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Unfit, Yet Totally Fit
By David Feddes

This is our final talk on total fitness. I'm calling it “Unfit, Yet Totally Fit.” That may seem like kind of a strange title, but we'll find out more what it means.

In talking about total fitness, we've looked at seven different areas: the spiritual, physical, financial, intellectual, emotional, relational, and vocational areas of fitness. And as we've talked about these things, I obviously thought it was worth talking about. And yet now I want to say that it can be a dangerous thing to focus on total fitness.

How can it be dangerous? Well, in a variety of ways.

One danger of talking about fitness is that we begin to get into a pattern of self-salvation, where we base our standing with God on my fitness, not Jesus' fitness. If I'm thinking too much about my fitness and not about the fact that Jesus is where my fitness comes from, I can start focusing on self-salvation.

Another fitness danger is self-transformation. I think that I'm going to change by my efforts and not so much by the Spirit of God who's within me. It's all about my strength, my power, my effort.

Another fitness danger—and again it begins with the word “self”—is self-worship: making total fitness my number one goal and using God to get it. When you want anything supremely and then you're just going to use God to get it, there's something wrong. I want total fitness. I want to be outstanding. I want to be all I can be. I want to fulfill all my potential, and I want God to be my personal trainer to help make it happen. You can see that what's really going on is self-worship. It's all about me, me, me—with God as my special assistant.

Another fitness danger is self-protection. I want fitness so that I don't have to suffer. I want to seek safety from sorrow. I want to seek safety from pain rather than bearing the crosses or taking the risks that sometimes come from following Jesus. And so I want to be financially fit, I want to be physically fit, I want to be relationally fit so that life is pleasant and easy for me. And it's all about self-protection rather than fully flourishing as the kind of person God made me to be.

Another fitness danger is having a sense of superiority. I've worked on fitness, and now I look down on anybody who struggles. I despise anybody who struggles in an area where I feel fit. So if I've developed a good Bible reading habit and somebody else hasn't, I'm superior. If I'm good with my finances and somebody else has a lot of debt, I feel very good about myself and I look down on them. If I have got it together emotionally and I don't blow up and I feel pretty stable and somebody else seems a little bit flighty or given to depression or given to anger, then I'm superior to them. You see how that works? You've become what you think is fit in an area, and then you exalt yourself above somebody else.

Or you can have the opposite danger. Instead of superiority: inferiority—despising myself in an area where others seem more fit. I see somebody who has got fantastic fitness habits. They exercise, they eat right, and they look fabulous. And I look at myself and—boy—they are superior to me. Or I look at my finances, and they stink, and somebody else is so good with money, and I think, why can't I be like that? Why are they so superior? Why am I such a loser? Or I think of somebody else's success in their career and their job, and mine seems to be going nowhere. I don't have a very good income. I don't have much prestige in my work, and I just feel like a second- or third-rate person compared to them. That's a great danger of focusing on fitness and then seeing that somebody else has more fitness than I do in an area.

Another fitness danger is smugness—to think that I'm doing pretty well, I'm pretty healthy, finances are going well, emotions are okay, and so on and so forth, and hey, why would I even be eager for Jesus to return? I've already kind of got it all together, and when Jesus returns it would just be a little bit of frosting on the cake. When in fact there is still very far for me to go and very much that needs to change in our world. But smugness, if you've been working on fitness and thinking you're making pretty good progress, can be a great danger.

And a rather different danger is insecurity, where I learn about different areas of fitness and what it might take, and then I obsess over it. I keep pressuring myself, and I feel almost crushed by knowing too much about fitness and keeping on pressing toward it but never quite getting there and never sure if it's enough and never confident or satisfied in how I'm doing.

Those are some fitness dangers. And here are some ways to counteract those.

Realistic fitness realizes not self-salvation, but that my standing with God rests completely on Jesus' fitness, on his perfect obedience, on the way he followed his Father and honored his Father perfectly, not mine (Philippians 3:9). So my standing with God depends entirely on Jesus. And the transformation of my life and becoming more like Christ does not depend just on me. Transformation comes when the Spirit changes me and matures Christ in me. It's not my own effort, but it is the power and work of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). It's not just me—it's Jesus in me (Galatians 2:20).

Realistic fitness worships God. And knowing and adoring God in all I do is my main goal for fitness. It's not all about me and having God be my personal trainer to make me this superstar. But instead, I want to be who God designed me to be, who he created me to be, who he redeemed me to be. And so I want to live by his wisdom and flourish for his glory and to bring him honor (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Realistic fitness realizes that my protection comes not from playing it safe all the time, not from being super fit in every area so that nothing could possibly go wrong—because things will go wrong. There will be crosses. There will be disasters. But in and beyond every cross is resurrection life (Philippians 3:10–11).

