Is This Really Necessary?

"Healthy Lifestyle Is the Secret to Longer Life." Some things should simply not have to be said and this is certainly is one of them. Even those with a minimal level of common sense should instinctively get that.

But obvious, or not, it has been studied and reported on by Laurel Yates, a doctor of internal medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women?s Hospital in Boston. The research followed 2,357 men and found that a healthy 70-year-old, who had never smoked, had normal blood pressure and weight and exercised up to four times a week had a 54 percent chance of living until age 90. Further. It was also revealed that obesity reduced the odds of reaching 90 by 26%. The study claimed that genes probably determine about 25 percent of a life span but that 75% still depended on individual lifestyles.

The Bible has also stated many 'seemingly' obvious things. Most evident is that man is born in sin and spiritually dead, a condition that eventually kills physically regardless of the length or quality of his or her physical life. But Scripture does promise certain general benefits through healthy and godly living. And perhaps the cost of the above study could have been used elsewhere by reading and heeding what is outlined in Proverbs 3:7-8. "Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones."

But most importantly sin also utterly destroys spiritually and eternally as passages like Romans 5:12 forcefully convey. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." Other verses like Romans 6:23a are equally blunt. "For the wages of sin is death." It is interesting to note that the Bible shows in 1Timothy 5:6 how it is possible to be physically fine and, at the same time, spiritually deceased. ?But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.?

Sin?s effects are again quite obvious. But the solution to some physical ills and overall spiritual health is expressed plainly and clearly in passages like 1 John 5:11-13. "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

God?s word admits that caring for the physical body is somewhat helpful. Doing so can make life longer and more enjoyable and can allow for more and better Christian service. But His main focus has been, and always will be, forgiveness of sin, spiritual health and maturity, faithful service and eternal life - all principles clearly summed up in 1 Timothy 4:7-8. "For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come."

In other words, for the natural man: "Healthy Lifestyle Is the Secret to Longer Life". But for a believer in Christ, "A Healthy Christian Lifestyle Is the Secret to a More Abundant Lifestyle Now and the Blessings of A Future Life in Heaven".

Bill Breckenridge