The Vanity of the Self: A Biblical Refutation of Modern Wellness Culture

The Self-Centeredness of the Inward Turn

In a recent critique titled “‘Wellness’ culture is empty without service to others,” Jemima Kelly observes a profound paradox in the modern pursuit of health: the more we focus on our own “well-being” — our steps, our sleep cycles, and our “self-care” rituals — the more hollow and anxious we seem to become. Kelly argues that the wellness industry has successfully commodified the human soul, selling back to us a secularized version of ritual and discipline that lacks the one thing that once gave those practices meaning: a focus on something greater than the self.

Specifically, Kelly herself and from her perspective identifies the decline of communal service and religion as the void that high-priced yoga retreats and mindfulness apps can never hope to fill. From the standpoint of biblical exposition, her observation is instead not merely a sociological trend but a spiritual diagnosis. The “wellness” of the world is a form of idolatry that worships the creature rather than the Creator, and its emptiness is the inevitable result of a life lived for the self.

Biblical Definition of Human Condition

To understand why wellness culture fails, one must first look at the biblical definition of the human condition and the purpose of our existence. Modern culture tells us that the “good life” is found through internal exploration and the optimization of the body. Yet scripture speaks of a different reality. The Apostle Paul warns Timothy in his second epistle about a time when men would be “lovers of their own selves” (2 Timothy 3:2).

The “wellness” of wellness culture is often just a sophisticated mask for what people now call narcissism., which is self-centeredness or lack of biblical self-denial.  When our goal of life becomes the preservation and pampering of the body, we have forgotten or abandoned the warning of Christ: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35).

The Duty of Servanthood vs. Self-Optimization

In her subtitle, Kelly speaks of “revival.”  In biblical terms, what she calls revival is belief in and obedience to the command to love one’s neighbor. True “health” — spiritual, mental, and physical — is found in the outpouring of the self for the sake of others. The wellness industry, however, promotes an “inward turn” that is ultimately claustrophobic. It creates a closed loop where the individual is the patient, the doctor, and the deity.

The Christian life is defined by doulos — servanthood. We are not our own; we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Therefore, the obsession with “finding oneself” or “healing oneself” apart from a relationship with God and service to His people is a fool’s errand. As the prophet Isaiah noted, the soul finds its “watering” not in retreat, but in sacrifice (Isaiah 58:10):

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day.

Furthermore, the “rituals” of wellness culture — the meditation, the cleanses, the pilgrimages to expensive resorts — are a counterfeit of the means of grace. Kelly notes that these have replaced the religious structures of the past, but they lack the ethical and communal weight of true faith.  From 2 Timothy 3:5, they provide the “form of godliness” while “denying the power thereof.”

Secular wellness offers a therapeutic gospel where “sin” is replaced by “stress” and “salvation” is replaced by “self-actualization.” But because it cannot deal with the reality of human depravity or the necessity of atonement, it can only offer temporary relief. It treats the symptoms of a restless soul while ignoring the disease of separation from God.

The Search for Peace in Broken Cisterns

The emptiness Kelly describes is a hunger that cannot be satisfied by juice cleanses or silent retreats. It is the hunger for righteousness and the peace that “passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). This peace is not the result of a quiet room, but of a quiet heart reconciled to God. When we serve others, as Kelly suggests, we reflect the character of Christ, who “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister” (Matthew 20:28).

The “self-care” of the world is a heavy burden, because it places the responsibility for happiness on the individual’s shoulders alone. The gospel, by contrast, invites us to “cast all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Kelly’s secular critique and biblical exposition can and do arrive at a similar junction: a life focused inward is a life destined for decay. Wellness culture is empty because it attempts to build a temple without a God and a community without a covenant. It is a “broken cistern” that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).

True wellness is not found in the mirrors of a gym or the solitude of a spa, but in the “living sacrifice” of a life yielded to the service of God and one’s neighbor (Romans 12:1). Until the culture looks upward to the true God and outward to the neighbor, it will remain trapped in the expensive, exhausting, and ultimately futile pursuit of something in fact very unwell.