Hey, we're talking about total fitness—and I'm going to die. And you're going to die. We're not totally fit. We have a lot of things that are broken. But in and beyond every cross and every brokenness we have is the resurrection. And so again and again, already in this life, we taste of resurrection as Jesus lifts us beyond our capacities, beyond our brokenness. And we know that in eternity we're kept safe by him, and he who began a good work in us is going to complete it (Philippians 1:6), because his resurrection life brings that about.

When I have realistic fitness in Christ, then I don't have superiority or inferiority. I have unity. I'm a struggler like every other struggling believer, and I'm a saint like other saints (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2). So if I'm a struggler, I can't feel superior to others. And yet, if I'm a saint, I'm set apart by God. He's making me holy. I don't have to feel inferior to others. Some people are a little further on in the Christian journey; they've reached greater maturity. But we don't have to feel superior or inferior about that. We're all in this together. We have unity (Romans 12:3–5).

And instead of feeling complacency or smugness, I have eagerness. I'm eager for God to change and use me, to make me more and more whom I'm meant to be, because I'm a long ways from being there. And I'm eager for Jesus to return and renew all things, because there's so much that isn't the way it ought to be yet (Philippians 3:20–21).

So I'm eager for God, not smug in the way things are. And I have real security. I can live free from pressure because God's working in me. He's going to bring it to completion. It doesn't all depend on me. I don't have to worry, worry, worry whether I'm quite doing enough, because in the end, God is the one who does it. And the pressure’s off. God's power is carrying it about.

A great passage which reveals many of these things and helps us to understand that whole theme of being unfit and yet totally fit is Paul's letter to the Corinthians—his second letter, in chapters 2 through 4 especially. The apostle says, "For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Corinthians 2:15–16). You're the scent of Jesus Christ. And to those who are perishing, you stink. To those who are being saved, you're the wonderful sweet smell of life. That's who you are. And who is sufficient to be the scent of Jesus Christ?

And yet, "such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:4–6). If all you have is the letter—if all you have is the commands, the instructions, the wise guidance—it will kill you. Because instructions and commands alone simply make us feel defeated. But when we have the Holy Spirit giving us life from within, then God's wisdom flows from within and we become sufficient.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:17–18). The Lord Jesus comes to us as his Holy Spirit. He's working these wondrous transformations in us. He brings us freedom. He brings us into greater and greater glory.

"For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:5–6).

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body" (2 Corinthians 4:7–11).

When you read that passage, then you begin to understand why I'm calling this talk “Unfit Yet Totally Fit.” We're unfit. Who is sufficient for these things? Not that we are sufficient—not that we are fit in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us. We're unfit. And yet totally fit. Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient, who has made us fit to be ministers of a new covenant. The Spirit gives life. The Spirit's making it happen. He makes us fit.

And we have this treasure in clay jars to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. That picture of being unfit yet totally fit is captured by the clay jar. It's not much. It's not impressive. It's really not sufficient for anything—except that it contains this tremendous treasure. We're unfit in ourselves. We're just clay jars. And yet we're overflowing with this tremendous treasure that comes from God.

When the apostle Paul speaks in that passage, he's honestly unfit. And he doesn't try to hide it. He's transparent. He doesn't try to pretend. He doesn't hide behind a mask or pretend that he's some superstar. He's vulnerable. And for Paul to speak of some of his weaknesses—of being afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struggling, dying—he was becoming vulnerable. Because there were people in Corinth who claimed to be these great superstars who had it all together, who claimed that they were as good as the resurrection already having happened, and were super-apostles. And the apostle himself, the apostle Paul, risks exposure. He risks failure by saying, "I'm not a superstar. I'm not one of these people that you think has it together all the time and that everything always goes well for me and I've got it all figured out."

And that's a risk. That's a risk still today. Sometimes people in churches want their leader—they want their pastor—to be this fabulous, super-amazing, absolutely competent-in-everything kind of person. And if you fall into that trap of trying to look like that superstar, you're in the end going to come up empty. But you still do risk exposure by being honest about not having it all together.

But if you're called to be a Christian leader, just be transparent. Don't pretend. Be vulnerable. Sometimes risk failure. Sometimes lead with your weakness. And see what God can make of that.

