, "If it's all the same to you, I would like to lie down and die." He wasn't used to such rigorous exercise; but President Roosevelt had trained his body to be a tool adequate to such challenges.

      We're not all called to be Olympic athletes. We can certainly admire and cheer on our countrymen/women as they compete for earthly awards. But as Christians we are called to be effective, capable tools for God's use - not to "lie down and die" but to run for the crown that lasts forever. Let's pray.