Faithful Stewards of the Embodied Life God Has Given Us – Robert L Chongthu IAS

“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” — Romans 12:1

Christianity is sometimes imagined as being mainly concerned with the soul. We pray, worship, study Scripture and think about spiritual growth, while sleeping, eating, exercising and caring for our physical health can seem like secondary matters. Yet the Bible presents a deeply embodied view of human life. God did not merely give us souls; he created us as physical creatures. Our bodies are part of the life entrusted to us, and caring for them wisely can therefore be an expression of Christian stewardship.

The biblical story begins with rhythm. God separates light from darkness and calls them day and night (Genesis 1:3–5). The sun, moon and heavenly lights mark “days and years” (Genesis 1:14–18). Humanity enters a world already ordered around morning and evening, light and darkness, activity and rest.

Psalm 104 gives a beautiful picture of this natural order. Darkness comes and the animals of the forest emerge. Then “the sun rises” and they withdraw, while “people go out to their work, to their labor until evening” (Psalm 104:20–23). This is not modern circadian science, but it portrays human beings as essentially diurnal creatures—active during daylight and resting after their day’s work.

Similar assumptions appear elsewhere. Jesus says, “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4). Paul writes, “Those who sleep, sleep at night” (1 Thessalonians 5:7). Both passages make spiritual points, but their metaphors depend upon an ordinary human reality: daytime is associated with wakefulness and activity, nighttime with cessation and sleep.

And Scripture does not regard sleep as wasted time. “In vain you rise early and stay up late,” says the psalmist, because God “grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:2). David can say, “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me” (Psalm 3:5). Every night we stop working and surrender control. Sleep reminds us that we are creatures, not God.

The Sabbath develops the same principle. God’s people were commanded regularly to cease working (Exodus 20:8–11; Deuteronomy 5:12–15). Sabbath is not primarily a health intervention, but it reveals something important about human nature: we were not created for uninterrupted productivity.

Nor does Christianity regard the body as an unimportant container for the soul. God called his embodied creation “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Christ “became flesh” (John 1:14), rose bodily from death (Luke 24:39), and Christians ultimately hope for bodily resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42–44).

Our bodies therefore belong within our discipleship. Paul tells Christians to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1) and to “honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

This provides a foundation for thinking about health as stewardship. Scripture does not prescribe cholesterol targets, exercise programmes or ideal bedtimes. But physical training has value (1 Timothy 4:8). Gluttony and drunkenness are warned against (Proverbs 23:20–21; Ephesians 5:18). Paul refuses to be “mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12), and Jesus tells exhausted disciples to “get some rest” (Mark 6:31).

Exercise, nutritious food, adequate sleep, rest and avoiding destructive habits can therefore be understood as stewardship—not because Christians worship health, but because our bodies enable us to worship God, love our families, serve others and fulfil our responsibilities.

Yet health must never become an idol. Faithful Christians still become sick. Paul experienced bodily weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7–10), Timothy apparently suffered recurring illness (1 Timothy 5:23), and Epaphroditus nearly died while serving Christ (Philippians 2:25–30). Illness is not necessarily evidence of failed stewardship.

This brings us to modern circadian biology. The Bible says nothing about melatonin, biological clocks or the effects of artificial light. We should not pretend otherwise. But science has discovered biological mechanisms underlying a rhythm Scripture had always observed:

light → waking → activity → evening → darkness → sleep → morning.

Ecclesiastes simply observes, “Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun” (Ecclesiastes 11:7).

Christians therefore need not turn circadian living into another spiritual law. Scripture does not command us to watch every sunrise, eat only during daylight or avoid every artificial light after sunset. Such practices should be evaluated scientifically.

The deeper biblical principle is simpler: we are creatures, not the Creator. We need food, movement, sleep and rest. We live within time and within limits.

Modern technology allows us increasingly to ignore those limits—to turn night into day, remain stimulated around the clock, eat at every hour and work without boundaries. Christian wisdom invites us instead to live according to the grain of God’s creation.

Our bodies are gifts, not gods. Caring for them cannot guarantee longevity or freedom from disease. But learning how they were designed to function—and wisely ordering our sleep, light, activity, food, work and rest—is one meaningful way of becoming faithful stewards of the embodied life God has given us.