The apostle says that he's afflicted. You're going to face troubles. You're going to face griefs. And when you're afflicted, it may affect your bodily fitness. It may affect your emotional fitness. You're going to be unfit sometimes. You're just afflicted.

You're perplexed. You want to be intellectually fit, and you know that to some degree you have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), but you're perplexed. You can't figure it all out.

You want to be relationally fit, but sometimes people are against you. You're persecuted. You're rejected. You're picked on. You want to be emotionally healthy, and you want your vocation to go well, but sometimes you're struggling. You aren't on top of things.

And the apostle says all these things: we're afflicted, we're perplexed, we're persecuted, we're struggling. In fact, we're dying. "I've got the death of Christ in me all the time" (2 Corinthians 4:10).

But I also have the resurrection of Christ in me. And even though I'm unfit, and I can be transparent, and I can be honest about that—you know why I can be honest about it? Because I've got the life of Christ in me even when I'm dying inside.

And so be honestly unfit. If God has called you to be a Christian leader, or to be a Christian in this world affecting others, don't pretend that you're this great superstar who figured it all out and that you have all that it takes to impress other people and to make things happen.

Be honestly unfit, and at the same time, you're totally fit. You're fit to do something beyond anything we can ask or imagine. You're fit to convey Christ himself. You're fit when you're a minister of the new covenant, a servant of God's new covenant, an ambassador of Jesus Christ. You're fit to be the scent of Jesus Christ. The apostle says, "Through us God spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are the aroma of Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:14–15).

In the Old Testament, the people who were called to be priests were anointed with a special kind of oil mixed with incense. And once they were anointed, that was upon their clothing, that was upon them. And wherever they went, this scent of their priestly calling went with them. They also had a job, and their job was to sacrifice animals and to roast their flesh. And that gives you a scent as well—maybe the same kind of scent when you grill steaks or when you grill hamburgers or grill something else. And the smoke from that and the cooking meat gets on you, and that scent is on you, and it's a scent of something delicious about to come.

So when you have the scent of Christ, to those who are being saved, you smell with that sweet savor of the anointing oil of God's Holy Spirit. You have that wondrous, appetizing smell of Jesus Christ, who is indeed our food—our nourishment—for eternal life (John 6:35). And you have that scent about you.

Or to think of it another way: you bring the sight of Christ to other people. When they look at you, they can see him. Scripture says, "Beholding the glory of the Lord… we're being transformed into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Think of the story again from the Old Testament where Moses went up on the mountain—Mount Sinai—and there he was, up in the cloud, in that bright flashing cloud where the Shekinah, the glory of God, was— which in a sense no one could see and live (Exodus 33:20), and yet Moses was up there, and God gave him life. And when Moses came down from the mountain, the glory was shining from him. The light of God was radiant all around him (Exodus 34:29–30). And that was a fading glory. But the Scripture says when we are beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, then that light—the Shekinah glory, the light of Christ—is shining on us, and it begins to shine from us.

Remember what Jesus said. He said, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). And then he also said, "You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14). And as you behold his light and as you see him with the eyes of your heart, then his light not only shines on you, but it begins to shine from you so that when people look at you, they're catching sight of the light of Jesus Christ.

Or to appeal to another sense: we're not only the scent of Christ and the sight of Christ, we're the sound of Christ. The apostle says we are Christ's ambassadors. God has committed to us the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20). When we speak the word, it's not just our word, but it's the Word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13). And so when people hear us, they're hearing God's voice. They're hearing Christ's voice. We can be the sound of Christ.

We can even be the taste of Christ. Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13). And so something of God's taste comes through in us.

We're the touch of Christ. The Bible says that God's people are the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). And what we touch, Christ is touching.

The scent of Christ. The sight of Christ. The sound of Christ. The taste of Christ. The touch of Christ. We are made fit by the Holy Spirit to convey Christ because Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20). And so when people meet a believer who is truly in tune with Christ, then they are actually encountering the living Christ himself.

And again—who is sufficient for this? Who is fit? I'm not. You're not. Certainly not in and of ourselves. And yet we are fit to convey Christ.

So when we think about total fitness, don't just think about being kind of healthy or kind of good at something. Certainly, there is wisdom that develops us in each of these areas. But ultimately, total fitness is being somebody who's capable of conveying Jesus Christ to others, who is fit to represent Christ to others. And we can't do that on our own. And yet even though we're unfit, Christ by his Spirit makes us totally fit. "Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:5–6). We're being transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). God has shone in our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6), and the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Corinthians 4:7). You see again and again—it's God. It is the Spirit. He's the source of life. God has shone. The power belongs to God. That's who makes us totally fit.

