I remember, back when I was a child, how excited I would get by the introduction to episodes of the TV show the Six Million Dollar man.
The idea that a person could become “better” through technology was entrancing to me… at the time. Much much later I got introduced to the idea—probably from hearing it from Crossfit’s publicity—that one could become a “stronger version” of oneself through training. Indeed, even if we did have the “plug and play” bionics envisioned in the TV show, Steve Austin would probably need training to control his new limbs in a normal fashion. Then he’d need more practice to run faster or lift more. Bypassing the need to train is difficult, even with super-powered tools.
The vision of becoming a better version of oneself has proved entrancing to some. Some iteration of that goal is part of the Christian life. Recently, Pastor Bill Smith tied the need for people to engage in physical training with the Dominion Mandate. He wrote in part:
Through these years I have been able to reflect a little bit more on biblical rationale of maintaining healthy disciplines. Caring for and developing our bodies is rooted in the nature of our creation. God created man from the dust of the ground and commanded man to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. The agricultural images used are not superficial metaphors. There is a correspondence between man and the ground. Men plant seeds in women and fruit is born from the womb. We are living, walking, breathing ground. Our bodies are gardens that need to be cultivated in many ways. We learn things about ourselves by observing how the ground is glorified. One lesson we learn is that our bodies need attention to be fruitful or healthy. Our bodies need to be cultivated and nurtured, fighting back thorns and thistles, in order that good, healthy fruit can be produced.
We cultivate our bodies through “plowing them up” with physical activity and “fertilizing them” with proper diet. The first plot of ground for which God has given us stewardship is his little garden that is our body. It is His body and caring for it properly is part of our dominion mandate. We should learn how to bring our own bodies into subjection. As we do that, then we are better able to fulfill the other aspects of our dominion mandate.
This is an excellent argument. But how much time someone should devote to plowing and fertilizing will depend on one’s level of health, one’s needs, and one’s other responsibilities. (Also, it will depends on one’s knowledge of what kind of investment one’s body requires and what kind of return is probable—an area that is rather controversial.) While I recommend Smith’s post for your consideration, I think there’s another level of dominion over body and mind that is universally mandated.
You might be called to cultivate your body as your health, but you are certainly called to cultivate your body as your self.
First of all, remember that taking dominion over anything requires some basic virtues—habits of behavior in mind and body that are one’s strength to transform the world in some way. If one cannot get up in the morning (or get to bed on time to awaken in the morning), one isn’t going to take dominion of much of anything.
Second, note that the Apostle Paul compare growing in godliness with athletic training:
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 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 4:7–8; ESV
You could almost paraphrase the first sentence as “Get up off the couch and stop looking at your phone.” There is obviously something in common between physical training and pursuing sanctification. Paul says something similar to the Corinthians:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24–27; ESV)
So what is the similarity between bodily training and training in godliness?
When a person engages in strength training (to take one kind of training) he’s hoping to improve his muscles’ capacity to produce force. He’s looking for Steve Austin’s bionic limbs. But that not all he is doing. He’s also improving his skill and improving his ability to try heavy loads without mishandling them. He’s learning to do activities that intimidate him and follow a prescribed course of action even when he feels tired or sad.
Most athletic endeavors are similar. They involve learning new habits and patterns of behavior as well as improving skills, strength, and stamina.
Some aspects of that training aren’t primarily about changing your biological capacities, though it may happen at the same time. It’s more like taming an animal, which is explicitly invoked in the Bible as a model for self-control:
For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well… For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison (James 3:2, 3, 6-8a; ESV).
There seems to be a common misconception that Godliness involves hearing and reading instructions about how to live and remembering these directions all the time, applying them in the various circumstances that come about in one’s life. But most of life isn’t about that sort of improvisation. We are creatures of habit and we have to train ourselves in Godly habits if we are to become more Godly. Christian growth is much like natural growth and maturation.
As I have written before, a baby will play with his hands and feet and put them in his mouth because he perceives them as externalities. He doesn’t know how to control them at first. He’s not sure they are part of him.
By the time he is two, that stage is over. He has “brought” his limbs “into” his consciousness. Or he has “extended” his self into his hands and feet. They are part of him now. They are tools. He has dominion and from there he can do new things.
Or consider teaching a teenager to drive. Once you know how to drive you no longer think, “I need to slow down so I had better push the pedal on the left.” If you are thinking that way, then you don’t know how to drive yet. But when you do learn, the car is part of your body. You never need to think about the controls.
It is true of language. You can no more think of the individual letters in order and the sounds they make as you read this post, than you can drive by first thinking about what the controls for the car do. Language, both written and spoken, is experienced without noticing the different parts that, when you were young, you had to figure out.
This is a helpful way to think about wisdom in the Bible. The same principle applies to learning to listen before you speak or learning to restrain anger.
When a teen first gets in a car, the car’s power scares him. It bucks and jerks. Why is the engine so rough?
But it is not rough. You just don’t have control. The car couldn’t function without an engine and brakes. You need those things. But you need to know how to use them right. The same with your emotions. You have to learn to drive them or else they will drive you off the road.
- Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding (Proverbs 17.27).
- Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly (Proverbs 14.29).
- Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense (Proverbs 19.11).
- The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult (Proverbs 12.16).
- A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back (Proverbs 29.11).
These are barely decisions at all but much more habits of behavior. They are how you drive yourself in a way that glorifies God and keeps you out of unnecessary traffic jams. Some are also habits that give you the time you need to reflect when reflection is called for.
If you are going to respond correctly when someone makes you angry, you are going to have to do more than simply plan to remember how to act when that happens. People end up apologizing for their reactions precisely because they react before they think. By the time you remember that “the prudent ignores an insult,” you have already made your “vexation known.”
It is all about how you train your body. When a person who has been known for his temper learns that it displeases God, he is being called upon to adopt a new behavior pattern. That takes effort and time. One cannot simply forget ingrained habits. One has to break them and build new habits.
Note that James’ comparison of controlling one’s tongue to taming an animal is a reference to the Dominion Mandate.
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28).
So I think Pastor Bill Smith is right when he says,
The first plot of ground for which God has given us stewardship is his little garden that is our body. It is His body and caring for it properly is part of our dominion mandate. We should learn how to bring our own bodies into subjection. As we do that, then we are better able to fulfill the other aspects of our dominion mandate.
But by “body,” I think the Bible means that we must take bring our selves, our persons into subjection. We were rescued from “your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers” (1 Peter 1:18; NASB). We have a new discipline we are called to impose on our bodies, new behavior patterns that make a new culture when others join with us.
In addition to being are first “little garden,” we should also say that our bodies (including our minds) are our first mission field.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18b-20; ESV; emphasis added).
This calls Christians to train others in obedience. It also calls each one to train himself. Our calling to the nations includes a calling to disciple our hands and feet and eyes. We are summoned to obey and that means we are summoned to train our body parts to be more obedient.
In that way we make ourselves into better, stronger, and more godly versions of ourselves.