Today I wanted to post along the themes of the New Year. Throughout history, New Years mean a new beginning. They represent the end of the old things and the start of something new. Something exciting. In America and today’s modern Western culture, it’s a time of year where we’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. We are just finishing up a time of relaxing with family, pampering ourselves with nice big meals, watching sports, taking time off from work and school. So now we are at a point where those things are coming to an end. It’s a time where people are looking to get back to work. It’s a time where people tend to look to make some changes. People are making all sorts of resolutions to better themselves. It’s no coincidence that the new year is a time where the number of people attending the gym skyrockets. The vacations and holidays are over, and it’s time to get back to the office or go back to school. Take a look around and pay attention. There’s a different vibe. You can feel the excitement, the ambition.
And it’s this emotion and this resolve that I would like to write about today. We can tend to make these promises to ourselves, and I believe that this can be a good thing. Any time you decide to make an effort to do something harder than what comes naturally, you are forcing yourself to learn and grow. You are expressing a desire to train yourself how to fight an important battle that should be fought. When you resolve to change you are preparing to do something that requires will power and mental strength and perseverance. To achieve any goal you need to control your flesh or dominate your body in such a way that seems unpleasant. The Bible refers to this as discipline. Even though at the time it seems unpleasant it yields a fruit. The discipline could be physical, like running a mile every few days. The discipline could be mental like studying a new subject in school. The disciple could be spiritual, like spending time in prayer or meditation or reading scripture. And the type of discipline will usually closely correlate to the type of fruit that you reap from being disciplined in that area. Physical discipline yields physical rewards, or fruit. But the cool thing about being disciplined is that discipline in one area can yield fruits in other areas too. In other words, the rewards from discipline can start to spill into other areas of your life. For example, I’ve talked to runners who say their minds are clearer after a run, so they reap a physical fruit primarily, but also a mental one secondarily. The common thing about all sorts of discipline is that any type of discipline requires your will to dominate your flesh. So there’s a battle.
Jesus rebuked his disciples when they couldn’t stay awake in Gethsemane. He remarked to Peter “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” With that rebuke, Jesus described our human condition. That’s something universal that we all struggle with as humans. Deep within our spirits, we long to be better than what we are. We know that we are unfinished business. We understand that we are works in progress. And in our spirits we desire to be better. These desires can be Biblical. The Bible DOES call us to grow in sanctification, so trying to better ourselves can be a worthy goal.
The danger might arise if our motivation is not Biblical. If we are trying to better ourselves because we think it could get us into heaven, then our reasoning for our efforts is contrary to Biblical doctrine. Our outward behavior might look right, but our inner driver is all wrong. As Christians, we know we are saved by grace, not by our works. The Bible explains that we are sinners who are saved by our faith in the works of Jesus. Any time we endure discipline or work on ourselves as a way to justify ourselves, then our motivation is unbiblical. We can’t earn God’s love or his Favor.
We can also fall into temptation if we try and better ourselves in order to gain glory for ourselves. Our motivation in this life should be to glorify God and Give Him honor and glory alone. When we do something good, or try and improve ourselves, we have to make sure that we are keeping the glory God focused. And this is VERY hard. I struggle with this all the time. In fact, almost anytime I do something good, if I search deep in my heart, I usually am trying to do that thing for an audience. For instance, if I am at the office, I am usually trying to impress my boss or supervisor. But we do things all the time to impress friends, or family members. Or spouses, fiancees, potential girl/boyfriends. If we look at all the great things that have been accomplished on this earth, I imagine that most of them were done by people trying to impress others, or “build a legacy”. The Bible warns against this “Selfish Ambition” in many places. James writes about it. Paul writes about it, warning the not just the Corinthians, but also the Galatians, and the Philippians too. Selfish Ambition is a bad thing, but ambition in general can be ok. The Bible tells us that it’s good to be zealous for God’s kingdom and His Glory.
Another pitfall is if we start to feel good about our achievements, and feel that other people are less justified or less worthy. Enduring discipline and growing could lead towards feelings of pride towards one’s self and scorn for others.
These are things we need to remember before embarking on any new year’s resolution or plan. Discipline is good, unless it is motivated by self justification, self glorification, or leads to pride.
