Take Care of Your Body!

Hey, this is John Galantis from the Clearview Today Show, checking in with you guys to plug our new show, How to Read Biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abaddon Shah. It's a video podcast. You can watch it right from your favorite podcasting app. And we're releasing new episodes every single week.

You don't have to be intimidated about learning biblical Hebrew. We're gonna start with the alphabet. We'll start with sounds, basic grammar. We'll work our way up. But our guarantee is this.

If you follow this podcast and put in the work, you will be reading the Old Testament and its original language in no time. Again, that's how to read biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abaddon Shah. Links in the description.

Now let's start the show. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and how you treat that temple not only sets you up for further success, it reveals what you actually think about God's temple. All this and more coming up right now on the Clearview Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis and welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We got a great conversation. We're so glad that you're joining us again in the studio today with our host, Dr. Abadhan Shah.

If you're listening for the very, very first time today, we want to say welcome to the show. We're glad that you found us and we want to let you know exactly who's talking to you. Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr.

Shah, it's good to see you. It's good to see you again. Welcome to the studio. You know, one of the things that we do on this show is we tell people how to repent from their sins, but sometimes, sometimes we got to confess our own sins. Sure.

We listen and we don't judge, except when we do. I'm going to, I'm going to weep tears like a disgraced televangelist today and tell you guys about my morning.

Well, so buckle in Dr. Shah. I, we, we had an appointment at eight o'clock. I'm sorry, at eight 30 to go get our taxes done. And Gavin has to be at school at eight.

So I got up at seven 20, get Gavin ready, take him to school. Nobody at the school. The school is empty. It looks like the walking dead. There's no one there today.

Today.

So I checked the messages and they sent out at six in the morning. They sent out, Hey, two hour delay. I said, well, I should have checked my messages. No big deal. I'll just take Gavin to the tax office.

No problem. I thought we were going to be in the tax office for like a long time. And so I was already, you know, when you get pre-stressed, like, like you haven't even done the stressful thing yet. I'm pressed. Yeah.

Yeah. I was pressed. I was really impressed. I was, uh, I was like, we're going to take all three kids in here.

So I was really stern. I was like, guys, when we get in this office, you will sit on the floor. You're going to watch cartoons on my phone. You will not make a noise. You will not put your feet on the walls.

Cause they like to lay on their stomachs and kick their feet on the walls. I said, none of that is happening.

So I'm already like pre, uh, I'm very tense. We get in there. It takes like 10 minutes. I was like, okay, that wasn't so bad. But now I've got all this like free.

So I go back home, lay on the couch, fall asleep, which I should not have done. 10 o'clock rolls around. I got a rush now to get even though we had a two hour delay, I fell back asleep.

Now I got a rush to get Gavin to school. Everything's fine.

Now I'm going home. Ellie says, will you go buy the bank for me? I'm like, man. Everything's just kind of piling on. I need to go to Sheetz.

Do you see where I'm going? For gas in the car? No. Oh, for food. Oh my word.

This is a stunt I have not pulled since my gross teenager days. At 1030 in the morning, I got tacos and curly fries and a Coke Zero. And I sat in the car eating it knowing, like, this was the worst mistake I could have made today. Because I'm going to feel really good for 10 minutes. And then you're going to feel really bad for the rest of the day.

I crumbled up the bag of curly fries, put it in the passenger seat, looked in the rearview mirror and said, Now I have to go do a Christian talk show with Dr. Shah. So we get up here and Dr. Shaw goes, what do y'all want to talk about today? And David, who's back behind the board, I think who knew, who wanted to set this up, goes, why don't we talk about our bodily health?

Did he know about what had happened? Oh, yeah, he knew. Oh, then he set you up. Oh, yeah. Dr.

