What Does the Bible Say About Exercise? More Than You Think

Here’s something that surprises many. The Bible never tells us to go for a run. It never tells us to lift weights, join a gym or count our steps. Not even once.

So why bother? If God really cared about exercise, would He not have said so?

Many believers quietly think this way. ‘I spend my time on spiritual things,’ they say, ‘not on my body.’ It sounds holy. But it’s not what the Bible teaches. In fact, it sounds a lot like an old false teaching the early church fought hard against.

So what does the Bible say about exercise? Far more than people think. It tells us who made our body, who owns it, who lives in it and what will happen to it one day. Once we see that, our morning walk will never look quite the same again.

Why Is There No Workout Plan in the Bible?

The simple answer: people in Bible times didn’t need to be told. They walked everywhere. They farmed, built, carried water and looked after animals. Life itself was the gym.

Think about Jesus. Mark 6:3 calls Him ‘the carpenter’. The Greek word is tektōn, a builder who worked with wood and stone. He walked from Galilee to Jerusalem again and again—well over 100 kilometres each way. He had a strong, working body.

Our world is very different. We sit at desks, in cars and in front of screens. A 2024 study led by the World Health Organization (WHO) found about 31% of adults worldwide—around 1.8 billion people—don’t get enough physical activity. It expects this to rise to 35% by 2030, and South Asia is among the regions with higher levels of inactivity. What Bible-era people got for free, we now have to plan for.

KEY TERM: THE SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE

This means the Bible gives us everything we need to know God, be saved and live a life that pleases Him (2 Timothy 3:16–17). But ‘everything we need’ doesn’t mean ‘a rule for everything’. The Bible doesn’t tell us to brush our teeth either—yet God clearly cares about our health.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) says God’s will is either written plainly in Scripture or can be worked out from it ‘by good and necessary consequence’. In simple words: if a clear Bible truth leads logically to a conclusion, that conclusion carries God’s authority too.

The Case in 4 Simple Steps

So what does follow from the Bible’s teaching? Here’s the argument in 4 short steps. Each one stands on clear Bible teaching.

Step 1—God’s people must look after what He gives them. God gives us gifts to manage, and He will ask what we did with them (Matthew 25:14–30). ‘It is required of stewards that they be found faithful’ (1 Corinthians 4:2).
Step 2—Your body is one of those gifts. ‘You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body’ (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).
Step 3—Long-term, avoidable inactivity weakens the body. Muscles we don’t use grow weak. A heart we never challenge grows tired. A weak body has less strength to serve God and others.
Step 4—So caring for your body, including keeping it active, is part of faithful stewardship. It’s not vanity. It’s part of obeying God.

KEY TERM: STEWARDSHIP

A steward is a manager who looks after something that belongs to someone else. He doesn’t own it, but he must answer for how he uses it. Our time, money, gifts and body are like that. They belong to God, and we manage them for Him.

This argument doesn’t say we must run marathons or that thin people are holier. It says we should take reasonable, wise care of our bodies since they belong to God. That modest claim is exactly why it’s so hard to argue against.

The Sixth Commandment and Your Body

The sixth commandment says, ‘You shall not murder’ (Exodus 20:13). Most of us think this is only about not killing others. But the Westminster Shorter Catechism—a 1640s teaching tool using questions and answers—says it requires ‘all lawful endeavours to preserve our own life, and the life of others’ (Question 68).

WHAT THE OLD CATECHISM SAID

The Westminster Larger Catechism (Question 135) says this commandment requires ‘a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labour, and recreations’. In today’s words:

Meat means food in general. Physic is an old word for medicine.
Sober means wise and measured—neither too much nor too little.
Recreations means healthy activity and rest that refresh body and mind.

Question 136 then names the opposite sins, including neglecting the means God gives us to preserve life.

So neglecting your body is not just unwise. It can quietly break the sixth commandment.

Your Body’s Story in Six Chapters

Pastor and author David Mathis traces the story of the human body through six stages. Each one shows that the body matters to God.

How the Bible’s big story shows that your body matters

CHAPTER	KEY BIBLE VERSE (ESV)	WHAT IT TEACHES ABOUT YOUR BODY
1. Creation	‘God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good’ (Genesis 1:31)	Your body is a good gift, not a prison. God gave Adam physical work in the garden (Genesis 2:15).
2. The fall	‘By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread’ (Genesis 3:19)	Because of sin, bodies now weaken, age and die. Fighting that decay wisely is not vanity.
3. The incarnation	‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14)	Incarnation means God the Son took on a real human body. God did not look down on the body—He wore one.
4. The indwelling Spirit	‘Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you’ (1 Corinthians 6:19)	The Holy Spirit lives in every believer. Your body is His home.
5. Obedience	‘Present your bodies as a living sacrifice’ (Romans 12:1)	We serve God with our bodies, not just our minds. Hands, feet and energy are tools of worship.
6. Future glory	Christ ‘will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body’ (Philippians 3:21)	God will raise our bodies from the dead. The body is not thrown away—it is made new.

