Message summary: We need to make a concerted effort to be spiritually fit. After all, we all want to finish the race well, don’t we!

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“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” (I Timothy 4:7b,8). “Build yourselves up in your most holy faith” (Jude 20).

When I was younger I focused a lot on physical fitness and was involved in a variety of athletic pursuits including track, cross country and tennis. The photo to the left was taken about 55 years ago when I suppose I was in optimum physical shape, running for a relay team at Truman High School in Independence, Missouri. In the photo I am preparing to receive the baton and run my leg of the relay.

Likewise there is a time we as spiritual leaders accept the baton in our younger years of ministry. As we age we in turn pass the baton on to those who follow us in contending for the faith.

Emphasis on exercise is not a new phenomenon. Bible teacher David Guzik observes “Ancient Greek and Roman culture put a high value on physical exercise. Paul tells Timothy that the same work and commitment that others put toward physical exercise should be put toward the pursuit of godliness.”

Today let us consider spiritual fitness, which is comparatively of much greater value than physical fitness. There’s a tendency, due to an emphasis on truths regarding our positional relationship with Christ, that we might assume our role in this spiritual fitness is merely passive. We’ve heard the phrase, “let go and let God”, and may assume any effort on our part is carnal. However, let us carefully examine the  two daily Scriptures. Both speak of an active responsibility on the believer’s part in developing and maintaining spiritual fitness.

In the first text the apostle Paul addressed Timothy (and every believing reader through the Holy Scriptures, including you and me); “Train yourself to be godly.”  The verb is active.  The NASV translates this phrase, “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness”. The ESV states, "train yourself for godliness".

The word for train and discipline is “gumnazo” from which we get the English words, “gym” and “gymnastics”.  The word is surely used in an athletic sense but, for the believer, the training’s purpose is spiritual godliness, which has comparatively much greater value both in this life and the life to come. After all, one can be in optimum physical condition here yet have no preparations at all for their life hereafter.

“For physical training is of some value.” Pastor Steven Cole comments, “Paul is not despising bodily exercise. Rather, he is making a comparison between bodily exercise and spiritual exercise. It’s fine to discipline your physical body; it will help you for a few years. But it’s far better to discipline yourself spiritually, because it will put you in good stead not only in this life, but also in the life to come. We ought to work much harder at godliness than we do at our games.”

There are many sources of edifying Christian material prompting spiritual growth and fitness. You, as a reader of our dailyencouragement ministry, are exercising spiritual discipline as you read our daily Bible text and the lesson that follows. As you pray and perhaps avail yourself to the suggested Christian music or further teaching links, and most especially as you apply Biblical truths you are daily engaging in spiritual training leading to spiritual fitness.

In the second text the apostle Jude, in his small one-chapter epistle, charges his readers to, “Build yourselves up in your most holy faith”.

What kind of spiritual shape are you in today? Although always important, given the increasingly evil days in which we live, we need to make a concerted effort to be spiritually fit. After all, we all want to finish the race well, don’t we!

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13.

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber