Reality check

In proper yoga the physical is coupled with the spiritual; physical movement being a way of engaging with the divine. Some say that Christians who do yoga inadvertently subscribe to this false spirituality. The problem with this line of argument is that yoga has got it wrong. There is no 'divinity' with which you connect as you do physical movement, just as in Paul's day there were no "so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth . . . there is but one God, the Father" (1 Cor 8:5-6). This reality means that we are perfectly free to do yoga exercises, giving glory to the God who is there.

So the problem with doing something like yoga isn't that we're getting caught up in some wrong spiritual action - it's that we might be seen to be. We might be a stumbling block to Christians who haven't thought this stuff through (1 Cor 8:7-13) and we might bring the Gospel into disrepute as non-Christians interpret our behaviour as supportive of eastern religion. But even this isn't always a bad thing - it may create an opportunity to explain that actually we think there is only one God who created all things good (1 Tim 4:4).