Chapter 8 - DEPENDENT DISCIPLINE
Visualize and aircraft as though you were looking down on it from above. You see the passenger compartment where you are sitting, two wings, and a tail assembly. As you look at the wings you see the word “Dependence” on the left wing and “Discipline” on the right wing. Just as an airplane must have both wings to fly we also must exercise both discipline and dependence in the pursuit of holiness.
Discipline: Activities designed to train a person in a
particular skill.
1
Tim 4:7 - Paul urges Timothy to train himself, or discipline himself, to be
holy. Here the word “Train” is a term
borrowed from the realm of athletics.
First used to train young athletes for the games of the day; later
included both mental and moral training.
Paul uses in reference to spiritual training. NOTE:
Paul tells Timothy to train himself.
In
chapter 5 we considered God’s discipline of us.
His spiritual child-training. Now
we will be looking at the discipline of self, the responsibilities we must
shoulder to pursue holiness.
The
point of the airplane illustration is that we must not try to carry out our
responsibilities in our own strength and willpower. We must depend on the Holy Spirit to enable
us. At the same time we must not assume
that we have no responsibility simply because we are dependent. God enables us to work, but He does not do
the work for us.
Psalms
127:1 - Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watched over the city, the
watchmen stand guard in vain.
Nehemiah
received threats when rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. :Nehemiah 4:9 - “But we prayed to our God and
posted a guard day & night to meet this threat”
There
is not a single instance in the New Testament teaching on holiness where we are
taught to depend on the Holy Spirit without a corresponding exercise of
discipline on our part.
Phillipians
4:11-13 - Paul said he had “learned” to be content. He recognized his responsibility to be
content, and that he needed to grow in that area of life. He did not depend on the Lord to bring the
growth, he worked at it. At the same
time he knew he could on be content only through the Lord, who gave him
strength.
Colossian
1:28-29 - . . . struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in
me.”
Passive
Approach - (faith approach) Some feel this is a more spiritual approach. Summed up:
Man’s part is to trust: God’s part is to Work.”
Expression
- “Let the Lord live His life through me.”
(use me for His purposes) seems passive.
Better: As I depend on Him, He
enables me to live a life pleasing to Him.
Psalmist,
Nehemiah, & Paul ‘s view would seem to be:
“Man’s part is to trust & work, but to do so in reliance upon God to
enable us to work and be successful.”
Every
moral imperative in the Bible addresses itself to our responsibility to
discipline ourselves unto godliness. We
are to love one another, we are to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh; we
are to put off the old man and put on the new man. If we are to make any progress in our pursuit
of holiness we must assume our responsibility to discipline or train ourselves.
PART 2 next time.
