So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31, NIV)
Maybe you were as delighted to read about Bernhard Langer’s nutritional habits this week as I was. After all, Langer looks about as fit as a person can at the age of 57. And with his continued success on the Champions Tour, he must be doing something right. Maybe we can pattern ourselves after this dedicated athlete.
Turns out, though, that Langer’s discipline is nothing all that special. He eats fruits and veggies and not so much red meat. And he exercises regularly. Basic stuff. He even admits to overindulging on sweets.
I know there’s some adamant thinking out there about the Daniel Plan and other Bible-based diets, but Langer told PGA Tour.com’s Vartan Kupelian, “I’m not a dietitian or anything like that, I just know what works for me.”
Langer knows his Bible—many of us have heard him talk about his love for the Gospel—but I’m not sure he was intentionally nodding to Romans 14 here. This is the passage where Paul brought up the matter of eating meat, and how this was a hindering practice to some believers but perfectly acceptable to others. “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind,” the apostle wrote.
Maybe following Jesus isn’t as absolute as we sometimes declare. But maybe neither is it so mystical.
Our bodies, we know from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, are not our own. Our sexual practices, our nutritional habits, even our physical disciplines all fall under the heading of Bodies as Temples, as in, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
But here’s the key to understanding that whole notion. It’s not the temple. It’s the Holy Spirit. That is, you can build the finest temple in the world, but if the living God does not dwell there, it’s only a façade. That’s where the glory-giving part comes in. We eat, we drink—we exercise, we sleep, we work, we discuss, we study, we pray, we celebrate, we grieve—all with God’s glory in mind. How can he be magnified through what I am doing right now?
When Solomon wrote that there was a time for this and a time for that (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8), he followed it up with one certain reminder: God is at the core of it all. “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
When the beauty of God dwells in us, we are rightly moved to do beautiful things for him. We control our physical habits not for vanity’s sake nor victory’s. We do it so that God is praised!
—
Jeff Hopper
October 29, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.