Shaw, have you ever just made a truly bad fast food decision like that at 1030 in the morning? Yeah. But it's been a while that I have done that because, you know, the older you climb and the check engine light starts coming on, I can't do that. I can't do the things that I used to do. I can't drive into the ditch and kind of, you know, go real fast over a speed bump and kind of feel like I am.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but after a while, you know that check engine light's going to come on. You're going to mess things up in your vehicle. You'll have to take it in and spend a lot of money.

so then you avoid some of those things yeah yeah so also with the human body when you know the check and light's gonna come on yeah you start to take better care yeah that's one of the facts of the world around us you know things don't typically improve over time they start to break down and it's funny because i hear a lot of people listen to that he's like well you can do that because you're young but then you remember like i'm 34 i'm not as young as i maybe would hope that i am Like this would have been a funny nothing story if I was like 25. I'm almost 34. And I remember looking in the rearview mirror this morning like, why did I do that? Why did I do that?

Well, you are young and that's great. It's a blessing to be young. Yeah, true. But if you create certain bad habits, trust me, I have spent the past, I would say six years breaking some of the bad habits that I had accumulated over the past 45 years of my life. I mean, right now I'm 52, but when I began to make that change, it was tough.

Eating vegetables was tough. Like, I don't want to eat that. Oh, if I eat it, I'm going to just lather it down with ranch. Yeah, yeah. So I'm going to taste the vegetable.

Oh, that's how my wife eats a salad. It's like mostly dressing, but she gets credit because it's a salad. Yeah, yeah. And then Nicole would tell me, it's like, you know that ranch has so much more calories that you are negating all the vegetables that you're taking in. And back in the day, I was like, no, it's vegetables.

That's just ranch. That's right. And then when the check engine light comes on and you go to the doctor and then they tell you under the hood, there's too many times you've been going into the ditch trying to, you know. Like speed your way back out. And you cannot keep doing that because you're revving up the tires.

You're doing this and that, whatever. That's when you realize, oh, so the ranch dressing, I'm doing it for the taste, not really for the health. and I'm actually equalizing all the good that I'm doing with all the bad.

Okay, so now you get the fat-free dressing, which doesn't taste that great. It doesn't. But at least it helps the vegetables do what they need to do in your body, which is break down all that sugar stuff. That's right, that's right. And I'm full of dread at this point too because I know in about, let's see, we're about six minutes in, in about 24 minutes we're going to lunch, and now I've got to explain to everybody why I'm not eating.

Aren't you going to eat? Don't you want something? No, I'm good. I'm good. I'm still full of regret and tacos.

Yeah, I didn't even know Sheets. I saw that on the menu. I was like, oh my goodness. But Dr. Shell, we did want to talk about this today because a lot of people treat Christianity as though it's just your spirit.

It's just your soul. Your body's not really, you know what I mean? Your body is not really an integral part of the Christian life.

Some people might say that the body is actually immoral. It's the immoral part of you and the only thing that matters is the spirit. Yeah plus I mean the Bible says we getting new bodies anyway so it doesn matter what I do in this life There can go I didn even think about that It a free pass The Bible says a lot about our physical bodies Of course it emphasis is on the spiritual but not for a single moment that we should think that the physical does not matter Or that our physical will just kind of go away. It's just a husk. And what really matters is a spiritual, the inner life.

No, no, no. That physical does matter. Of course, the physical one day will be bared into the ground. It will decompose. It will go away.

And then at the resurrection, it is coming back.

So again, people will say, well, if it's coming back, then why worry about what I do to this? No, you shouldn't think like that. You should treat it with some level of dignity, respect, honor. Honoring your body is very important. That's right.

This is how God has made us. we are we're not just um spiritual beings we are also physical beings so physic physicality is very very important and there's no guarantee that like i'm gonna get a chris hemsworth ripped body in the new in the new life like what is that parable that he told about the very true about the the servants that he gave the talents to and he gave just if he gave them like a little bit of talents and he gave some other talents or more amount of talents but what they did with it you know what they did with what they were given determined their eternal outcome.

Well, and the point is, you know, not thinking like eternity is coming.

So what I do here doesn't matter. No, God's entrusted you with this body in this life. You need to honor it. You need to take care of it. It's a resource that God has given you that you can use for his glory and for his kingdom.

That's right. So you can't squander it. You need to use it. There's several passages I want to read for our listeners, our viewers, because we're like a month into 2026. And at the start of the year, we make a lot of resolutions.

