Those of you familiar with the Fit For Life Forever approach to weight regulation will know that I place great store by the Scriptures found in I Corinthians 6:10 and 10:23, where we are told that all things are permissible but not all things are expedient – that is, wholesome, beneficial, good for me to do – when considered with other things. What this gives us is the balance between freedom and responsibility, allowing us to enjoy all of God’s bountiful supply of nutritious food without being enslaved by diet or health mantras which so easily rob us of the joy of eating and fill us with fear and guilt.

Throughout the history of Christianity there have been theological disputes over the issues of ‘works’ and ‘grace’.  I do not wish to become enmeshed in such age-old controversies here but readily confess that I follow a classic evangelical stance that we are saved by grace alone through faith and that our works are a demonstration of our saving faith, born out of love and gratitude. But I have observed that, like the Galatian church, it is so easy to slip back into religion.  Having begun in faith, we then try to live out the Christian life by works, seeking to establish through our own efforts what can only be wrought by grace.  This produces a legalism which can permeate every aspect of our lives, no more so than in respect to our endeavours to lose weight.

Diets are indeed a form of legalism, with their strict rules and regulations. If we stick to the diet, evidenced by the reading on the scales, we are declared ‘righteous’ – we have been ‘good all week’. But if we have failed to measure up to expectations we are made to feel guilty and ashamed.  To make progress we must just ‘try harder’ and deprive ourselves even more.  Oh, the bondage and futility of such self-effort! It is not only doomed to failure – as our dieting history shows - but also, because yo-yo dieting is also shown to increase the risk of cardio-vascular disease, it takes us ever deeper into bondage, desperation and despair.

However, the pendulum can easily swing too far to the other extreme. With the Fit For Life Forever approach we maintain that no food is absolutely prohibited and that we can eat anything we wish, within reason.  However it is all too easy (and tempting!) to take this freedom to extremes, eating far too much of the kinds of food which have little nutritive value and which may even damage our health.  This is not grace - this is license! 

The way of grace is often presented as the opposite of the way of legalism, but it does not mean that we are free to throw off all restraint and do just as we please. What it means is that our godly goals are attained, not through our own self-effort, but through the effective working of His mighty power within us. We are not to use our freedom as an occasion to the flesh nor are we free to sin (by excessive eating) so that grace may abound.  No, we are freed from our slavery to sin in order to become the love-slave of Christ; we are freed from bondage to food in order to feed off Him who fully satisfies our deepest needs; we are freed from the yoke of dieting in order to take on Jesus’ yoke – one which He says is easy and whose burden is light. 

True balance (and true freedom) is found only when we accept the Lordship of Christ over our whole relationship with food. The devil will always try and pervert the truth and lead us to adopt either one extreme or the other.  A tightrope walker maintains his balance, not by looking down at his feet, but by looking straight ahead.  Keep your eyes fixed upon Jesus – not on the food and even less on the bathroom scales. He will keep you balanced and He will enable you to reach your goal.