EXERCISE!
1
Tim 4:7-8
7
But
refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto
godliness.
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.
Diet
and exercise
seems to be sweeping our culture. I can hardly count the number of sure cure
mixtures designed to burn fat and make one healthy and beautiful! I have a new
smart watch that tracks my steps. On Labor day, which I thought was a day to do
labor, my watch said I climbed 18 flights of stairs. Actually I mowed the ace
and trimmed a number of trees. It’s still exercise and, yes, it felt good.
Two
words for “exercise”
are used in the above verses. Well, actually only one! The word is gumnazo
which literally means “to practice naked” as one would
train for the Greek games and gumnasia which means “training” but
sounds a lot like our English word gymnasium!
The
exercise that Paul recommends is the exercise unto godliness. The
Greeks trained so that they might win a chaplet of leaves which would soon wilt
and turn brown. Because godliness is not automatic and degrades with lack of
use, we are urged to exert effort to accomplish it.
1
Cor 9:25-27
25
And
every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do
it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26
I
therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the
air:
27
But
I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means,
when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
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