Man, I'm going to eat better. I'm going to do better. We're motivated because we feel like, okay, the last year is done. I goofed up. Christmas was bad.

I ate a lot of candy, sugar stuff.

Okay, now I'm ready. It's like you looked into my notes app before we started. And then two weeks, three weeks, we're back to doing the same things. We're starting to cheat again. You know, people say, I need one cheating cheat day.

It's like, yeah, but not, you don't cheat once every day. Yeah, no, you have a cheat day a week. Yeah. Yeah. And now you got a habit of cheat days.

Yeah, you're cheating every day. And I've done it. I've done it.

So there's some passages I want to give, hopefully, that will encourage some of our listeners and our viewers, just like it encourages us to get back to our resolutions, to get back to taking care of our physical body.

So first one here is from 1 Timothy 4, verse 8. Paul says, for bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things.

Now, all we get out of that passage is that bodily exercise profits a little. No, but what Paul is saying is it does profit. Of course, godliness is more important, walking with God, but does that mean that physical exercise is not important? No, it doesn't matter. right that's right take care of yourself exercise walk um do whatever you can to keep your body moving yeah i think it's interesting that in that verse people people point to that say see he said it only profits a little but the only other thing listed outside of your relationship with god is taking care of your body right it's not philosophy it's not a study of ethics it's not learning history although those things are important but the only other thing listed in this verse is taking care of your body physically yeah and paul uses that athletic language a lot Like he says, I beat my body into submission.

I run the race. He uses that metaphor, not just because it's easy to understand, but because it's immediately applicable to your life. Yeah, somaticae gumnasia. That's where we get our word gym, gymnasium from. Of course, in biblical times, gymnasium was a place where people came together.

They did other things, but they also exercised.

So when Paul is using this, I believe Paul probably did some stretches. I think Paul probably, he probably did not do weight training. Maybe he did. Maybe he was on the bench. You don't know.

I don't know. We do know that he walked a lot. He had to in those days. They had to do a lot of walking up and down those Roman roads.

So he was a walker. And working as a tent maker as well, he would have been kind of adjacent to some of the games that were happening in that time, right? Yeah. So I would say Paul definitely did some exercises every day just to keep himself loose. I mean, he was a writer, he was a thinker, he was a reader.

And someone like me who likes to write and think and sit a lot, I have to make myself do certain level of cardio. Of course, I do weight training as well. I'll do weight training three times a week, and then two days I'll do nothing but cardio. 45 minutes of just walking. walking on an elliptical walking on a stairmaster walking on a what do you call it?

a treadmill some days I mean I will walk in the morning about 45 minutes and then at lunchtime after lunch I will go by we have a treadmill here I would do like a 20-25 minute walk and it it's amazing how your sugar begins to come down that's true So if you're struggling with sugar issues, carbs, walk. That's right. At night, Nick gave a great gift to Nicole, which is a treadmill. Because Nicole was like, oh, I have to walk downstairs. I'm like, you can go to the Y, membership at the Y.

She's like, yeah, I know, but I have so many, so many things going on. And then I have to walk downstairs and walk back up in our basement. I don't want to do the elliptical today. But now Nick gave her this wonderful treadmill. It's a small little portable thing.

It sits in the corner of the living room. Right now I'm in a season where I'm not in the gym, so I know I'm the last person to be making fun of anybody. But why is she willing to do the exercise of the elliptical but not willing to walk downstairs to do it?

Well, I don't think it's just walk down. It's the fact that you do elliptical. Elliptical is a little, I would say, tougher. Oh, it's way tougher than the treadmill. Treadmill?

Yeah, yeah. it's more intense so that's one reason i think she's like i don't want to go down there gotcha but it's really i don't want to get on the elliptic yeah yeah yeah treadmill she loves it she nicole has been doing the treadmill is it a full treadmill it's a it's a mini treadmill like one of the little floor ones floor ones that you can those are like fold up fold it up and sit on the corner yeah that's really cool those are pretty popular it's like a little walking pad that's exactly what it is those are really cool and she loves it yeah but i i get up on there you I'll come home from work, from church.

