Spirtitual Disciplines: What They Aren't Series

I have a friend who is a personal trainer. And if you are interested in becoming a fitter person, Josh could tell you how to do that. I’m sure you’ve already figured it out, but he’s my friend, not my trainer.

But if you wanted to become fitter and healthier, Josh is the guy. And if that was your goal, he would give you a routine of various exercises to do. Some you would do on some days and others you would do on other days.

It would be great if Josh could provide you with one exercise that would benefit your entire body, kind of a one-and-done type thing. Do this one thing ten times and presto change oh, you would be healthy fit and attractive. There was a time when I would suggest whom you might look like, either male or female. But that is no longer a safe or wise distinction to make, for various reasons. Needless to say, if you close your eyes and think about it, you can picture what it means to be fit and attractive.

However, there is no magic bullet, no one exercise that will benefit every part of your body and make you healthy and attractive and fit, looking like that person whom you pictured in your mind moments ago.

It doesn’t work that way.

Instead, there are exercises that you could do if you wanted to develop your pecs, which would be your chest, you could do push-ups or bench presses or chest flys.

On the other hand, if you wanted to firm up your glutes, that would be your butt, those exercises wouldn’t help at all. Instead, you’d want to do step-ups, fire hydrants or the infamous Bulgarian Split Squats.

And, then there are the exercises that you would need to do in order to develop your legs and arms. Because if you don’t focus on all the various parts of your body, you will end up unbalanced physically.

Perhaps you would have a great deal of upper body strength but very little strength in your legs, looking something like this.

I get tired just thinking about it, and that’s why Josh is my friend and not my trainer, and why I look like this and not like whomever it was that you were picturing in your mind just moments ago.

In the scripture that was read this morning, Paul is writing to a young pastor by the name of Timothy, and he reminds him of how important it is to not only be fit physically but also to be fit spiritually.

He reminds Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

This is a theme that Paul comes back to time and time again. As a matter of fact, as I was working on this message, I realized that Paul must have been an athlete, because of the number of times he uses physical exercise and training as an analogy for our Christian life.

As preachers, we tend to gravitate toward what’s familiar to us. I tell sea stories, because before becoming a preacher I spent my time at sea, on Salvage Tugs, Oil Tankers and offshore fishing boats. It’s what’s familiar to me.

I have a friend who loves hockey, both the playing and the watching, and his preaching is full of hockey metaphors.

Listen to some of the things that Paul tells us,

1 Corinthians 9:24–26 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.

Philippians 2:16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

Galatians 5:7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth?

2 Timothy 2:5 And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules.

Elias L. Taylor Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Coppin State University writes, “Although there is no documented evidence that Paul was an athlete, this qualitative analysis of Alexandrine Greek text, which Paul used to write his epistles, as well as archaeological evidence, points out Paul’s usage of many athletic/sport related references (words) in spreading his evangelical message. In the arena of Christian spiritual contests, Paul was an exceptional Isthmian “athlete”.”

Over the next six weeks, we are going to be focusing on the subject of Spiritual Disciplines, or training for Godliness as Paul refers to it.