Podcast Introduction Today we will read 1 Timothy 4-6. I’ll have some comments after the reading, and I’m calling today’s episode “Fitness.”   Design: Steve Webb | Photo: Alexandra-Fuller on Unsplash Comments on 1 Timothy 4 Training the body helps a little, but godly living helps in every way. Godly living has the promise of life now and in the world to come. This is a statement that can be trusted and deserves complete acceptance. Certainly, we work hard and struggle to live a godly life, because we place our confidence in the living God. He is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 1 Timothy 4:8-10 God’s Word Translation Paul was, as you remember, advising the younger Timothy, who was pastoring the church at Ephesus, which had  become infiltrated with many false teachings. In verse 8 Paul is addressing the idea that was held by many in the Greek and Roman culture that put a great deal of value in physical training. We know that taking care of our body is good, but let’s face it, the benefits are strictly temporary. They don’t last. Eventually, given enough time, we all grow old and our bodies deteriorate.  I started swimming competitively when I was about eight years old. By the time I graduated high school, I had swum the equivalent of nearly the distance from Los Angeles to New York. I was in great shape! A couple of years after graduating, I was a professional ski patrolman. After that I was an apprentice carpenter. All through these years, I maintained a very high level of fitness. But here in my late 60s, my body is definitely showing signs of age. Even if I had continued to exercise at the level I did in my youth, my body would not have been able to stop the aging process. Physical discipline can’t stop the march of time. And one day, my body will die. No one gets outta here alive. But on the spiritual level, I am in the best shape of my life. My walk with God has made me better able to deal with the challenges of life here and now, and the spiritual discipline I have practiced over the years also produces eternal benefits. When my body stops, I will enjoy the eternal benefit of my faith in Christ.  I assure you, and there are thousands of my brethren who can affirm the same, that after having tried the ways of sin, we infinitely prefer the ways of righteousness for their own pleasure’s sake even here, and we would not change with ungodly men even if we had to die l