15 Bible Verses About Healthy Eating and Wellness
I hope these Bible verses about healthy eating and wellness encourage you! They certainly have me! There is much joy when we fuel our body with wisdom, self control, and freedom!
When I was about 16 I went on my first diet. It was Weight Watchers and I meticulously calculated and tracked my “points” for three months and dropped 15 pounds. I also began running for the first time, doing a couch to 5K training program I printed off the internet.
I loved being smaller. I wasn’t eating healthy or running to feel better or because I enjoyed the process–I wanted to look like the girls I saw in magazines and waif-thin was in.
The body positivity movement was light years away; it felt “right” to not like my body. To complain about it’s flaws and failures to live up to the airbrushed standard. I was a passionate “Jesus freak” teen who went on missions trips and helped lead my church youth group. But my faith had little to do with my body.
If you dive deep into the archives of this blog you’ll find a treasure trove of posts about healthy living, weight loss, exercise, and wellness. It was the topic I wrote on the most when I first started blogging.
I was in my early to mid twenties and (unlike when I was a teen) I genuinely enjoyed working out and was interested in how my eating affected the way I FELT, not just the way I looked. The self discipline of healthy living was a big piece of my life.
Healthy living in my 30s has looked very different. I’ve had 4 kids and struggled with an autoimmune disease. Healthy living encompasses my physical, emotional, and mental well-being–not just what dress size I am. My identity as God’s beloved daughter is the baseline to making positive changes in my health.
15 Bible Verses about Healthy Living
These verses aren’t a tool to shame you or make you feel defeated. I hope they will help you see how God desires us to be self-controlled and God-glorifying in all areas of our life–including how we nourish our bodies and care for them.
By taking good care of our physical bodies, we are able to do the ministry God has called us to WELL and for a long time. This is an amazing motivator for eating healthy, exercising, and practicing good self care habits.
Bible Verses About Healthy Living and Wellness
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. -1 Corinthians 10:31
Our choices when it comes to our body can be done to glorify God or glorify ourselves. Excess in either direction (becoming overly consumed with fitness or overly slothful and indulgent) don’t put God in His proper place as Lord of our lives.
Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. -Proverbs 23:20-21
This proverb reminds us that too much of a good thing is no longer a good thing. I also love that this verse pulls out what and how much we eat can affect our energy levels.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. -1 Corinthians 6:19-20
One big motivator for taking care of our bodies is they are the temple of God. God’s Spirit dwells in us and so it matters what we do with our bodies.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. -2 Corinthians 3:17
Food choices should never feel controlling or shaming. There is freedom in what we eat, when we eat, and how we workout. If our diet is controlling us, rather than the Spirit, that’s not a good thing.
Bible Verses About Healthy Eating and the Quality of our Food
The Bible is not a diet handbook. Although the people of Israel were given certain food restrictions, no such restrictions exist for New Testament and modern believers. Food shouldn’t be seen as good or bad, but a neutral entity for our enjoyment and health.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. -Genesis 2:8-9
There is nothing wrong with enjoying the great food God richly provides for us. I love that God’s heart for us is provision and goodness in our food choices.
But I said to you, “You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has set you apart from the nations. -Leviticus 20:24
I love that when God wanted to describe the promised land he called it “flowing with milk and honey”. He could have used many other descriptors, but having more than enough food–both nutritious (milk) and sweet (honey) were how He described it.
“Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink”… At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. -Daniel 1:12,15
Daniel and his Israelite friends were able to abstain from rich foods and instead ate a leaner diet. At the end of 10 days they were healthier than those who partook of the royal table.
Is this a diet to follow? Meh. What is noteworthy (and I believe is why God blessed them) is how they used their food choices to separate and distinguish themselves from the foreign culture and align themselves with Yahweh.
Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. -Mark 7:15
There is no reason to vilify foods. Food is never going to “defile” us, but our attitudes and actions will define us much more than what we eat.
Bible Verses About the Value of Self Control
The Bible has a lot to say about self control! Believers are commanded to practice self control in alignment with the Holy Spirit.
If you find honey, eat just enough— too much of it, and you will vomit. -Proverbs 25:6
I love Proverbs! Common sense and no nonsense. Don’t eat yourself sick, silly!
It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. -Titus 2:12
The “it” in this verse is the “grace of God” (v.11). God’s grace empowers us to self-controlled living that reflects the integrity and holiness of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. -Galatians 5:22-23
I love that we can be self-controlled with our bodies as a way of showing God’s spirit is alive and well in us. But, also worth noting we can be kind, gentle, and patient with our bodies as a way of showing that too.
Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. -Proverbs 16:32
The value of self control cannot be underestimated.
Bible Verses that Emphasize Spiritual Wellness over Physical Fitness
Although physical health and wellness matters, it doesn’t matter as much as our spiritual wellness.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? -Matthew 6:25
While we could worry endlessly about our food choices, our life is more than how we look and what we do in our bodies. It’s not worth worrying over.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. -Romans 14:17
There are so many things to emphasize in life–the size of your body isn’t one of them. Live self controlled and with wisdom, but let your life be known for your righteousness, peace, and joy–not how fast you run or your diet regimen.
For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. -1 Timothy 4:8
Yes, healthy living matters; it affects your quality (and quantity!) of life on earth, but spiritual investment is for eternity. Don’t neglect your physical body, but don’t over-emphasize it either. Your soul is the only thing that will live forever.
May you be encouraged with the hope of the Scriptures when it comes to your healthy living goals. May you be patient, kind, and self-controlled with your body–recognizing it is entrusted to you to care for diligently and gracefully. May you resist the extremes of the diet industry. May you not give weigh to sloth, apathy, or gluttony OR perfectionism, striving, and self-importance. May Jesus give you joy in your body and health today. Amen.
Healthy Living Resources from a Biblical Perspective
- Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction
- Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire with God, Not Food
- Lindywell Pilates
- Revelation Wellness
- More healthy lifestyle posts