Sometimes I have appointments here.

Sometimes I have phone calls to make.

Sometimes there's a quick visit, whatever. Where do you all have it? It's in our living room. In our living room? Cool.

So I'll come back home, grab some salad first, then eat whatever meal it is, whether something Nicole cooked or something we got, say Chick-fil-A. Have we not been? I guess we haven't been to the house since Christmas because I was going to say, my kids, the next time they're there, they're going to be all over that stinking thing. You're going to have to hide it before we get there. And then once I done with that I get some water drink some and then put on my shoes get on that treadmill for 25 minutes Yeah Yeah It crazy how good walking is That one of the things that I love about our campus is that our campus has just gotten really really big and it does kind of force you to walk where you need to go A lot of times there hey would you go to the sanctuary and get this for me But many times you're going to hear, no, I'm not going to do that.

There is a lot of walking and I do kind of like it. I like it a lot. And I think that's one of the things that it was just sort of a happy accident that God kind of gave us is that now we walk a ton.

Well, it's funny because a lot of what we do is done. I mean, there's some movement around, but a lot of what we do is done at desks, at a computer, in front of a screen, sitting in an office. But those days where we are more active, like, for example, Wednesday nights here, we've got activities around the church.

So they're kind of like walking here, there, everywhere. It's rare that I'm sitting still on a Wednesday night. I'm going to check on these people. I'm sitting in on this class. I'm going to supervise these kids.

So I'll get home and look at my Apple Watch. I'm like, oh, I did hit my step goal today. and I had been sitting the most of the day but you have those moments of activity that encompass the entire night. And it's good too because we're here and I know we're just talking about our situation but at least there's some consistency. I think you and I are in some of the least consistent seasons of life with young kids.

I was in the gym three to four days a week before Carson was born and as soon as she hit that week before she gave birth to him, I was like, yeah, I'm not going to be able to make it the next few weeks and it's been six months. And you know what I'm saying? Poor Carson. Poor baby. He just says he looks at you.

Yeah, he's just like, oh. I mean, I'm in the same boat. Not the same boat because I don't have young ones quite as young as yours. But I've got kids that are going here, there, sports. We're trying to get our house in order to do things, move forward in life.

But, again, those are just excuses that I'm just blaming it on. When I know that I need to be in the gym, it's just like, man. Yeah, you fall out of those seasons. You know what I mean? Like he's been sleeping through the night since he was two months old.

Yeah. He's like six or seven months old now.

So you fall out of those. And you kind of, maybe you can talk about this, Dr. Shaw. You start to lose conviction. Because when you're in there and you're disciplined and you're doing it and you're around like-minded Christians who are in there doing it with you, you remember that important truth that your body is a temple.

When you're out of it and you isolate yourself and you're on the couch and you're in front of the TV, it's very easy to lose that conviction.

So let me read that passage for us. Yeah, go ahead. Finish your thought.

Well, I was just going to say, it's funny how the worse you get, the more fine you think you are. Yeah. The passage I want to read, which you just referenced, is 1 Corinthians 6, and verse 19 and 20. It says, Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Now, some people have said, does that mean physical body or spiritual body? No, I think it's talking about physical because in the context, Paul wasn't talking about eating habits. He was talking about sexual immorality. Don't do those kind of things. This is a church in Corinth.

In verse 18, Paul says, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?

So in the context, it is about the physical body because sexual immorality is mentioned. Yes, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You have to treat it that way. Don't destroy the temple. Don't desecrate the temple.

Keep it pure. Keep it clean. Let it be a place where the triune God, the third person of the Godhead can dwell. That's what you want. That's right.

And it makes perfect sense when you actually picture it as a building. You know, there's very, very few churches in America who would claim that this building, these walls, this brick and mortar is very, very sacred. Like they know that, no, it's just a building. At the same time, you don't bring trash into the building. You don't come in and spray paint their walls.

You don't throw your trash on the floor.

