Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9:25-27
So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Now it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. I care very little, however, if I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who judges me.
1 Corinthians 4: 1-4
What should I do with my wayward eating behaviours? And more broadly, how should I approach sin in general? Is it better to give myself grace or a “free pass” when I find myself snarfing grocery store doughnuts in the Safeway parking lot or should I be filled with righteous indignation and enthusiastically “beat my body”?
We see many examples of these polar opposites manifested within Christian circles, each group often judging the other. Now let me put it out there that I am at best an armchair theologian- heavy on the armchair! Please forgive me if I sound like I am “proof texting” the Scriptures. Let’s get real about this: I am not overly confident that the Bible was written and compiled for the sole purpose of keeping me out of the Taco Bell drive-thru.
At the same time I want to affirm that our God is a loving Father who wants us to find healing in this life, as well as the next. And I believe with everything I am that the secrets of life are hiding in plain sight; that we can use the Bible to change our lives to become more like Christ and to be freed from the bondage of sin. Let’s dig in.
Go back and re-read the passages at the top of the blog. They come from the same letter to the Corinthian church and yet they sound like they are in opposition. At first blush, it sounds like Paul is saying on one hand “Judge and punish yourself” and at the same time “Don’t judge yourself”. Be gentle versus be stern.
And the secular world seems to espouse the same binary views. Some urge radical self-acceptance. They say we need to “love ourselves” and stop trying to force ourselves into unrealistic social standards of shape and beauty. They say “you can’t hate your way into a healthy life”. So much of that rings true, doesn’t it? They promote intuitive eating, non-restriction, and health at any size.
The other side says “get over it!”. They shout “work harder!” Get off your butt, pull up your socks, deny your pleasures. Overcome, conquer, and run the race in such a way as to get the prize. Try harder. No excuses. Pain is the feeling of weakness leaving the body. Let me say that I resonate with those sentiments too. These guys push harder rules, ambitious goals, and hard work.
So who’s right? Which of these narratives should you apply to yourself? Which one works best?
This is the place where we need to go off the beaten path. I won’t insult you by saying “it’s both”. The truth is much, much more nuanced, so stick with me. In my view, this all comes down to how you define “yourself”.
I contend that there are actually two of “us”. We tend to think of ourselves as whole people and in fact, this is partly because postmodern thinkers rejected Cartesian notions of mind-body dualism; the idea that our brains and bodies are “separate”. They have asserted that we are unified “wholes” that cannot be dissected conceptually.
Yet Paul’s writings definitively promote a dualistic view of the self. He explains that we have two wills at work within us. This is not the first time I have shared this Scripture, but it bears repeating.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Romans 7:15-24
Yes, I know that’s a mouth-full.
Let break down this passage. Paul says that “he” desires to do what is good. “He” delights in God’s law in his inner being. That “inner being” is the real “he” in Paul’s view. The true Paul wants to love and please God and do what is right. Paul’s true self is aligned with the Spirit. This reminds me of Augustine’s precept that we should “Love God and do what you will”. What Augustine is getting at (I think) is that if the real you is aligned with God- if your inner being is one with the Spirit of God- then “doing what you want” becomes a righteous act because what you truly want is in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25).
But that’s only half of the story. Inside Paul, in addition to a “he”, there is also an “it”. Paul identifies this “it” as his flesh. If you want to read more about the flesh, look here. This second will is not the true Paul, but it is the “body of death” that is Paul’s sinful flesh. These two wills are at cross-purposes and also live together in the same human being. That’s fun! We can see how tortured and perplexed Paul is about this and I think we can all relate. What a nightmare!
What I find fascinating is that Paul takes great pains in this passage to distance the “he” from the “it”. This is why he says that if “he” sins, it is actually not “him” but “it”. And in this, I think we find the secret to the riddle of this blog. I believe that when it comes to the gentleness versus sternness question, Paul would suggest that we need both. I think he would say that we ought not to judge our inner being; we should be gentle and encouraging toward the part of us who wants to love God. Conversely, I believe he would tell us to be stern with our flesh; we should actually condemn and dominate the “it” who is held captive to sin and death.
Paul goes on a few versus later to explain that God condemned sin in our flesh. He says that the within our minds there is the “mind of the flesh” and the “mind of the Spirit”. The mind of the flesh is death, it is hostile to God, and it cannot ever hope to please God. The mind of the Spirit is life and peace, and proclaims that we are children of God. He says that “if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness”. There is such a duality there!
As unsatisfying as this might sound, I think we need to be both gentle and stern with ourselves. We need to be kind, gentle, non-judgmental, and patient with our innermost being. This is the real us; our true selves that has been forgiven by God’s grace and who will live with Jesus forever in Heaven (Amen!). We want to listen to our “mind of the Spirit”. We want to encourage it and not be harsh with it. This in turn will promote life and peace within us.