If God makes the body, wears a body, lives in the body and will raise the body, we have no right to treat it carelessly. The Dutch theologian and prime minister Abraham Kuyper put it famously: ‘There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, “Mine!”’ That includes your heart, lungs and legs.

The Verse Everyone Quotes: 1 Timothy 4:8

‘For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come’
1 Timothy 4:8

Read it slowly. Paul does not call bodily training worthless. He says it is ‘of some value’. He is not throwing exercise away. He is putting it in its proper place.

The Greek word for ‘training’ is gymnasia—you can hear our word ‘gymnasium’ in it. Every Greek city had a gymnasium where young men trained by running, wrestling and boxing. Scholars read Paul’s word in two main ways.

2 ways to read ‘bodily training’ in 1 Timothy 4:8

READING	WHAT ‘BODILY TRAINING’ MEANS	WHAT PAUL IS SAYING	DOES EXERCISE STILL HAVE VALUE?
Athletic	Physical exercise, like training in a Greek gymnasium	Exercise helps you, but godliness helps you far more	Yes—Paul says it is ‘of some value’
Ascetic	Harsh self-denial, like the false teachers’ bans on marriage and certain foods (1 Timothy 4:3)	Strict rules for the body cannot make you holy	Yes—Paul is warning against false religion, not healthy activity

KEY TERM: ASCETICISM

Asceticism means treating the body harshly—extreme fasting, going without sleep, refusing good things—hoping to become more spiritual. Paul says such rules ‘are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh’ (Colossians 2:23).

John Calvin leaned towards the second reading. He saw Paul’s target as outward religious exercises that false teachers treated as the heart of holiness. Yet even then, Paul only says they profit little. Either way, the verse does not condemn caring for your body.

Scholar William Mounce notes that ‘of some value’ can mean ‘of value for a little while’. Exercise helps us in this life. Godliness helps us in this life and the next. That is a ranking, not an insult. Gold is worth more than silver, but no one throws silver away. Paul even used athletes as positive pictures: ‘So run that you may obtain it’ (1 Corinthians 9:24), and ‘I discipline my body and keep it under control’ (1 Corinthians 9:27).

Ditches on Either Side of the Road

Picture a road with a ditch on each side. Christians can fall into either one.

The 2 opposite mistakes Christians make about the body

Aspect	DITCH 1: BODY WORSHIP	DITCH 2: BODY NEGLECT
What it looks like	Hours in the gym but little time in the Bible; always checking weight, muscles or photos	Little activity; ignoring sleep, food and health because ‘only spiritual things matter’
What it secretly believes	‘My body is my glory.’	‘My body does not matter to God.’
What the Bible says	‘Their god is their belly’ (Philippians 3:19). ‘Man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart’ (1 Samuel 16:7).	‘No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it’ (Ephesians 5:29).
Warning sign	You feel worthless when you miss a workout.	You feel proud that you ‘don’t care’ about your body.

KEY TERM: GNOSTICISM

Gnosticism was a false teaching in the early church. It said the physical world is bad and only the spirit matters. Some even denied that Jesus had a real body. John wrote against it: ‘every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God’ (1 John 4:2). Christians who treat the body as unimportant drift towards this old error.

How do we stay on the road? Pastor John Piper says fitness turns into sinful self-glory when it stops serving three goals:

Fighting sin. Am I exercising to overcome laziness and a lack of self-control?
Serving others. Am I getting stronger to be more useful to my family, church and neighbours?
Glorifying Christ. Does my fitness point to Jesus, or to me?

Piper’s goal: to be strong ‘in a way that makes Jesus look strong’.

Objections—and Honest Answers

‘1 Corinthians 6:19 is about sexual sin, not exercise.’ True. But Paul’s reason—‘You are not your own’—is bigger than the problem it answers. If your body belongs to God, it belongs to Him in every area of life.
‘Our bodies will die anyway.’ So will your money and house, yet the Bible still calls you to use them well. And God will raise the body (1 Corinthians 15:42–44). What God plans to raise, we should not carelessly ruin.
‘People in the Bible did not exercise.’ They did not need to—daily life was hard physical work. Our seated lives have removed what the Bible simply assumed. The same principle now leads to a new practice.
‘This is legalism.’ Legalism means trying to earn God’s love by keeping rules. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8–9). Caring for your body is not the price of grace. It is a fruit of grace—a forgiven person’s way of saying ‘thank you’.

What This Looks Like in Real Life

1. Rest, Tiredness and Low Mood

Caring for your body also means resting well. God ‘gives to his beloved sleep’ (Psalm 127:2), and Jesus told His tired disciples to ‘rest a while’ (Mark 6:31). When the prophet Elijah was worn out and wanted to die, God did not first give him a lecture. He gave him sleep and food: ‘Arise and eat’ (1 Kings 19:5). Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a medical doctor before he became a great preacher, warned in Spiritual Depression that our physical condition can affect our spiritual state.