So even though it's just a building, you still take care of it. But when it's our body, we think, well, this is mine.

Well, many times what we're doing is we are giving ourselves a break because we're going through a difficult time or it's a bad day or somebody has mistreated us.

So we're eating because we feel like I deserve this. I deserve a little happiness. If this gives me a little bit of happiness, what's wrong? Who am I hurting because I'm eating this?

So that's one reason that people do that. Right. They're giving themselves a little bit of joy. But in the long run, it doesn't help you. Right.

It hurts you. It destroys things in your body. It hurts your health. It cuts short your lifespan. And all because someone somewhere was a jerk to you.

Or someone somewhere didn't care about your feelings. That's right. I feel like anytime we fall into the trap of self-soothing or self-medicating, it never does well in the long term. Yeah, think about it. It might give some temporary relief, but...

Yeah, think about it. I mean, why let someone who was definitely a jerk take things away from you, like your health? That's right. Don't do that. Don't allow that.

He said, what do I do? Because in the moment, I just kind of like go with it. I hear you. I get it. I totally get it.

Just pray. Ask God to help you. He said, does that work? 100% of the time. It does work.

It works. Pray and say, God, help me. Give me strength. Give me discernment. Give me self-control.

I don't want to let the enemy, because the enemy is involved in this. He's involved in all of these things.

So when somebody mistreats you, the enemy says, go ahead, you know, go ahead. Do this. It's okay. You'll be all right. You deserve this.

Don't listen to that. Yeah, I think it's easy to take spiritual advice because at the end of the day, it doesn't physically cost me anything. You know what I mean? Like it might be emotionally taxing or mentally taxing and I have to really put my faith and trust. But when it comes to like physical advice, especially from a Christian perspective, that's where it's really going to cost.

Like it's going to cost me my energy to get up at six in the morning, go out in the cold, drive to the gym, exert myself. You know what I mean? And even if I do it one day, two days, five days, it will always cost the same amount of energy. Even though it gets easier, it's always going to cost that. And so it's a lot harder to do.

But I think like you said, Dr. Shah, in the long run, it's going to benefit you more than you can imagine. And I think we lose sight of, especially having been out of it for a while, we lose sight of the physical benefits, not just health-wise, but I mean mental clarity. You have more energy in the long run. You'll be able to do more things.

You'll be able to get up easier. And it helps with your overall mood. It helps in so many different ways other than just, hey, I'm getting bigger muscles or I'm trimming off some fat. Yes. You know, the Bible says, again, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 31, he says, Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

In the context, Paul is really referring to food offered to idols and all those kind of things. Or should you eat clean or unclean food?

So it's in that context. Right, right. Totally understand that. But here, and of course, it also leads into the communion, the Lord's Supper. There were issues going on and how the people were eating at the De'Pnons, at those banquets, right?

We covered that last year But we can still take the principle to heart which is eating or drinking When you do those things do unto the glory of God So if I eat that, eat that candy bar, yeah, it's great. If you eat in moderation, if you eat carefully, if you know that, okay, I have some points that I can do that. But yeah, that's fine. But if you do it because I'm feeling bad today, I'm just going to go ahead and do this. Maybe you're not glorifying God.

That's right. That's right. Maybe you're glorifying yourself. Maybe you're glorifying someone's evil. Maybe you're glorifying the enemy.

So is it evil to have a little bit of milkshake? Is it evil to get a cone of ice cream? No, it's not evil. But if it's going to just indulge you and soothe you and you haven't prayed and ask God's help, then yeah, it becomes evil. At that point, a milkshake is not just a milkshake.

That's right. Yes, the ice cream, the milkshake is not evil, but it may reveal something darker that's happening inside. Yeah, you're not turning to God. Right, right. And you're turning to yourself, like you said, self-medication, self-soothing.

And this conversation, I mean, we're talking, the larger conversation is how we treat our body in relation to how God has designed it and given it to us. We're talking right now about food and exercise and physical health, but this could easily be a conversation about abortion. This could easily be a conversation about transgenderism. genderism. And I know it's kind of late in the show to flip it on a dime now, but Dr.

