You are the Temple
In today's episode, I am joined by a special guest, Matthew Mitchell, former division 1 football player, and all-around great guy who has kept himself in amazing physical shape. Mitch and I are going talk about why we need to embrace resistance in life. Why as kingdom driven men, we to train not only our spirit, our soul, our mind, but also our body. You need resistance and you are the temple. Let's get into it.
Josh: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of raising the standard. This is going to be a great show today. I am joined by a special guest, my friend, Matthew Mitchell, who I will refer to as Mitch. And before I bring him on and we get right into today's topic, which is you are the temple. I want to reference a past episode where I referenced the order of man. We can see very clear in scripture that we are a three part being, we are a spirit, soul, and body, God, us this way. And this is the proper order. And this is the order of man as depicted in the Bible. In 1st Thessalonians 5:23, Paul prays that we would be blessed, spirit, soul, and body, in that exact order.
We have an eternal spirit that lives within us, and we know we have promises in the spiritual realm. Many Christians have just forsaken taking care of their body. They've made everything in Christianity only about focusing on the spiritual realm or maybe the soul realm. Your mind, will and emotions, renewing your mind. But unfortunately, little is being paid attention to when it comes to taking care of stewarding and managing your body. The natural realm is not at odds with the spiritual realm. God created the natural world for man to occupy it, inhabit it and expand within it. We need to steward and we need to manage our physical bodies. He actually says that we are the temple. I want to introduce Matthew Mitchell, who I will refer to as Mitch.
I'm so excited. You're here, Mitch. You know you and I have known each other for a while. Mitch is a pillar within the Standard 59 Kingdom Driven Man community. I've met Mitch a few years ago. We actually worked at the same company. I had the opportunity actually to hire him, bring him on and watch the incredible and explosive favor and growth that has happened in his life. Mitch is also an athlete. He is a former division 1 football player. And ever since I met this guy, he has been in great physical shape. what I admire about you is you've always been in shape. I've never really seen you change. Since the time I met you. I want to specifically hear from you when it comes to the issue of stewarding and managing our physical fitness as kingdom men.
Mitch: Unfortunately, what we see a lot in the church world is just like you said, right? The sole focus is just on the spiritual man, but in first Timothy 4:8, you know, we're told that physical training is good. It profits little, it doesn't, it does not say that physical training profits us none or not at all, or that it's no good, but the spiritual training is better because it's lasting it, it lasts for eternity, but it's balance, right? We need to be physically training our bodies as well, because it's all loan from the Lord, right? It's the temple. Our body is not our own. So we should be investing time and energy into keeping our bodies well so that we can sustain the long walk that we have here on this planet.
Josh: I love that verse because Paul is talking to his mentee Timothy and he's telling him exercise towards godliness. And that word exercise is really interesting because if you look at the context of the new Testament, Paul has many metaphors, many references and draws a lot of analogy between the Roman games that were happening and the current events and the spiritual disciplines of a Christian. And when he says exercise towards Godliness, he's speaking about that word comes from the root word of where we get the word ‘gym’ from or ‘gymnasium’. He's speaking about a physical regimen that Timothy would've been acquainted. This was the physical regimen of the athletes that were competing in the elite Roman games. It was incredible discipline. When he says, discipline yourself towards Godliness, he's referencing spiritual disciplines. And I know many Christians have used that verse to say, “see exercise profit's little.”
That's not exactly what Paul is saying there. He's saying, this is the priority to focus on your spiritual fitness, but there is a profit to exercise. There is a profit to fitness. Let's dive into that a little bit more because obviously within the church world, some of this stuff has just been abandoned. What I find is kind of two sets of guys. They're either they just relinquished this part of their walk and they don't focus on their fitness and their energy management at all. They just gave all up on it. There's not enough time because of the pressures of life. They were the one time athletes, they got a lot of stories, but if you look at them today, they're not living that life, that disciplined lifestyle. And then there's the other guys which go after it. Sometimes they're a little bit out of balance, because it's easy to get out of balance and make fitness, such a priority where you become infatuated with the way you look or your competition lifts or your domain of physical fitness that you're attracted to.
Mitch: When we look at that verse you were talking about, it says that exercise profits little and how people just abandon it, they see it profits. I don't know anyone that if it came to their investments, would say, I don't want any profit at all. They're going to take that profit. So when we're thinking about how it profits us little, it's in comparison to the investment in our, our spiritual training. However, while we're here, there is profit to investing time and energy into our physical self, watching what we eat, If we want to endure long term.
We can't completely abandon it. It's about balance. You go too far the other direction, then that can lead to pride that can lead to the whole web of sins that can invade our lives, invade our hearts, invade our minds, and then you start to think you're better than everyone else. It, it takes you down a really bad path. And then you completely abandon your, your spiritual training. They are both equally important. And one of the worst ways that we see happen is with our church leaders, our pastors. We find that they're not taking that approach in their physical training, and it shortens their ability to be able to minister for a long period of time. Sometimes in life is, is cut short as a result of no physical endurance. And then as others looking to them, it's kind of becomes a stumbling block, right? You've have to go hard in the gym. You must go hard in your spiritual training as well.
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