And this mix of being unfit yet totally fit is tremendously powerful. The apostle was very transparent with the Corinthians about his struggles, about things that didn't go well for him. He was even very transparent about the fact that he didn't always get the answers to prayer that he wanted. He said, "There was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me" (2 Corinthians 12:7). Oh, did I want to get rid of that thorn? He doesn't tell us exactly what it was, but it was some sort of affliction, some sort of trouble. And he said, "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Corinthians 12:8–9).

And therefore, says Paul, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses… For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9–10). The apostle is saying, "The weaker I get, the more God's power shines through me." And so in one sense, he can be unfit and weak and broken, and in another sense more powerful than ever because God is at work through that weakness.

I like the title of a book by Dr. Dan Allender: Leading with a Limp. And he suggests that sometimes your point of greatest vulnerability and weakness is something you ought to lead with—to be vulnerable with others about. Because sometimes when you pretend to be this bulletproof superstar who's got it all figured out and can manage any situation, people feel more distant from you. And when you're vulnerable and you let them know that, hey, I'm a struggler, I'm weak—they're drawn to that, and they're more likely to follow you. And especially if it is Christ who's at work through your weakness. Because then they're not going to say, "Oh, what a superstar." They're going to say, "Oh, what a Savior."

The apostle Paul, when he preached, didn't impress people with his own eloquence or with his own great wisdom. Sometimes they heard him—we know that the Corinthians said of him, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing" (2 Corinthians 10:10). That's a pretty bad sermon review.

And yet when Paul preached, people weren't usually amazed by his gift of gab or his tremendous eloquence. But something came through in his weakness and in his kind of iffy speaking that came through. And they felt and sensed that God was speaking, and the power of God was coming through this man.

And so it is with us. God's power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). And so if there are areas of your life where you're not a superstar, it might be right in those very areas where God can use you to touch another person and use your weakness to convey his strength.

Having said all that—that it's God's power, that even at our point of vulnerability and weakness God can come through and make great things happen—we shouldn't therefore then say, "Well, then I don't need to have any effort. I don't really need any wisdom. I don't need any training. All this stuff on total fitness was a waste, because the weaker I am, the more God can do through me." Well, we shouldn't go overboard and take one side of the truth to the exclusion of another side of the truth.

The Bible says it's all God's power, and yet wherever God's power is at work, our effort and training in doing it is important. Scripture says, "His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him" (2 Peter 1:3). And for this very reason, make every effort. Be all the more diligent. The apostle says that God gives us this power and makes us partakers of the divine nature. Then, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love" (2 Peter 1:5–7). "For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:8). "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:10–11).

You see—he's talking about God's great power, and at the same time, he's saying make every effort. Be all the more diligent.

Or as the apostle Paul puts it, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12–13). You might say, "Well, is it God who's working or is it me who's working?" Well, it's God who's working, but he's working through you and in you. And when God's working in you, then you're going to work too.

You're going to seek to have wisdom. You already have Christ, who is wisdom from God (1 Corinthians 1:30), but then you're going to seek more and more to have that wisdom flourish in you. And it's the kind of wisdom that glorifies God. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10). Putting God first—you treasure truth more than gold or silver or jewels (Proverbs 3:13–15), and you go after that truth and you seek it. You want to understand God's commands and carry them out. And then you want to keep on applying God's wisdom to areas where you don't have explicit direct commands. And so you research reality. You try to understand more and more of life, to understand more and more of your world, and to apply wisdom to those areas of life where God hasn't given a specific direct command and yet where you're called to live.

And as you do that, you accept advice from other people whom God has placed in your life. And you keep evaluating. You ponder the path you're on and ask, "Lord, where do you want me to take the next step? How can I make further progress?"

You want wisdom. You go after it. "Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them" (Proverbs 4:5). And you'll do anything to get it, because you want to become more fit for God's service.

And you want wisdom. And that involves training as well. "Train yourself to be godly. 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 4:7–8).

Training is vital in all these different areas of fitness. Not to just say, "Let go and let God," but, "I want to be wise, and I want to be disciplined, and I want to be trained in these areas to the degree that I'm able."

We're unfit, yet totally fit. And so honor God and serve others in areas of strength and fitness, and also in areas of brokenness—where God's power and sufficiency shines through even in your weakness.

