SHOULD I NOT DO YOGA, ACUPUNCTURE, AND OTHER PRACTICES, WHICH ARE ASSOCIATED WITH NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS?
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The Church is tempted by many new and old fads and therapies, each claiming that it is the answer to our problems. We are particularly susceptible, because we are undergoing all kinds of painful trials (1 Peter 4:17; Psalm 34:19) and are tempted to think that we are missing out on something. Consequently, they bringing yoga into the church, not only for health reasons, but for spiritual reasons. Brooke Boon has claimed that yoga brings “mind and body” together so that:
∑ “we become more authentic people, able to hear God and experience Him in previously impossible ways.” (Christian Research Journal, Vol.3, #4, 2008).
While doing yoga stretches is one thing, trusting in them to bring us closer to God is another thing entirely. On the other hand, we enjoy an amazing degree of freedom in Christ. For example, Paul wrote that we could even eat at a pagan temple, as long as it doesn’t encourage a brother to violate his conscience:
∑ For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. (1 Corinthians 8:10-11)
Paul also wrote that objects (or yoga stretches) cannot defile us. Nothing that impacts us from the outside can undermine our relationship with our Lord (Titus 1:15):
∑ “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” (1 Corinthians 10:23-26; 6:12; Luke 11:39-41)
Things themselves, like using a yoga mat, cannot tarnish us in God’s sight. Jesus also explained that we are not corrupted by things that impact us from the outside or even go into our stomachs:
∑ And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:16-20)
However, if we believe that eating or not eating certain foods will make us more spiritual, we are placing our trust in the wrong things at the expense of trusting Christ alone (Psalm 62).
∑ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)
While eating or objects cannot contaminate us, placing our trust in them to make us more spiritual can. If we place our trust in eating or not eating certain foods, we are rejecting trust in Christ:
∑ Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4:1-4)
Of course, the freedom to eat all foods is opposed to the laws of Moses, which forbid eating non-kosher foods. Why the opposition between Moses’ laws and the teachings of the New Testament? Paul explained that certain laws were merely “shadows,” symbols, or representations, which have been fulfilled by Christ:
∑ Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)
Christ, the substance and reality, remains. Thou shall not murder, steal, and commit adultery also remain because they are the substance of Christ Himself, His righteous nature.
Let’s now apply this back to yoga. We are also free to perform yoga stretches and even to submit to acupuncture. However, we are not free to allow such practices to influence our faith and trust in Christ.
There is also a danger that these practices might serve as a “gateway drug,” opening us up to the influences of Eastern philosophy, which might affect our beliefs.
However, mere physical procedures cannot jeopardize our faith. While Paul did warn against circumcision, it wasn’t the physical act or procedure that concerned him but the trusting in circumcision to become a Jew to follow the law to please God (Galatians 5:2-4). Had Paul been concerned about circumcision merely as a procedure, he would never have had Timothy circumcised (Acts 16:3). However, Paul had him circumcised, not to save him, but to enable him to minister among the Jews. Had Timothy not been circumcised, the Jews would have rejected him.
There is a similar confusion about eating foods offered to idols. As many verses indicate, we are free to eat any foods (Romans 14:14, 17), whether they have been offered to idols or not (1 Cor. 10:25-26; 8:8). However, it might seem that other verses contradict this freedom:
∑ But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. (Revelation 2:14, 20; 1 Cor. 10:21)
However, this is different from just casually eating food that had been offered to idols. Instead, these false teachers were teaching the church to proactively seek to eat these foods, presumably for spiritual benefit. This represents a form of spiritual adultery, a compromise of the faith and hope we have invested in Christ.
On several occasions, I had eaten food offered to idols at a Hare Krishna temple. I had no problem doing this. However, if they would have required that I bow in the direction of their gods, I wouldn’t have been able to do so. This would have sent the message that I respected their beliefs and dishonored my own, something forbidden:
∑ …what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? (1 Corinthians 10:20-22)
Therefore, if your yoga class requires that you pay some form of homage to their gods or beliefs, you will provoke the Lord. However, merely doing stretches is little different from participating in a swimming class. However, if the teacher insists that by doing exercises, you will be more in-tune with God, they have gone beyond the revelation of Scripture. We cannot put our trust in such things. While exercise might make you more clear-headed, it will not make God more receptive to your prayers. Such a trust also ignores what God has clearly prescribed – faith, obedience, confession, Scripture meditation, and prayer. Instead, faith in physical manipulations represents a lack of faith in the teachings of the Word of God. Rather, Paul taught:
∑ Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7-8)
I do back exercises and find them helpful. However, I would be wrong to think that these exercises are improving my relationship with God. Misguided Christians have also placed their faith in asceticism, various forms of self-depravation, thinking that these would make them more spiritual, worthy, or more able to hear the “voice of God.” However, Scripture warns against such a hope:
∑ These [“human precepts and teachings,” verse 22] have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:23)
Paul, therefore, had warned against submitting to such “regulations” (verse 21). It is a matter of placing our hope in the wrong thing instead of in Christ. However, to trust in depriving yourself of dessert in order to lose weight does not violate our faith in Christ.
Another yoga promoter, Susan Bordenkircher claimed that:
∑ “Ultimately…the pain and discomfort you may feel in your skin can be the cause of division between you and God.” (CRJ)
If “pain and discomfort” can cause a “division between you and God,” we should live insulated lives. We should also fear growing old with its many infirmities. However, this isn’t the message of Scripture. Instead, we are assured that we are overflowing with the riches in Christ even without yoga:
∑ See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (Colossians 2:8-10)
How can we guard against being taken captive by alien philosophies? By praying and meditating on Scripture day and night (Psalm 1). We also need the assurance that we already have all of the instructions we need to live a godly life:
∑ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
If the Scriptures are able to make us complete in our relationship with our Savior, then we shouldn’t fear that we are missing out if we fail to practice an unbiblical therapy.
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