#3: Run with Discipline (v27)
Thirdly,
we are called to run with Discipline.
Verse 25 says, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into
strict training.” Then verse 27
Paul picks up the same thought again, “I beat my body and make it my slave…” In the Christian racae discipline makes all
the difference. University of Alabama’s
legendary football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant said: “It’s
not the will to win that matters – everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that
matters.”
Paul
refers here to the athletes in the Isthmian games. Everything in these athletes’ lives stopped
so they could train. They submitted to a
demanding training regimen. Ten months
before the actual games began they began their rigorous training. During the last month before the games they
were required to be in Corinth and train under special rules attentively
observed by the judges. The Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus urges the athlete
in his training: “You must be orderly, living on spare food; abstain from sweet foods,
make a point of exercising at the appointed time, in heat and in cold; nor
drink cold water nor wine at hazard.”
Let nothing get in the way of your training – that’s determination. Allow nothing to be part of your life that
does not contribute to your success – that’s sacrifice. Athletes regulated their sleep, their diet,
their workouts, and their time. All of
life was calibrated to ensure everything in their life prepared them for
success in the arena or on the track. For
those athletes, like today’s athletes, the old adage is the same: failing to prepare was preparing to
fail. That is true in the Christian race
as well.
The more we read the NT the more we
read that the Christian life requires training and preparation. First Timothy 4:7-8 says, “Train
yourself to be godly. For physical
training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding
promise for both the present life and the life to come.” First Thessalonians 4:4 says “each
of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable”. Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For
God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of
self-discipline.” As we are
built up by our training in God’s Word Peter tells us there are certain things
that should begin to develop in our lives.
He says in 2 Peter 1:5: For
this reason, make every effort [train] to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control…”
In what ways are you preparing
yourself to win in this race? In what
ways are you disciplining yourself in this race? If we are going to win our race we need to
prepare. This involves discipline. What does discipline mean in the Christian
life? Two words: self- mastery. We need maser ourselves to run with any kind
of success.
What
about our preparation? What about our
discipline? Paul quickly transitions
from athletes to himself. Their
discipline was his example and he is our example. Notice he says that he beats his body. That phrase in the Greek literally means to
give a black eye. Paul bruised his
body. He’s not saying literally he
walloped himself. Instead he is saying he
didn’t treat his body tenderly and softly - he didn’t indulge his appetites and
didn’t seek comfort over self-discipline.
He was hard on himself and bruised his body to make it his slave. “Make it his slave”. Something about that phrase brings out the
battle we have within ourselves. There
was something about his body that he had to battle and defeat. There was a forceful process whereby Paul
learned to control his body.
In light of Paul’s example we must ask
ourselves this question: is my body my
slave, or, am I slave to my body? These
bodies of sin will rule over us if we are lazy.
But when we discipline ourselves we bring our bodies under our
control. And control is what God’s Word
says we need to exercise over our bodies.
Lou Holtz said, “Without self-discipline success is impossible, period.” What is true in football is true in
Christianity: self-discipline equals
success. Our Goal is self-mastery, to
bring ourselves under the control of the Spirit of God and no longer under the
control of sin. This reminds us of what
God told Cain when Cain was angry that God did not accept his offering in
Genesis 4, “Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you but you must
master it.” Romans 6:13 says, “Do
not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but
rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to
life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” This kind of self-control is part of the
fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5.
Christians
if we are going to run this race well it will require we demand more of our own
training. Peyton Manning said, “I never left the field saying I could have
done more to get ready and that gives me piece of mind.” Don’t reach the end of your Christian life
regretting that you could have put more into it. Muhammed Ali hated his training, but, said
this: “I hated every minute of it, but I
said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live
the rest of your life as a champion.”
Don’t arrive before Jesus Christ with any regrets about how you could
have run the race better.
How
to Train for our Race
Well, we might ask, “What does training mean for us? How are we supposed to train? How can
I prepare for the finish line?” Well,
think of how athletes train: they train
for their specific sport. The movements,
actions and skills that will be executed on the field are what they repeat in
practice. A baseball player doesn’t make
shooting free throws part of his regimen.