And as you do that, we want to realize that we're not going to be totally fit in any of these areas. There's going to be things that come along that we don't control, or areas where we haven't made enough progress yet. But one of the goals of wisdom, one of the goals of seeking total fitness, is so that when we do have to experience brokenness or go through suffering or struggle in a particular area, it is because we're making a sacrifice and not because we're squandering our fitness in that area.

Let me explain what I mean. In terms of spiritual fitness, all of us will go through times of dryness—sometimes even through what some writers have called the "dark night of the soul," where God seems very far away, and we're spiritually empty and dry. And God puts his people through that sometimes so that he can develop them even further. And we don't always understand his ways—certainly not while we're going through it—but we go through these periods of spiritual dryness sometimes even by God's appointment, so that he can accomplish things in us.

But going through a period of dryness or even of darkness by God's appointment is very different from just not practicing spiritual disciplines in the first place and feeling far from God because you're not cultivating a relationship with him.

If you're reading the Bible and praying and practicing spiritual disciplines, and yet you're going through a period of dryness or of darkness, then you can at least take confidence that God's putting you through that and he's got purposes in it. But if you're just weakening yourself by ignoring the Word, ignoring prayer, by ignoring rest and fasting and other disciplines, then you're squandering your spiritual health. You're not going through a time that is necessary for your growth.

Or think of physical fitness. You might be called upon to risk your life, even to lose your life, for the sake of the gospel. There have been people who witnessed for Christ and were murdered because of it. There are missionaries who went to another land and caught malaria and died because they were serving the Lord. They lost their physical fitness. They lost their very life. They sacrificed their lives for the sake of the gospel.

Sacrificing your physical well-being is a lot different from squandering your physical well-being. If you have terrible nutrition, if you drink way too much alcohol, if you're taking all kinds of crazy risks, that is squandering your physical fitness—throwing it away, not sacrificing it for the sake of the gospel.

Financially, you may be extremely generous and sacrifice your wealth for the sake of God's kingdom, for the sake of helping others. And it is a wonderful and glorious thing to make sacrifices that may leave you really quite poor because you were so generous and you sacrificed your financial fitness. That is totally different from squandering your finances—from borrowing foolishly and way too much, from spending and having terrible financial habits, from not saving properly. It is a tremendous difference between sacrificing your financial fitness to help others and simply squandering it because you didn't pay any attention to it.

Intellectual fitness is something that you might sacrifice to a degree. You may have been given a great intellect, but God called you into an area where you couldn't pursue your PhD. You couldn't pursue and develop your intellect to its fullest potential. But you served God as a sacrifice, even though it meant giving up something intellectually. That's far different from just squandering your intellect. God gives you a good mind, and you're lazy, and you don't read, you don't study, you don't hone your mind, you don't focus on the fact that you have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and develop it in various areas. That is squandering your intellect—not sacrificing intellectual fitness for the sake of the kingdom.

Emotionally, you might sacrifice emotional comfort and well-being because you get so involved in the things that concern God and his ways. And so the things that break God's heart break yours too. You weep over the lost who don't know Jesus Christ (Luke 19:41). You're heartbroken that there are people who don't know Christ, that are headed for hell. You're heartbroken when there are families that are being shattered by Satan's work in their lives. And so emotionally, your sense of calm and well-being and all of that is disrupted. You're sacrificing your emotional comfort because you're in tune with God. That is totally different from being an emotional wreck because you haven't yet dealt with baggage from the past—because of traumas that you went through that remain unaddressed, and you're just plowing along in unhealthy emotional patterns without addressing them. Or you have a problem, and you're not willing to face up to it with anger, and you blow up at people all the time. That's squandering well-being, not sacrificing it because you're in tune with God.

Relationally, Paul said, "We are persecuted" (2 Corinthians 4:9). We're picked on. Relational well-being is sometimes sacrificed when you're living for God. When you're kind and loving toward others and you go the second mile (Matthew 5:41), sometimes no good deed goes unpunished. Sometimes when you're seeking to help others, they bite you back. Sometimes when you're standing for the cause of righteousness, it costs you in your relationships, and people persecute you. You sacrifice relational well-being for the sake of the gospel.

Totally different from squandering relational well-being by being a jerk, by being unwilling to forgive, by being cruel, by being harsh, by being unstable. That's just throwing away relational well-being and fitness for no good reason. There may be times when you sacrifice it and endure persecutions and relational strains, but that's a totally different thing.

