(upbeat music) - Body image and self-glory, that's the theme today. Body image, of course, is a preoccupation for many and there are huge dieting and physical training industries in our culture that have been established around us. So we have this question from a podcast listener named John who lives and works in Washington, D.C.

and who wonders about what's really motivating him to get to the gym. Here's what John wrote. Dear Pastor John, I'm committed to working out at the gym. I have over the years become fit because of my consistency. My temptation is in making my body a temple of self-glory. I want others to be impressed with my looks.

That's the honest truth, but I never say it that way. Few people would. At what point does working out cross the boundary between self-discipline and self-glorification? - I'll put my answer in a sentence and then I'll try to unpack it for its implications. The discipline of the pursuit of physical fitness becomes sinful self-glorification when it is no longer pursued as a means of, one, overcoming our own sin, two, serving others, three, glorifying Christ.

Now this is a huge issue, both for men and women in our culture, because hour after hour, every day, through advertising and other media, we are being told that to be successful and happy, our bodies must have a certain appearance. So whether we're talking about the way we dress or the way we do our hair or the way we work out in order to be fit, the Christian needs to be clear about the way Jesus calls us to do this that makes us different from the world.

And I think he does. And what I'm suggesting, what I'm suggesting is that there are three ways to measure whether our pursuit of fitness is sinful or not. And those three ways are, one, is that pursuit a genuine desire to defeat sin in my own life? Two, is that pursuit of fitness a genuine desire to become more useful in serving the temporal and eternal good of others?

Three, is my pursuit of fitness owing to a genuine, expressing a genuine desire to show that Christ is more valuable to me than my looks or my health or my reputation as disciplined? So let's take a look at those one at a time. First, is your working out at the gym a strategy for overcoming sin in your life?

I believe it can be. Paul said that he pummeled his body to keep it in subjection because he knew that there were powerful temptations that come from the flesh to undermine his ministry. Now, laziness is one of them. Over and over in the book of Proverbs, we are warned against being a sluggard.

Proverbs 20, verse four, the sluggard does not plow in the autumn. He will seek at harvest and have nothing. Proverbs 21, 25, the desire of the sluggard, the lazy bones, kills him for his hands refuse to labor. So it is a good thing to exercise and eat and sleep in a healthy way so as to subdue the enslaving impulses of the body, including laziness.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, 12, "All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything." That's any good thing or any bad thing. It is good to exercise in order to defeat the sin of laziness and the love of ease. Now, as soon as I say that, every biblically mature saint realizes that Jesus also warned against boasting in that kind of self-discipline.

He warned against loving the reputation of being a disciplined person. Matthew 6, 16, "When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward, but when you fast," and fasting here really is any kind of self-denial, right?

Fasting from television, and so you don't have a TV, John Piper, whoa, you so proud of that, blah, blah, blah. Or fasting from ease, so you're gonna pump iron until you're exhausted, or fasting from food, or whatever. Fasting stands here for any kind of self-discipline. "When you fast, anoint your head with and wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who's in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you." So yes, by all means, let's be disciplined and self-denying in the pursuit of defeating sin in our own lives, and let us be ever alert to the deceitfulness of sin that causes us to boast in the very triumphs over sin, and thus turn triumph over sin into defeat by another sin.

That's how deceitful we are in our own hearts, which leads now to the second way that we measure whether our pursuit of fitness is sinful. Is our pursuit of fitness owing to a genuine desire to become more useful in serving the temporal and eternal good of others? Are you aiming to be fit in order to be faithful?

Are you aiming to be healthy in order to be helpful? Is your concern with your looks a concern to love other people better? I've got those underlined in my notes here. When the disciples argued about who was the greatest, Jesus said, "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all." In other words, instead of mirrors in the gym, there should be big signs on the wall.

He who would be great must be the servant of all. So you wanna be strong? You wanna be fit? You wanna be buff? Are you going to use it to be a more faithful servant of people, or are you out to be seen by others? If you are, that's a damnable attitude, and you're in big trouble.

That's what Jesus would say. He did say it. Here's the third criteria. Is the pursuit of fitness a genuine desire to show that Christ is more valuable to you than your looks or your health or your reputation for being disciplined? Are you seeking to make Christ look great, or only yourself?

So here's what Paul said, Ephesians 6:10. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." In other words, true strength. It's true strength when we are seeking to be strong in the strength of Christ. Not strength in ourselves, but strength in the Lord. In other words, our aim at the gym is to be strong in a way that makes Jesus look strong.

We gotta figure that out, or we're gonna be idolaters. We're gonna be vain glorious. Here's the way Peter put it in 1 Peter 1:24. "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." The point is, in the gym, the glory that people are seeking is like grass.

It withers, it falls. Believe me, this is, believe me, I am 70, and I have been jogging regularly since I was 22. It is not a fountain of youth, folks. You're gonna sag, you're gonna be wrinkled, you're gonna be splotchy, you're gonna be scaly, you're not gonna be pretty or cool.

And if you have invested your life in that, oh, it will be, you will look pathetic like all those older folks in Phoenix with their ridiculous tans and their sagging wrinkled skin. It's just ridiculous. The word of the Lord remains forever, and that word says, "Work out faithfully." That is, work out at the gym to defeat sin in your own life, and work out at the gym to become more useful in serving the temporal and eternal good of others, and work out at the gym, yes, you can, to show that Christ is more valuable, more precious to you than your looks or your health or your reputation for being so disciplined.

- Thank you, Pastor John. And John, thank you for the question. If you have a question about life for Pastor John, we'd love to read it and possibly respond to it on air. Type it out and send it to us in an email. You can do this through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn, or you can simply email it to askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

Well, is it possible to become legalistic about not being a legalist? (chuckles) That's meta, that's Friday. I'm Tony, I'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)