<p>4:8 <i>For bodily exercise is profitable for a little time</i>- This is in contrast to the need to exercise spiritually (:7). This may well have been one of the profane pagan or old wives' fables of :7. Otherwise it is hard to see why Paul would suddenly start speaking about it. Mt. 6:2,3 = 1 Tim. 4:8. The implication is that we aren't to take Mt. 6:2,3 (&quot;they have their reward&quot;) as implying that we have <i>no</i> reward in this life. We do (cp. Mt. 19:29).</p><p><i>But reverence towards God is profitable for all things- </i>&quot;Profitable&quot; is only used elsewhere in 2 Tim. 3:16 the Scriptures are profitable and in Tit. 3:8, where &quot;good works&quot; are &quot;profitable&quot;. The disciplines of the spiritual life, of daily Bible reading and good works, carry their blessings in this life too- &quot;having the promise of the life which now is&quot;; and those present blessings are far more than those achieved by physical exercise.</p><p><i>Having the promise </i><i>of the life which now is and of that which is to come</i>- There is a link between the spiritual life lived now, and that which shall eternally be lived. The life which now is, is connected with the life which is to come. Our experience now is the promise of life tomorrow. John's Gospel expresses the same truth in saying that we now have the eternal life- we are living now the kind of life which we shall eternally live. Godliness having the promise of life both now and in the future is a reflection of Christ's teaching that the life of self-denial would have its present as well as future rewards (1 Tim. 4:8; Mk. 10:29).</p>