Vocational well-being: sometimes you might lose a job or get demoted or have a hard time in your position because you're doing the right thing and you're not willing to go along with what's wrong. That's a sacrifice of your vocational fitness for the sake of a higher cause. That's totally different from having lousy vocational well-being—from failing again and again at various jobs because you're lazy, because you're not productive, because you're disorganized, because you're not seeking to be a great worker (Colossians 3:23–24).

So you see in all of these areas, there is a huge difference between sacrificing your fitness in that area for the sake of God's kingdom and cause versus squandering it completely out of stupidity and lack of wisdom and lack of effort.

So again, unfit yet totally fit means sometimes we will sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. But let's not be unfit just because we're unwise or because we're slack or undisciplined.

So honor God and serve others in the areas where you're fit and growing in fitness, and in the areas of your brokenness—where things you don't control have shattered your life in various ways—and yet even through that, God is at work in you.

What a tremendous comfort it is to know that even when you're unfit, yet because of the presence of the Spirit of Jesus in you, because of God's power at work in you, you are totally fit.

Unfit—who is fit for these things that God calls us to be, to convey Christ himself? None of us. And yet we are. We're totally fit. "Our sufficiency is from God" (2 Corinthians 3:5). We have the Holy Spirit, and he gives us life. "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7). I'm a clay jar, and you're a clay jar. And that's okay—because we've got the treasure. And our weakness brings out the value of that treasure all the more. And the fact that I'm a clay jar and that you're a clay jar always keeps us in mind of the fact—and keeps others in mind of the fact—that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

 

Unfit, Yet Totally Fit
By David Feddes
Slide Contents


Total fitness

  • Spiritual
  • Physical
  • Financial
  • Intellectual
  • Emotional
  • Relational
  • Vocational


Fitness dangers

  • Self-salvation: Basing standing with God on my fitness, not Jesus’ fitness.
  • Self-transformation: Changing by my efforts, not by the Spirit.
  • Self-worship: Making total fitness my #1 goal and using God to get it.
  • Self-protection: Seeking safety from sorrow rather than bearing crosses.
  • Superiority: Despising strugglers in an area where I feel fit.
  • Inferiority: Despising myself in an areas where others seem more fit.
  • Smugness: Thinking I am totally fit even before Jesus returns.
  • Insecurity: Obsessing over fitness and pressuring myself.


Realistic fitness

  • Salvation: My standing with God rests on Jesus’ fitness, not mine.
  • Transformation: Spirit changes me and matures Christ in me.
  • Worship: Knowing and adoring God in all I do is my main goal for fitness.
  • Protection: In and beyond every cross is resurrection life.
  • Unity: I am a struggler like other struggling believers. I am a saint like other saints. Not superior or inferior.
  • Eagerness: I am eager for God to change and use me, and eager for Jesus to return and renew all things.
  • Security: I live free from pressure as God keeps working in me.

 

2 Corinthians 2-4

2:15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

3:4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 

3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

4:5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 4:10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.


Unfit, yet totally fit

Unfit: Who is sufficient for these things? Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us…

Totally fit: Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant... The Spirit gives life.

Clay jars: …to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.


Honestly unfit

  • Transparent: You don’t pretend or hide.
  • Vulnerable: You risk exposure, failure.
  • Afflicted: You face troubles and griefs.
  • Perplexed: You can’t figure it all out.
  • Persecuted: You are rejected, picked on.
  • Struggling: You aren’t on top of things.
  • Dying: Resurrection is your only hope.


Fit to convey Christ

  • Scent of Christ: Through us God spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him... For we are the aroma of Christ. (2 Cor 2:14-15)
  • Sight of Christ: Beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. (2 Cor 3:18)
  • Sound of Christ: God has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:19)


Totally fit

Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit… The Spirit gives life… We are being transformed from glory to glory… God has shone in our hearts… the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.


Power in weakness

He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me… For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)


God’s power, your effort

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness… For this very reason, make every effort … be all the more diligent. (2 Peter 1:3-10)

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you. (Philippians 2:12-13)


Get wisdom!

  • Revere Ruler
  • Treasure truth
  • Keep commands
  • Research reality
  • Accept advice
  • Ponder path


Train yourself

Train yourself to be godly. 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 4:7-8)

Unfit, yet totally fit

Honor God and serve others, in fitness and brokenness.

  • Spiritual
  • Physical
  • Financial
  • Intellectual
  • Emotional
  • Relational
  • Vocational


Unfit, yet totally fit

Unfit: Who is sufficient for these things? Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us…

Totally fit: Our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant... The Spirit gives life.

Clay jars: …to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Last modified: Tuesday, June 17, 2025, 10:22 PM