Exercise - Physical And Spiritual

What a crazy week this has been! The terrorist bombing in Boston during the Boston Marathon leaving 3 dead and nearly 200 injured.

The fertilizer plant explosion in the town of West, TX. Up to 15 dead and an unknown number injured.

In the past week there have been as many as four earthquakes just in Papua New Guinea with a magnitude up to 6.8. This time no one has been killed or injured but a quake and the resulting tsunami there in 1998 killed over 2,000 people.

This past Wednesday, April 17 there was another earthquake on the border of Iran and Pakistan with a magnitude of 7.8. A Pakistani military official said his initial information was that 34 people had been killed and 80 injured.

Now, just where are we going with all of these stories of tragedy and terrorism?

1 Timothy 4:1-10

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

“They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

“If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.

“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. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.

“That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.”

Now, here’s the verse we want to take a look at:

1 Timothy 4:7b-8

“Train yourself to be godly. 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. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.”

Our society is obsessed with physical training but not so much with godly training. Physical training. What about those marathon runners. Do they just get up one morning and say, “Hey, there’s a marathon going on today. I think I’ll run in it. Should be fun!”

No, in order to qualify you must have competed in and completed an official marathon in the past 1.5 years and the time must be fast enough to make the qualification cut. You must furnish proof of having successful completion of that marathon. This takes years of dedicated training.

You have to admire such dedication and physical excellence.

Many in the crowd watching the race were also runners. Perhaps they were runners who chose not to run that year. Perhaps they were runners who did not qualify or had injuries. Perhaps they were runners who preferred to run other distances. Anyway, there were lots of people, runners and spectators alike, who were there at the time who were very much into physical training. Many of them were tremendous athletes.

But you’ve gotta wonder … how were they spiritually?

Not, just the ones who died in Boston from the bombs but

… what was the spiritual condition of those who died in the fertilizer plant explosion and

… what was the spiritual condition of those who died in the earthquake in Pakistan and

… what was the spiritual condition of the 230,000 who died from the tsunami in Indonesia in 2012 or … the in McKeesport, Pa this past month who was killed in a freak accident while maintaining a dump truck or

… what was the spiritual condition of the man in Canton, OH who was killed when his car fell off the jack stands while he was changing his tires or

… what was the spiritual condition of the young girl who died because she was struck when a branch fell unexpectedly from a tree in their yard?

How were they spiritually?

They may have been in great shape physically but had they heeded the admonition in 1 Timothy 4:7 that says we must train ourselves to be godly?

Had they come to the place where they had come to Jesus for salvation?

What about us a Christians? What about the directive in 1 Timothy 4:7b that says, “Train yourself to be godly.”? Is that something that is optional for Christians?