Now just because these pitfalls and problems might pop up, it’s no reason to avoid trying to work at improving one’s self. Just because Jesus said that we have willing spirits but weak flesh; that doesn’t mean we have a reasonable excuse not do do anything. On the contrary, the Bible teaches that Discipline, perseverance, and hard work are important. And the fruits that come from having discipline and perseverance; the fruits from working hard are good. We mentioned some of them a few months ago when I was preaching from proverbs. The benefits that come from discipline make our lives more enjoyable but those benefits also help us to share that joy with others. Our joy and our peace that come from living with Biblical discipline equip us to minister to and help others. When we grow in our relationship with the Lord, we begin to reflect His Heavenly light into a dark world. When our relationship with God strengthens, that will improve the relationships we have with one another in this world. This maturity makes ministering to others and sharing our faith with others that much easier. So the Battle between our wills and our flesh is one that we should take seriously, because the Bible takes it seriously. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Paul says here that the way we live our lives is important. To read more about 1 Corinthians 9 and see the context here, you can reference the post on this entire chapter. He compares our lives to a race. And we should run to win. We should live like we’re running our absolute hardest to win the race. People who run races in a competitive way train hard. You see olympic athletes training their whole lives for a race that lasts just a few moments in time. Their goal is to win. They want their medal. They want their best time; they want to beat not just their own record but the world’s record. I’ve done a bit of running in the past year. But these competitive runners aren’t running the way I run. I run to finish running. I don’t obsess over the times. I definitely keep track of them, but I won’t be super angry or discouraged if I don’t beat my record. My main happiness is just that I passed the finish line so I can stop running. It’s a love-hate relationship. That’s how much I hate running. My goal is to finish so I don’t have to run anymore, I never expect to win a race. Not at my skill level. But the real runners, the elites. These guys are running to break a record or get a medal by placing in the top 3. Paul says that their motivation is their medal or their prize. This is something that doesn’t last. As Christians, our training and discipline is for something that is eternal. A crown that will last forever. Paul tells us that if an Olympian trains that hard for a medal, we should be even more diligent in discipline for our Everlasting crown. 1 Corinthians 9:26-27
26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to 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 way to live our lives intentionally as Christians is to train, to be disciplined, to strike a blow to our bodies. Not self mutilation or masochism, but to dominate and crucify our flesh. In Galatians 5:24 Paul writes “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
This happens in us when we belong to Christ Jesus. We start putting to death the desires of flesh, the passions. We start telling our bodies, “no!”. I know I want that right now. But I want something better later. How do you remind yourself to hunger and thirst for God? Try fasting. Use your bodily discomfort to understand what it means to hunger for God. Use the discomfort to appreciate the comfort and blessing that you usually experience, thanks to God’s provision. How do you honor God’s holy institution of marriage? The Bible tells us Don’t fornicate, don’t commit adultery, don’t even look lustfully at people. Saying no to our bodies is hard. Our flesh has so many passions, but in Christ Jesus our passions and desires will be crucified, or put to death. It’s a concept called self control. The Bible talks a lot about people with self control. Self control is required of all the leaders in the church. Read Titus 1:6-9
6 An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8 Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
Self control is a reason that Paul tells the churches to stop leading lives of sexual immorality. Lack of self control is a reason that the Bible warns against getting drunk. Why is self control so important? What does it represent? Well, what are we doing when we exert self control? As I said before, We are crucifying our flesh and the desires of the flesh. And why is that important?? When we dominate our sinful nature, we declare our independence from the sin that enslaved us before. Self control is an act we can do that expresses our freedom. The Bible tells us that we were slaves to sin. When Jesus died on the cross, he set us free. We are no longer slaves. We may be tempted by sin, but In Jesus, we are no longer prisoners to our sin. In Jesus, we are no longer DEAD in our sin. We were made alive. And we were made free. Ephesians 2:1-5
2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Listen to this. We were dead. Dead in transgressions. Dead men can’t save themselves. We were saved by Grace. Even though Paul tells us to run with this intensity like we’re running to win a crown, we’ve already determined that by God’s grace, we will win. Even though we are working as hard as we can for an everlasting crown, we aren’t given that salvation because of our works. We are called to train and discipline ourselves hard, as if the fruits of the discipline save us. We control our passions and desires. We work on self control as if our success and our eternal destiny depended on it. But they don’t. God saves us, and as far as salvation is concerned, we add nothing. It’s reassuring to know that you don’t have to have a New Year’s resolution or goal. God still loves you, so much that he sent his only begotten son to die in your place.