He practices hitting a ball, fielding grounders, throwing, catching and
so on. A runner does not practice
kicking a football, but, instead her practice involves running – be it
sprinting or jogging. The boxer
practices the combinations, footwork, and defense he will have to perform in
the ring. Each athlete repeats and
practices those same activities he will have to execute when he competes. So, in the game of Christian living, we too
must consider what we will have to do.
What areas of weakness do I need to
strengthen? What temptations do I
succumb to most often? Are I prepared to
tell someone about Jesus Christ in a conversation today? Have I thought through how the Lord intends
for me to walk through the door at the end of a long day at work? How will I handle the kids when they get on
my nerves or that co-worker who is annoying?
How will I handle my spouse’s flaws today? Have we considered our own arenas and what we
face every day, and have we read God’s word for insight on how God wants us to
act inside the ring? Have we prayed to
Him for guidance and strength? Here are
5 Christian skills to be training yourself in:
First, you must
be regularly training yourself in God’s Word. Sound doctrine creates sound Christians. There is not a spiritually healthy Christian
who is not well fed by the Word of God.
When accurately taught and applied God’s Word will bring us forth as fit
Christians. A believer without the Word
is like a baby without a breast - both are doomed to spiritual starvation,
stunted growth and malnourishment. No
one would tolerate depriving a little child of food, and no one should tolerate
depriving God’s children of their milk and meat (1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:11-14).
Second Timothy 3:16-17 connects the
necessity of God’s Word to make a believer fit for service: “All
Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and
training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped
for every good work.” First Peter
2:2 connects God’s word to growing when he says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may
grow up in your salvation.” Hebrews
5:13-14 shows the graduation from milk to solid food for growing believers, “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an
infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by
constant use have trained themselves to distinguish between good and evil.”
Have you ever read how God expected
the Israelites to train themselves by making His Word a part of every area of
their life? Turn with me to Deuteronomy
6:4-9 and read along with me. We must train ourselves with the Word of
God. We must put a premium on hearing it
preached. Get into Sunday School. Read it yourself or listen to it on CD. Memorize it so that it dwells richly in your
heart (Col. 3:16). Make decisions in
your life by its wisdom and commands (Psalm 119:105). Discuss it with our wives, children, fellow
Christians and others. Be training in
God’s Word.
Secondly, you
must train yourself to pray. Prayer is the heartbeat of life that
glorifies Jesus Christ. But, prayer does
not come naturally. It’s a supernatural
discipline. It takes effort and energy -
prayer is work. If heaven barely hears
from us could this be the reason why?
C.J. Vaughn once said, “If I
wished to humble anyone, I should question him about his prayers. I know nothing to compare with the topic for
its sorrowful confessions.”
What if we were questioned about our
prayers? Would we be embarrassed? Or would we be eager explaining our work in
it? It is work - and it is the most
essential work - which is why we are commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 it says
“Pray
continually”. And why we are
told in Ephesians 6:18 to “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all
kinds of prayers and requests. With this
in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Jesus taught his disciples that they should
always pray and not give up (Luke 18:1).
And they wanted that, which is why they said, “Lord teach us how to
pray” (Luke 11:1). There is desire in
that request. So Jesus trained them how
to pray. Be training in the skill of
prayer.
Thirdly you must
train yourself to fellowship. Fellowship is a discipline, a skill to be
learned and gotten better at. “Let
us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing”
Hebrews 10:25 says. Habitual,
consistent, frequent assembling with believers is not optional in the Christian
life. It is essential. Look closely at all the commands in how to
live the Christian life. The vast
majority of them prescribe how to live with other believers in fellowship. Christians living life with Christians is a
given in the NT – it is assumed. The
writers didn’t explicitly say to meet together very often because that’s what
believers do naturally. It’s very
unnatural for Christians to avoid the company of other Christians. That kind of individualism may be very
American but it is very un-Biblical.
Speaking of the first 3,000 people to become Christians it says in Acts
2:46 “Every day they continued to meet together”
Now, I know the Church cannot save
someone and only Christ can. But as R. Kent Hughes says in his book Disciplines
of a Godly Man, “we must not
mistakenly reason that one’s relationship with Christ minimizes the importance
of His Church.” What value do you
place on keeping regular company with believers? What value to you place on what happens when
believers are gathered? Do you have a
high regard for the preaching of God’s Word?
