Did you set a new year’s resolution this year? Chances are, the resolution was focused on improving yourself. According to YouGov, exercise remains resoundingly the top ‘self-betterment’ goal. As a self-confessed fitness-fanatic myself, I get this: the structure, consistency, and community offered by the gym helps me in so many ways. But how does this fit with the Christian life? Is growing in my faith like going to the gym?
Fitness and discipleship
At first glance, the Bible does draw parallels between faith and fitness. Paul speaks of “training in godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7–8), acknowledging that physical training has value, but using it as a picture for something far greater: a life shaped by reverence for God and lived with Him at the centre.
Yet while faith and fitness may look similar on the surface, both involving discipline, values, and community, their foundations are different. In fitness, change depends on our own effort. In the Christian life, we begin with empty hands, unable to save or transform ourselves. New life comes as a gift of grace from God.
Still, this grace does not lead to passivity. We are called to train in godliness as a lifelong journey: learning, failing, and beginning again. But we do so in partnership with the Holy Spirit, trusting that the starting point, the power, and the final goal are already secured in Christ.
The illusion of control
At the gym, we all too easily fall into an illusion of control. For that hour or two, we can structure life as we want it. We can focus on the moment. We can believe we are the masters of our own bodies. Of course, it is obvious even in the gym that we are not really in charge. An unexpected injury trips us up and keeps us out of action, a change of job means we no longer have the energy we once did. We accidentally lie-in and miss our morning session. We can feel a sense of failure, and a lack of joy when we fail to meet the ever-growing expectations we set for ourselves.
But as Christians, we lay down the burden of control. God knows the end from the beginning and holds our future secure. Through Jesus, He has given us a living hope and an inheritance that will never fade or fail.
We love fitness because it gives us a sense of control through discipline and community …until something reminds us how fragile that control really is. We can often treat our Christian faith the same way, assuming it runs on performance and effort, and fearing it will steal our freedom.
In fact, the opposite is true. The gospel is built on grace. It leads not to loss, but to true freedom, and to a deep, inexpressible joy, even when life is hard.
Talking about the big questions of life in the gym
So instead of treating faith like fitness, why not see fitness as a place to live and share your faith? Physical training has value, but godliness has far greater value, now and for eternity.
The gym creates natural connection; shared intensity in working out together builds trust and opens real conversations. I’ve often found more openness and curiosity about faith there than anywhere else, especially in a time where we are seeing an increased interest in Christianity, particularly among Gen Z.
We talk a lot about our “why” in fitness - health, strength, recovery, or keeping up with life. But in the Bible we discover a far greater “why”: God’s story of redemption and renewal, bigger than ourselves and open to all.
For me, this is where fitness ends and faith truly begins, and what a joy it is to share that hope, purpose, and identity with those around us, especially in the places we already belong.
Simon Lennox is the CEO of The Word One to One, a ministry with a mission to build confidence in God's Word and Spirit for everyday evangelism.