But remember, Any time we live in a way that exerts self control, we declare that we are no longer slaves. We were made free by Christ. And we can not just believe that or say that. But we can live that.. Paul reminds us that even though we are called to be free, we shouldn’t use that freedom to indulge our sinful nature. That would be like going back to the thing that we were freed from. When we don’t have that self control, our actions are testifying against us. Our mouths say one thing, but our actions are saying that we prefer our old slave-master more than our liberator. For this reason, having a lack of self control is a very bad sign for our character as Christians.. I am not saying Christians are perfect. We aren’t. We make mistakes. But when we make those mistakes and choose wrong, We need to understand this. When we sin, We dishonor God, and profess our allegiance to something else that will never satisfy or love us the way God does. When we sin, we profess our allegiance to our old slave masters and we indicate our preference of being dead in sin. For me, my preference is not to die as a slave to sin, but to live as a free man. My preference is freedom. My preference is the God who adopted me into his royal family, the God that Created the universe. We are free from the laws of Moses, but we are to use our freedom not to indulge our sin, but to serve one another. To Build one another up. 1 Timothy 4:7-10
7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8 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. 9 This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. 10 That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
Paul explains that our physical training is valuable, but our spiritual training, or training in Godliness is even more valuable. The fruits of training in Godliness will improve so many areas in this present life but also has an eternal significance too. Verse 10 explains that the reason why we do all this is because of our hope and our trust that we have in the Living God. He continues in 1 Timothy 4:11-14:
11 Command and teach these things. 12 Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Verse 11 explains that as Pastors, it’s our job to command and teach sound doctrine. We want to help to train you in Godliness. Like a Personal trainer in the gym, we want to see you succeed and so we give you the tools and knowledge to do that. As Christians, we all need to be teachable. We all need to be ready to train hard. We all need to be prepared to jump back up after falling down. When we do these things and prioritize Godliness, we set ourselves apart. In this world, we are surrounded by all sorts of people. Even a Christian who doesn’t consider him or herself a leader and assumes that they are a mere follower will find themselves setting an example. Paul says that we will set an example in our speech, our conduct (or behavior), in our love, in our faith, in our purity. If you start seriously following Paul’s instructions diligently, you end up being not just a follower, but an example setter, and therefore, a leader. 1 Timothy 4:15-16
15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
In Verse 15 Paul tells Timothy to be diligent. He is told to give himself wholly to these things. Why? So that everyone can see your progress. Verse 16 says to watch doctrine and life closely. Persevere so that you will save yourself and your hearers. The words are kind of confusing. It almost seems like he’s saying that Timothy can save himself and his hearers. It also seems like Paul wants Timothy to do things so that others can see progress. Knowing what the rest of the Bible says is very important. The context is important here, and these last verses could be taken out of context. Timothy is a young man who is in the role of pastor. Paul isn’t saying that Timothy should be diligent for the sole purpose so that everyone can see. The fact of the matter is people will be watching Timothy, and people will be listening to Timothy. Timothy can’t save himself or give salvation the way that Jesus on the cross gives salvation. But Timothy will be bringing sermons. Timothy will be leading a life that others will watch. Timothy will be in a position where people will rely on his understanding of Doctrine. And If Timothy doesn’t understand doctrine, he can potentially lead people the wrong way in his teaching. Not just the people he preaches to, but the entire future church. This is something that pastors need to pay close attention to, because they are charged with shepherding a flock of people not just today, but years from now.. They are charged with preaching sound doctrine. But the issue of doctrine and how we lead our lives- these matters are important for all Christians, especially anyone who is a parent or around kids. This is important for anyone who wants to share their faith. This is important for anyone who wishes to bring their heavenly joy to this world. This is important for everyone.