How Your Pursuit of Health May Be Distancing You & God
Christians are taught to do all things to glorify God. We are taught to honor Him and bring glory to Him & His kingdom with all we have been given - our positions in society, our culture, our gifts, our resources, our time, and our bodies. Yes, I do agree. AND I do not agree with how we are guided to do so. I do not agree with how we are instructed to “glorify God with our bodies” and, unpopular opinion, I think it can be quite toxic. Let’s start with how pursuing perfect health & weight loss/a particular physique is actually creating separation between people & Jesus.
We hear scripture like “your body is a temple,” “glorify God with your body,” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) “love the Lord with all of your strength,” (Mark 12:30, Matthew 22:37, Luke 10:27, etc. - the first commandment) “gluttony is a deadly sin” (Phillipians 3:19, Proverbs 23:20-21). That’s naming a few. You can find “10 verses for your weight loss journey” all day long. But read this first- don’t go there! I want to raise some alternatives because I have some big issues with how scriptures are used to fuel diet culture and body shaming in the Christian community.
**Disclaimer: I will be using the term fat in this blog as a descriptor, not as slander. This is in attempt to reclaim and normalize the word fat and use it as it is intended, a descriptor. I acknowledge my thin privilege and am learning to reclaim this word myself in order to challenge by own fat bias and fat phobia in pursuit of honoring health at every size. Also, I am not a theologian.
The Issues (not in order of importance):
#1 - Individuals interpreting these verses often have a warped view of the body, nutrition, & health. Especially physical health as it relates to metal health. The Christian community is drenched with diet culture & the pursuit of weight loss because "glutton = we all eat too much and we’re sinful.” No questions asked. It’s kinda like don’t kill people, don’t have sex, don’t eat a lot. Yes, they likely have much much much more experience in and understanding of the Word than I do, but they likely also do not have the same expertise in nutrition or the human body as I do. So, I’m going to argue my point and see how it goes.
#2 - The way in which these scriptures are often interpreted supports diet culture and actually ends up putting you in the position of glorifying your body and your abilities above the Lord himself.
#3 - It shames people.
The Alternative:
#1 - We have these scriptures like “your body is a temple,” “glorify God with your body,” “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Those are great and I believe the Bible is 100% T R U T H. No problems there. Here’s my problem - who said that eating paleo, Whole 30, keto, low calorie etc. is the requirement for health? Who says this is the best way to eat and care for your body as a temple for God? I’d like to know because I would technically be the nutrition expert in this scenario and I’m disagreeing. I’d actually argue it’s the opposite.
I would say adequately nourishing your body in a way that allows you to show up 100% every day, doing what God has called you to, and supporting your long-term health is treating your body like a temple. Diets are based in restriction aka inadequate nourishment. The restrictive mindset created by dieting results in preoccupation with food aka you not showing up 100% because you’re physically drained or you can’t stop thinking about food for 2 seconds and focus on doing the task at hand. [Side note, do you remember taking EOGs and the #1 rule (besides fill in the bubble completely) was to have breakfast beforehand? There was a reason for that and the reason didn’t change because you got older.] Lastly, 95% of diets fail and result in regain of lost weight plus some - not sustainable for long-term healthy lifestyle habits and messes with your metabolism resulting in a higher weight, increased feelings of “gluttony,” and perpetuating the diet cycle because now you have “more weight to lose.”
Being malnourished and restrictive is not treating your body like a temple. We are called to live in abundance and joy. You don’t want temple with a cracked foundation, lackluster in color, empty with no life to give. 95% of diets fail. This means when you decide to “get it together” and go on a diet, you’re hanging on by a thread (a cracked foundation, ready to give at any time), you’re dull (preoccupied with food, probably hangry), with no joy to be found (because you’re giving all of your energy to the things you can’t have and what has been taken from you.)
Rather, we should be tending to the structure of the temple (eating enough of every food group daily), planting some flowers (adding in joy), dusting it off (dealing with the hard things in productive ways), manicuring the lawn (shave your armpits - lol jk)- you get the idea. Basically, we should be focused on making the temple lively and abundant like our relationship with God - not drying it up until it withers away (restricting/compensatory behaviors that quite literally put the body in a sate of famine and scarcity resulting in suboptimal functioning of your organs and body systems. The body will maintain homeostasis to keep your alive (not thriving) until it cannot anymore.) Oh, and when I say malnourished I don’t mean only skinny people. You can be in a fat body and be malnourished too. All in all, this is a spiritual bypass for a situation that deserves to be addressed spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically.