FROM THE PREACHER’S STUDY

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the famous London preacher, often struggled with dark moods. In Lectures to My Students he told tired young pastors:

‘A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind’s face, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is next best.’

In simple words: a walk will not save your soul, but it will help your body—and that matters too.

2. When Your Body Is Weak, Old or Unwell

Age, illness and disability are real. ‘Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day’ (2 Corinthians 4:16). God does not measure your faithfulness by your fitness. For one person, faithfulness means a daily run. For another, a few gentle stretches in a chair. Both can bring glory to God.

3. Strong Enough to Serve

Our phones are full of edited, ‘perfect’ bodies that leave many feeling ashamed. The gospel sets us free. Your worth comes from being made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27) and loved by Christ—not from your shape. So exercise to serve, not to win likes. Mothers lift children. Pastors visit the sick. Your fitness is not mainly for you. It is for the people God calls you to love.

A SIMPLE, GOD-HONOURING STARTING POINT

Start small. A daily 20–30 minute walk is a great beginning. The WHO suggests adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity each week.
Pray as you move. Pray, learn a verse or listen to a sermon as you walk.
Check your heart. Ask often: am I doing this for God’s glory or my own?
Be wise. If you have a health condition, speak to a doctor first.

Training for Two Worlds

So what does the Bible say about exercise? More than you think. Your body is a good gift from God. It belongs to Him, His Spirit lives in it and He will one day raise it in glory. So bodily training is ‘of some value’. But never let it take first place. Godliness ‘holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come’.

Most of all, your hope does not rest on your body. It rests on another body—the body of Jesus, broken on the cross for sinners and raised on the third day. Because His body was raised, yours will be too. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.’ So walk, run, lift, stretch and rest—‘whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’ (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Tough Questions, Honest Answers

Is it sin to be overweight?

No—your weight on a scale is not, by itself, a sin. Body size is shaped by many things, including genes, illness, medicine, age, stress and even poverty. The Bible looks at the heart, not the number. Gluttony and laziness are sins, but thin people can be guilty of them too. So we must never judge someone by their shape. At the same time, if you know your habits are harming your health, ask God for help to change—and remember that His grace is bigger than your failures.

Is gluttony still a sin today?

Yes. Gluttony means letting food become your master instead of a gift. Proverbs warns, ‘Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty’ (Proverbs 23:20–21). Gluttony is not only eating too much. It can also look like eating without thanks, being ruled by cravings or always demanding the ‘best’ food. The answer is not fear of food but grateful self-control, which is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). Enjoy your meals and thank God for them—just do not let them rule you.

Is it wrong to work out on a Sunday?

Christians hold different views on this, so we should be gracious with one another. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (Question 60) teaches that the Lord’s Day is for holy rest, even from ‘recreations as are lawful on other days’, so that we can give the day to worship. The Scottish runner Eric Liddell refused to run in the 100-metre heats at the 1924 Paris Olympics because they were held on a Sunday. He ran the 400 metres instead and won gold. Whatever your view, ask this: does my exercise help me to worship and rest, or does it crowd out church and family? A quiet family walk is very different from a hard training session that keeps you away from God’s people.

Is it vanity to want to look good?

Not necessarily. God made beauty, and wanting to look healthy and tidy is not wrong in itself. The problem comes when looks become your hope, your identity or your way to win praise. Peter says, ‘Do not let your adorning be external… but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart’ (1 Peter 3:3–4). Here is a good test: if I could never look this way again, would I still feel loved by God? If the answer is no, your looks may have become an idol.

Can Christians do yoga or Pilates?

Stretching itself is not a sin—God made our muscles to stretch. But yoga has deep roots in Hindu spiritual practice. Some poses, such as Surya Namaskar (the sun salutation), were designed as acts of worship, and many classes include chanting, mantras or meditation aimed at spiritual ‘union’. Christians should avoid anything that borrows worship from another religion (1 Corinthians 10:20–21). Pilates is different: Joseph Pilates developed it in the early twentieth century as a way to strengthen the body, with no religious roots. If you enjoy stretching, choose methods that are free of spiritual baggage. [Internal link: yoga post]

Is competitive sport compatible with Christian humility?

Yes, it can be. Paul happily used racing and boxing as pictures of the Christian life (1 Corinthians 9:24–27), so competition is not evil in itself. Sport can teach discipline, teamwork, courage and how to lose well. The danger is pride—needing to win to feel worthy, or treating opponents as enemies. Paul’s rule applies on the field too: ‘in humility count others more significant than yourselves’ (Philippians 2:3). Play hard, play fair and shake hands—your worth is already settled in Christ.

What will our resurrection bodies be like?

They will be real, physical bodies—but made new and perfect. Paul says, ‘It is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power’ (1 Corinthians 15:42–43). When Paul calls it a ‘spiritual body’ (verse 44), he does not mean a body made of spirit. He means a body fully ruled and filled by the Holy Spirit. After Jesus rose, He ate fish and said, ‘a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have’ (Luke 24:39). Our new bodies will be like His, with no more sickness, ageing or tiredness.

Truths to die for