Growing Old Well: What the Bible Says About Aging

Old age is honoured, not dreaded

Our culture spends a fortune trying to look younger. Scripture takes a different view of age entirely. Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life (Proverbs 16:31). Israel was commanded to stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man (Leviticus 19:32).

Age in the Bible is associated with wisdom, testimony and blessing — not with irrelevance. Some of God's most important assignments were given to people well past what we would call retirement: Abraham, Moses, Anna and Simeon in the temple, the aged apostle John.

They still bear fruit in old age

Psalm 92 gives one of the most hopeful pictures of later life in all of Scripture:

Fruitfulness does not retire. The psalmist's prayer in Psalm 71 is a model for every older believer: So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation (Psalm 71:18). The later years are a season for passing on what you have learned.

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. … They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green.”

— Psalm 92:12, 14

Caleb at eighty-five

When the land of Canaan was being divided, Caleb came to Joshua to claim the hill country he had been promised forty-five years earlier — the hardest territory, still held by giants. His reasoning is remarkable:

Moses, at 120, is described as having his eye … undimmed, and his vigor unabated (Deuteronomy 34:7). These are not promises that everyone will stay physically strong forever. But they are pictures of a long life still lived at full strength for God's purposes — something worth aiming at.

“And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming.”

— Joshua 14:10–11

Honest about the outer self

Scripture does not pretend aging is painless. Ecclesiastes 12 describes the slow decline of the body in poetic detail. Paul is plain: though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).

That double truth frees older believers from two traps: denial of aging, and despair over it. The body slows. The person need not. And God's promise holds through every year: even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you (Isaiah 46:4).

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”

— Psalm 90:12

Stewarding an aging body

How much strength and independence we keep into later life is shaped a great deal by ordinary habits. The ones with the strongest evidence:

• ▸Strength training, at any age. Muscle naturally declines with age (sarcopenia), and resistance training is the most effective way to slow it. It is never too late to start, with sensible guidance.
• ▸Enough protein. Older adults often need at least as much protein as younger ones, spread across the day, to maintain muscle. See Protein First.
• ▸Walk daily, and train your balance. Falls are a major risk in later life; walking, balance work and strong legs reduce it.
• ▸Protect sleep and morning light, which tend to shift and fragment with age.
• ▸Stay connected. Loneliness is a real health risk. Church, family and friendships are part of healthy aging.
• ▸Keep purpose. Mentoring, serving, praying and passing faith on to the next generation give the later years meaning — Psalm 71:18 in practice.
• ▸Keep up with check-ups and talk to your doctor before starting a new exercise programme, especially with existing conditions.

Read next