#2 - The scripture says, “love the Lord God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). What we find, though, is that in the pursuit of perfect health we end up thinking about food, our bodies and our own abilities more than we think about the Lord. It’s hard to relinquish control to God when you’re striving for “holier than thou” eating & you develop a fear of foods or anything going wrong in your body. I’m going to call it out in love that you’re placing your ability to control & be perfect over God’s abilities to care for you, your body, and your wellbeing. You can steward the gift of your body well without being obsessive. If you’re so scared to eat something out of fear of your health or gaining weight that it’s all you think about, you’ve missed the mark. You’re living in fear & in this idea of “what did I do wrong” rather than recognizing food is also a gift God has given us to enjoy.
This is likely coupled with “when/then” thinking. “When I lose this weight, then my body will be a temple/then I’ll be healthy enough to live my purpose/then God will love me more/then God will say “well done good and faithful servant”/then I’ll be disciplined/then God will give me more/then I’ll get what I want/then I’ll live in joy.” Wanna know where else this “when/then” thinking and glorification of body and “pure” food shows up? The $72 billion dollar diet industry. Making money off of you living in this cycle and using scripture to support you doing so. When in fact, scripture tells you you are created in the image of God and because of your faith, your are free. Not when but right now. If you need a little help working out the kinks of this, that’s a different story - always happy to help! Internalizing this message, accepting it as truth, believing this is a beast you cannot overcome - that’s an issue and a toxic place to set up camp.
#3 - Telling people they’re a glutton, they need to repent from their gluttony, or they need to “get right with the Lord” and lose weight is straight up TOXIC and fat phobic. 100% I advocate for a healthier lifestyle - I want everyone to have great health! Hey, guess what. You don’t know someone’s health history AND health does not mean skinny. Someone does not have to be skinny to be healthy. On the contrary, someone can have a “perfect” body by cultural standards and be battling a variety of illnesses especially an eating disorder. Restriction out of fear of gluttony and living in sin creates a deprivation that actually increases the urge to eat, leading to overeating, which further perpetuates the cycle. Someone can be fat and be 100% healthy. Someone can also be fat & be told their whole life that they’re a glutton & they need to lose weight resulting in them internalizing the message that there is something inherently wrong with them and they’re unworthy in a fat body. Which may result in turning to disordered behaviors to gain love and worthiness- and still be fat, and still be told they need to loose weight and eat less- and never feeling “enough.” At the end of the day, this is body shaming and body shaming is tearing people down. As Christians we are called to support one another in both love and accountability. Body shaming is not love or accountability, it is judgement - that you know better for someone else’s body.
If we are loving people, we are loving them for who they are and challenging them to be more Christ-like. Fat is not a disqualifier to follow Jesus. Guess what, the Lord is not so boring that He made everyone to look the same. I have a hard time believing He made someone to look exactly like you or you exactly like them. I’d like to think He’s more talented than that. Instead of shaming people into health, how about we actually care for someone’s health. For example, ask your friends if they are eating enough, if they’re eating balanced nourishing meals, if they’re letting food or exercise take up too much mental capacity, if they’re shaming themselves and their body image. Ask about how they’re speaking to themselves. Ask how their relationships are going and how they’re speaking to others. Ask about their marriage. Ask about what the Lord is teaching them. Ask about how they are coping with stress, grieving, taking time for themselves. Ask how they’re doing as a parent or son/daughter. Ask how they’re sleeping. Ask how their life and actions are aligning with what the Lord has called them to. All of these things contribute to health : physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. We can’t choose physical and hope the others will work out accordingly. They all need tending to. Bonus, I promise you talking about all of the aspects of health and life builds better community and is so much more interesting than just talking about the latest way to lose 5#.
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27). You were created in God’s image.
Helpful Podcast Recommendation related to this topic: Behind the Bliss | How to Handle a Heavy Spirit with Brittney Moses | Episode 103