At the same time, I believe we need to be stern with the “it” that lives in us. We are bound to this fleshly, animalistic part of ourselves as long as we walk on the earth. We must not give in to its voice because following “it” only leads to death and sends us on a path away from God. This is why Paul says “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:13).
Gentleness and sternness in the context of food troubles
You might be asking yourself “How do I know the difference between the “real me” and the “it”? To be fair, that’s a more complex question that would take considerably more time to answer. But let me ask you a couple of questions in return that act as preconditions for being able to make this discernment:
Does Christ live in you? Paul says you can only actually live in the realm of the Spirit (versus the flesh) “if” the Spirit of God lives in you (Romans 8:9). This is a conditional statement. All of this is only true if Christ lives in you. If he does not, then you are unredeemed and all bets are off. If you suspect that you are in this camp, we need to back up the bus.
Where do you go for God’s truth? 2 Timothy 3:16-17 states that the Holy Scriptures equip us for “every good work”. How do you know what God’s will is unless you actively learn about it? I would humbly suggest that there is no such thing as “my truth”. Truth is not created inwardly. It comes from outside ourselves. Specifically, it is taught from God to us though the Bible. The “mind of the Spirit” that keeps “in step with the Spirit” can only do so because it has been marinated in the truth of God found in the Scriptures. Consider John 8:31-32.
Assuming you have met the preconditions of being “in Christ” and you have learned about Christ’s teachings in the Bible, then it is a somewhat straightforward thing to know which voice is speaking in your head. If the voice in your head says “I want to have sex with this woman I just met” then you know “it” is speaking rather than your true self and you are welcome to treat “it” both sternly and adversarially (Matthew 5:27-30). This is actually unbelievably good news. Because this thought did not come from the real, righteous you but instead from your flesh you may ignore it, fight it, and/or enslave it to your will.
What I am saying is that we don’t want to make friends with the flesh. And I don’t think that Paul is talking about the physical body itself (Colossians 2:20-23). I don’t think that we are being told to physically hurt our bodies. Rather, I believe he is saying that the lower mind is more a part of the body than our higher self is. What sets humans apart from the animals is that animals are pretty much “all flesh”. We, on the other hand, can reason and think about spiritual matters in addition to having animalistic impulses to eat, have sex, or fight. So I think that Paul is referring to the earthly part of our minds and lower-order thinking more than the physical members of our body.
So we ought to treat the desires and utterances that come to us from the flesh as the irrational demands of a toddler. Our true self is the parent. Many of us know what life is like when parents don’t lead and instead the toddler rules the roost! This is a recipe for chaos and even harm.
To extend this idea to food, we have a parent and a toddler voice inside us that can alternately direct our choices. It is not rocket science to know what is healthy or not when it comes to food. Cake for dinner versus chicken and salad? The toddler exclaims, “Cake! cake! cake!” The parent says “let’s try some chicken first”.
But let’s not take the toddler analogy too far. The difference between our own cherished tikes and our sinful flesh is significant. I would argue that we should never treat a little child harshly because a child is an image-bearer of God and whole person. Our flesh is not that. Our flesh stands condemned because of sin and has no future with God. Our child has a potential future with God and our flesh does not. Therefore I believe that we need to simply stand against its sinful urges. The part of us that has a bright future with God is our true self and must be nurtured.
So in a nutshell, the fleshly food game (as with any carnal desire) is won by:
- Recognizing the voice of the flesh (recognizing urges and impulses to eat as coming from “it”)
- Rejecting that voice in favour of the voice of your innermost being who delights in God’s law (listening to our true voice that suggests that we adopt a healthy way of eating)
- Walking in step with the Spirit (obeying our God-delighting true voice, which means honouring God with our choices)
I’m not going to say that this is easy to do, but it is straightforward. Much of this is self-evident. Our consciences are there to guide us, but our flesh promotes chaos because it can more easily scheme in the fog of confusion and disorder. “Only this have I found: I have discovered that God made men upright, but they have sought out many schemes” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). My working theory (for myself, because all of this is primarily my own struggle) is that if I continue to default to those three steps, I will eventually win because those steps will bring me into alignment with my Creator.
I also want to state clearly that I am not advocating for harsh treatment of one’s self, crazy deprivation diets, or extreme behaviour of any kind. What I have learned over the years is that what is truly radical is steady consistency, quiet humility, careful self-control, and surrendered patience in the face of suffering. Oftentimes, the compulsion to start an extreme diet is just as much a work of the flesh as the overindulgence we are attempting to make up for in the first place. But that is a topic for another day.
I take great comfort in knowing that God has rescued me from the consequences brought about by the acts of my flesh. I have faith that one day He will welcome me into His arms. One day, I will stroll with God in Heaven unencumbered and no sinful flesh will stand in my way.