“The life of holiness cannot be reduced to a purely spiritual pursuit.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – February 26, 2026
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14, ESV
We were made to know God, to be so fully transformed by his grace that we are able to dwell in his presence and enjoy it, finding him to be, as the old hymn puts it, “our all in all.” For this to be true, for us to know the holiness which allows us to “see the Lord,” every part of our lives must be conformed to his will and his ways.
The life of holiness cannot be reduced to a purely spiritual pursuit, as though our bodies have nothing to do with the process! We are created by our Lord as body, soul, mind, and spirit, and it is the whole of our personhood working together that leads us into the kingdom of God. Simply put, we cannot be spiritually healthy if we ignore the needs of our bodies or the way in which the training of our bodies also serves to train our souls.
The great preacher and church leader, John Chrysostom, makes this abundantly clear in his homily on Hebrews. He says, “Take care that your body stays fit, safeguard it from illness of any sort. I am not telling you either to let it waste away or to let it grow fat. Feed it with as much food as is necessary for it to become a ready instrument of the soul.”
This is an invitation into moderation, something that our culture deeply struggles to embrace. We either obsess over our bodies, spending untold amounts of time on exercise, diet, or skincare, or in the name of “holiness,” we punish the body, denying it what it needs in order to force it into a form of extreme submission. As is often the case, wisdom is found somewhere in between. If your denial of the body is actually rooted in vanity and a desire for extreme skinniness, there is no virtue here to be claimed. Or if your self-denial in the name of Christ is so extreme that your body is unable to serve your neighbor in word and deed, then something is deeply misaligned.
And on the other hand, when we blindly indulge our every bodily desire, we shouldn’t be surprised if we find it a great struggle to resist other temptations, for body and soul are united both in their ability to pursue the kingdom and in their ability to draw us away from the straight and narrow. Here again Chrysostom is most helpful. “If you stuff (your body) with delicious dainties, the body is incapable of resisting the impulses that attack it and weaken it. A person may be very wise and yet, if he abandons himself without restraint to wine and the pleasures of the table, it is inevitable that he will feel the flames of inordinate desire blazing more fiercely within him. A body immersed in delights is a body that breeds lust of every kind.”
Instead of immersing ourselves in “delights,” let us learn, body and soul, to delight in the Lord and in his ways, orienting our lives afresh to “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14).
Prayer
Father, teach us to train our bodies for godliness, that we may know the holiness that is required to dwell in your presence, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
Meditate today upon these words from Hebrews 12, asking the Lord to show you ways in which your life can be reoriented toward the life of his kingdom.
Related Reading
Romans 13:14; 1 Corinthians 6:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4
Worship Resource
1908 Worship Collective: Take My Life, and Let It Be
Donate
If you are blessed by these daily devotionals please prayerfully consider a donation to support Wisdom Hunters Resources. We are trusting the Lord for His provision.
Download our app!