Shah, do you want to just kind of talk for briefly and encourage the people who are listening who are like, Hey, I haven't treated my body very well in life. And I want to make that right. You know, when we think about our world today, people talk about my body, my choice. This is not your body, your choice. This is a body that has been gifted to you by the living, true triune God.

I don't care what religion you are, but I'm going to give it to you from the biblical perspective, your body was made by God as a gift given to you. And I know sometimes we abuse it.

Sometimes others abuse our bodies. I mean, you know, there's a lot of evil things that have happened in this world. But I hope today's broadcast has helped you open your eyes to see people differently, that that body that they're carrying is not to be made fun of or mistreated or abused, that body belongs to God. It's His, given to us on loan.

So also when somebody says, my body, my choice, I can have abortion. No, no, it doesn't work like that.

Sorry, lady. That's right. Sorry. The world has lied to you. Feminism has lied to you.

People are lying to you. This is not about choice. Right. This is about killing someone else's body. And these brilliant people, other than when it comes to talking about abortion, they say, oh, that life, it's not a life until it comes out.

What, wait a minute, five minutes before it's not a life, five minutes after it becomes a life? Right. Very silly. Come on. That doesn't make any sense.

No, I think it's because they're following a worldview. They're following a religious system that is immature, incomplete, evil, demonic. Because the biblical system tells us you are fearfully and wonderfully made. That's right. Western civilization thrives.

I know we're struggling right now, But it was built upon those Judeo-Christian values where we learn to value each other, where we treat each other with dignity, and we treat our own bodies with dignity. That's right. Yeah. That's right. So, Dr.

Shah, the action step, other than eat right, get in the gym, what can we do to fix our mindset?

Well, I mean, just know, number one, your body is a gift. It's given to you by God. Whether you are saved or lost, whether you are left or right, liberal or conservative, your body is a gift. and others' body is a gift of God. It means he holds the patent.

He holds the deed on that body that is yours. He holds it. It's not yours. That's right. You can keep saying it's mine.

No, it's not. It's his. Secondly, as a believer, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It means it's much more than this is on loan from God to me. But inside, because I have received Jesus as my Savior, the Holy Spirit dwells in me so whatever I do to this body I need to take it seriously that's why years ago I began working out years ago I began eating right of course the check engine lights came on and I was like okay I gotta do this but don't wait for the check engine light to come on that's right start taking care of your body that's right guys make sure you join us next time same time same place we're gonna be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today Show Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible.

If today was your first day listening to us, I'm glad that you're here. We hope you join us for tomorrow's conversation. Hey, talking about great sponsors, this is a great time to mention that this episode is sponsored by Mighty Muscadine.

Now, you want to take care of your body? You need to get some of that stuff right there. And you can enter promo code T-O-D-A-Y at checkout when you visit MightyMuscadine.com. They've got some great, great supplements and some great stuff to keep you healthy. That's right.

That promo code will get you a discount on your purchase and the money that you spend. A portion of that goes right back here to the Cleary Today Show. Don't forget that you could always support us financially as one of our giving partners at Abadonshaw.com forward slash give. That's right. NRB 2026, we are coming.

The time is drawing near February 17th through the 20th. We are going to be there. Dr. Shah is going to be there as part of Pray.com. We're going to be in the Pray booth talking to the CEO and a lot of the other featured leaders on Pray.

You guys can come by and say hello. If you've got any of Dr. Shah's books, bring them. We're going to be doing a book signing as well. That's something I've been meaning to talk about and haven't done that.

Dr. Shah is doing a book signing at NRB.

So make sure you come and see us in Nashville. We'd love to get in touch with you and learn more about your ministry. Also, there's a big, big apologetics conference happening here at Clearview Church on March the 28th, diving into the Byzantine text of the Bible, specifically of the New Testament. And we are going deep, deep, deep. We want you guys to be able to come.

Pastors, ministry leaders, this is the conference for you. You can find the link in the description and you can get 20% off at checkout by entering that same exact promo code today, T-O-D-A-Y at checkout. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Theory Today.

Thank you. you