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Last episode, we introduced a new series we hope will be helpful to you in your pursuit of faith and fruitfulness in the duties God has put before you.

In this series, entitled On Being Human, we'll be working through four parts of what it means

to be human, four areas of life where a man or a woman can pursue excellence, fruitfulness,

virtue, and honor to God's glory.

The physical, the spiritual, the social, and the vocational.

In the physical, we'll be talking about the body,

physical fitness, nutrition, appearance, and generally taking care of ourselves in such a way as to

be able to do our duties in the body with joy. In the spiritual, we'll talk about personal

piety and virtue, spiritual disciplines, and the whole-souled pursuit of the life of faith.

In the social, we'll talk about social graces, emotional aptitude, friendliness, hospitality, and more.

Really, the art and science of being a normal and likable person who is not super weird and awkward.

In the vocational, we'll talk about achievement, pursuing excellence in your work,

whatever it is that God has put in front of you. In that introductory episode, we worked through

some principles that apply to the pursuit of excellence in all of these aspects of life, as well as

some different ditches to avoid. Now we'll jump in with that first category, the physical, talking about the

body. Our thesis in this episode is simple. Christians ought to exercise discipline in seeking bodily

strength, health, and beauty for God's glory and the good of their people. As Christians, we confess

against the Gnostics that the body is not

an evil. It is, in fact, a profound good. The body was made by God, for God, and fitted for the

ends God appointed for us. Our bodies are not prisons that our souls seek to escape.

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