Is it wrong to participate in extreme sports?

This is a very remarkable passage. It proves how Satan can quote scripture when it suits his purpose. But he omits a most important clause — "To keep thee in all thy ways." Now, it formed no part of the ways of Christ to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. It was not the path of duty. He had no command from God to do any such thing; and hence He refused to do it. He had no need to tempt God — to put Him to the test. He had, as a man, the most perfect confidence in God — the fullest assurance of His protection.

Moreover, He was not going to abandon the path of duty, in order to prove God's care of Him; and herein He teaches us a most valuable lesson. We can always count on God's protecting hand, when we are treading the path of duty. But, if we are walking in a self-chosen path; if we are seeking our own pleasure, or our own interest, our own ends or objects, then, to talk of counting on God would be simply wicked presumption.

No doubt, our God is very merciful, very gracious, and His tender mercy is over us, even when we wander off the path of duty; but this is another thing altogether, and it leaves wholly untouched the statement that we can only count on divine protection when our feet are in the pathway of duty. If a Christian goes out boating for his amusement; or if he goes clambering over the Alps merely for sightseeing, has he any right to believe that God will take care of him? Let conscience give the answer. If God calls us to cross a stormy lake, to preach the gospel; if He summons us to cross the Alps on some special service for Him, then, assuredly, we can commit ourselves to His mighty hand to protect us from all evil. The grand point for all of us is to be found in the holy path of duty. It may be narrow, rough and lonely; but it is a path overshadowed by the wings of the Almighty and illumined by the light of His approving countenance.

Anyone in reading the epistles can observe that in Paul’s many references to athletics, there is no suggestion that he in any way disapproves of the exercise in itself. The dangers are two: first, associations; second, excess. Be temperate in all things (1 Corinthians 9:25), and be as careful of your companionships in your recreation as in the other affairs of life.

Our bodies are the Lord’s, and they should neither be pampered nor abused. One may push the body to breaking-down point; another may pamper it. Both are wrong, surely.

And the other class. They defy the elements. They scoff at ordinary precautions. Sleep and food may be necessary to ordinary mortals, but not to them. For a time—it may be a long time—their strength holds out. But in the end collapse comes, and they can trace their afflictions to their own folly. And yet even in this case in the Lord’s tender mercy they will find His consolations abundant, and spiritual blessing will be reaped by them in the government of God.

There is no creature of God which has not an important place if used aright. But men blind to His will seek their pleasure heedlessly, and are thus enticed to open sin and grievous hurt. This is eminently the case with wine and strong drink; the one deceives, the other maddens. The warnings are so many and evident on every side, that such as err thereby have only to blame their own folly and self-will.

We have ever to remember that the body of the believer “is the temple of the Holy Ghost,” so that nothing unholy is to be allowed to defile that in which God’s Spirit dwells (1 Cor. 6:19), that in which we are to glorify God. On the one hand there is not to be the wilful “neglecting of the body” (Col. 2:23) in an asceticism that ministers to the vanity of the flesh; nor, on the other hand, has there to be anxious care in regard to raiment (Luke 12:22-23), for the Lord knows how to provide for our every need.

There is ever 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, so the Apostle tells Timothy, “For bodily exercise profits (for a) little: but godliness is profitable unto all things” (1 Tim. 4:8). 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.

The Lord here, by His action, gave no countenance to the dreams of ascetics, and of such as seek to glorify God by the "neglecting of the body." The body was His instrument of service, and He adopted prudent measures to prevent injury to it from the struggling crowds. The means were simple yet effective, and at the same time forbid the notion that the Lord despised the corporeal substance. Was it not the body "prepared" for Him, and in which He had come to do the will of God? It is true that subsequently wicked men scourged and smote Him, and He submitted to their contumeliousness with unexampled meekness. For then the will of God led the obedient Son of man to deliver Himself into their hands. But before this hour had come we learn, as in the passage before us, which, be it noted, is found in this Gospel only, that the Lord took such precautions as were needful in this emergency, if we may call it such, so that He might the more effectively perform Jehovah's service. It may surely be inferred that the servants of Christ, while not allowed to pamper or indulge the body, are not, on the contrary, permitted to despise it, but rather enjoined to present it "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God." In the natural order of things the outward man decays, but there is no scriptural warrant for the belief that it is well-pleasing to God to hasten that decay either by our wilfulness or by our neglect.

There are several words in the Pauline epistles, which show that the great Apostle had godly concern as to the right care of the body, that it might be indeed a vessel, which God can use for His own glory, and for the blessing of mankind.

Verses 27-28 tell us that our bodies are not our own to do with them as we please, whether in shaving for show or making cuts in the flesh or being tattooed (Compare 1 Cor. 6:19-20). All of these are only to satisfy a person's pride.

It will be noticed that after his refusal of God, man accomplishes his own personal corruption: he sins against himself — dishonors his own body. Few there are who think of this as gross and absolute sin; and fewer still who think so concerning their ignoring of God. But the latter is the very source of evil, and the former the sphere of my first responsibility to Him. The proper care of my body is a peculiar personal trust given of God, and for which I must give account.