1 Timothy 4:8

Here, as in 1 Corinthians 9, the picture of "exercise" seems to come from the public games and the training they required. Greek readers knew those games well. Timothy was to be in constant training... Piety is spiritual exercise. It demands the same constant watchfulness, the same holy self-control, the same full submission to the revealed will of God, that training for the games demanded of an athlete. He had to give up every habit that softened him and to practise daily with the goal in view. How small that goal was! How much greater is this one!

This is an inward exercise that goes on in the heart, the mind and the conscience. It is not muscular exercise, the exercise of your legs and arms and lungs, which "is of some value." Training yourself for godliness is another kind of exercise. It affects the heart, the conscience and the mind.

The truth of godliness (or, by the better translation, "piety") has a very prominent place in this first letter to Timothy. The New Testament uses the word sixteen times, and nine of them come in this letter... Piety is confidence in the known and living God. That confidence leads the believer to walk in the holy fear of God in every circumstance of life. It recognises and honours God, and is therefore the very opposite of a false show of holiness that seeks to exalt self.

Bodily exercise, we grant, does profit for a little while. Its value is temporary, so it is not to be ignored. But godliness has both present and eternal value. It benefits this life beyond measure, and it has in it a character that reaps eternal results. How well worth cultivating!

There is always the danger of going to extremes in regard to our bodies, and some would give so much attention to the body that divine things are neglected. Things are to be kept in divine perspective... There is no danger of the body being wilfully neglected if we seek after true piety, nor will we give the body undue attention if the will and glory of God are before us.

For a believer, this earth is a land of promise, though it is not the main land promised. God has not promised him heaven and then left him to the wide world to provide for his own needs. He has not told His people to live by faith for their souls and to live by their wits for their bodies. No; He who has promised to give him "grace and glory," has also said, "No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11). God provides their food here, as well as their inheritance later.

Godliness has its present rewards in spiritual growth, spiritual joy, and in the knowledge that we are living for God's will and pleasure. And what divine exercise forms in us of Christ now will be seen in the display of the world to come.

We may put service first; but there is always a grave danger of being active in service while neglecting personal piety. The good servant will exercise himself to piety that he may be "useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work." We may, at times, like the Corinthian saints, be very active in service and boast in our gifts, and like them be very unspiritual through not exercising ourselves to piety.