Do you cherish worshipping God with others who have renounced the world
and serve your God too? Do you look
forward to how you might help others practically or spiritually at your church? Do you value the fact that you belong here and
we all belong to each other and we all belong to Christ?
Be in the company of other believers
who can actually build you up. Fellowship
is measured by how well your companions strengthen your love and devotion to
Christ and your understanding of His Word. There are some believers frankly
you’re better off avoiding. Be
intentional about building relationships with godly people. Keep Christian company. Be training yourself in fellowship.
Fourthly, train
yourself to be holy. The Christian life is a holy life. It’s a set apart life. Being set apart by God for His purposes means
we continually should be separating ourselves from sinful behavior. This is why in the next chapter, 1 Corinthians
10 Paul describes the sins that Christians should avoid: idolatry, sexual immorality, testing the Lord
and grumbling. If we take note of how
the Israelites failed on these points and the consequences, we will do well to
avoid these same sins and being disqualified from our prize.
This involves the daily discipline and
a growing self-control over our desires.
Not that we no longer have desire to sin, but, through our training we
learn to control our sinful passions rather than our passions controlling
us. Resist the sin you face in your
life. Be training yourself to be holy.
Fifthly, train
yourself to distinguish what is good from what is evil. Turn with me to Hebrews
5:11-14. Parents differ from one to
another but there are certain things that every parent says. One of them is “Get that out of your
mouth!” When babies start crawling and
exploring they come across things on the floor that they want to put in their mouths. It’s amazing how little pieces of dirt or
food can cleverly avoid the broom or vacuum but not a 9 month old. And as soon as their little pincers get a
hold of it up it goes to the mouth. They
don’t know what is good for them and what isn’t. They haven’t learned the difference between
what they can swallow and can’t. They
learn it as they get older. That’s why
every parent knows what it’s like to say “Get that out of your mouth!”
Similarly, spiritually immature
Christians don’t know what is good for them and what isn’t. Without help they pick up all the dirt and
trash from books, movies, blogs and speakers and they put it in their mouths
and digest it. But, a sign of maturation
is the growing ability to tell the difference between what is Biblical and what
is not. Gaining this skill helps us “be
holy”. God expects us to be holy
and He expects us to make distinctions between what is and isn’t holy. Leviticus 10:10 says, “You must distinguish between the
holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean.” Train yourself to distinguish.
Conclusion:
Don’t be Disqualified
These
are skills that will help you run your race well and receive the crown at the
finish line. Don’t be disqualified. Verse 27 says, “No, I beat my body and make it my
slave so that after I have preached to others I myself will not be disqualified
for the prize.” The word for
“disqualified” is translated in other places as “rejected”, “unfit”,
“worthless”, and “to have failed the test”.
The basic meaning of the word is to be disapproved, to be turned down
because we don’t measure up. It is painful
to go through something like that. We
don’t make the team. We don’t get
accepted to the college we wanted. We
don’t get hired. No one likes to be told
they’ve been disapproved.
Pete Rose is one of the greatest
baseball players to ever pick up a bat. Three
time World Series Champion, 17 time All-Star, Rookie of the Year, 3 time
national batting champion and on and on.
He holds records that still stand to this day: Most hits in a career, most singles, most at
bats, most games played. They called him
“Charlie Hustle” because he played his heart out every game for 23 years in the
Big Leagues. But Pete Rose will never be
inducted into the Hall of Fame or be allowed to have anything to do with Major
League Baseball again. Since 1989 Pete
Rose has been on MLB’s Permanent Ineligibility List which records the names of
dubious players banned from MLB for serious transgressions. Pete Rose made the list due to his illegal
gambling while playing and coaching in the MLB.
He has been disqualified from the highest honor, the greatest prize for
a baseball player - the Hall of Fame.
No one wants to be disapproved of or disqualified. And that is what Paul did not want: to be denied his prize because his life on
earth. We should feel the same way. Discipline yourselves so you aren’t
disqualified.
Disqualified is in relation to your
prize, not your salvation. Your
salvation is free, but, your prize is earned.
Your salvation is given to you for your faith; your prize is awarded to
you for your performance. Don’t be
disqualified! Run with Intensity, run
with focus and run with discipline. Get
your prize! Run!
Comments
Post a Comment