Introduction:
Any of you remember what it was like to get your driver’s license? The lessons, the practice, the look of terror on the face of the driving instructor, the look of regret on the face of your parents when you proudly waved that newly-obtained license under their noses? But, finally you had gained control over this 2000-pound monster called an automobile. It took a while, but you got it all figured out -- which pedal to push, and when, which direction to turn the wheel, and how far; how to get that beast to back up in a straight line, maybe even to parallel park.
You are in control. That automobile does what you want and when you want it to do it.... well, at least most of the time. Isn’t it great? You’re in control. It feels great to be in control of something that powerful. Solomon said in the book of Proverbs, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” (Proverbs 16:32).
Solomon says, “It’s great to have power. It’s great to have control. But if you can’t control yourself, it’s not worth much.” That’s so true. Conquering a city is nothing compared to conquering the habits that enslave you. Controlling an automobile is nothing compared to controlling your temper or your tongue.
I. What is Self-Discipline?
Doing those things involves self-control, or self-discipline. When you think about the word "discipline", there are probably several different things that come to mind. To a child, it probably means getting a spanking for doing something he shouldn’t have done. To a soldier, discipline means conforming to the regulations, obedience to orders, K.P. duty, and reveille on cold mornings. To a student, discipline means a class with a lot of work and exams. To a Christian, discipline usually brings to mind disfellowshiping someone who has been unfaithful.
And all of these are correct. All of those are aspects of discipline. But all of those things are examples of imposed discipline in which one person or group forces or pushes another person to follow or obey. A parent disciplines his child to teach him obedience. The Army disciplines the soldier to teach strict obedience. A school disciplines by making students do the work. And the church disciplines in order to encourage members to remain faithful. It’s imposed discipline.
It’s like controlling your dog with a leash or a chain. You go for a walk and you put him on a leash. He’s controlled. His freedom is restricted, and no matter how much howling or barking occurs, no matter what his impulses may tell him, he is forced to obey you and stay put, or keep up with you, as the case may be.
And we could take the same approach in dealing with the need to control aspects of our lives. Take self-control over eating, for example. If that’s a problem for you, you could place a large chain and padlock around the refrigerator and give the key to your husband or wife with absolute instructions never to tell you where the key is. That’s one way of doing it.
If you tend to have a problem driving over the speed limit, you could have the mechanic install a governor on the motor, preventing it from going over a certain speed, putting a leash of sorts on the car.
But imposed discipline has only limited value. There’s another kind of discipline that’s much more important to us as Christians and that is self-discipline. The Bible uses the words "self-control" and "temperance" to describe this quality. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23). It is one of the Christian graces that we are to grow in. "Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control...." (II Peter 1:5-6).
Self-control is extremely important. And the reason self-discipline is so important for us to develop is that we don’t have anybody telling us what we have to do to live the Christian life. By that I mean I don’t have anybody telling me how many hours a week I have to read my Bible.... or anybody making me attend all the worship services.... or anybody telling me how many hours a week I ought to pray.... or anybody making me invite so many neighbors to worship.... or anybody telling me how much I have to give to the Lord.... or anybody telling me I can’t watch a certain TV show or movie.... or anybody making me visit those who are sick. There’s only one thing that will keep me doing all these things, and that one thing is my own self-discipline.
And it takes a lot more character to have the self-discipline to do something on your own than it does to be told what to do, when to do it and how to do it.
And we need self-discipline in every aspect of our Christian lives. Even the apostle Paul was very much concerned about disciplining his own life. In the passage that was read at the beginning of our worship, Paul said, "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate (exercises self-control) in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." (I Corinthians 9:24-27).
Paul uses the illustration of an athletic contest -- a race. That was a familiar thing to these Christians in Corinth. The Greeks had two great athletic events -- the Olympic games with which we are very much familiar, and the Isthmian games which were held at the city of Corinth every three years. In fact, if you go to Corinth, I understand you can still see the areas where the races were run. The starting blocks where the athletes started out the races are still embedded in the stones. And Paul uses this figure, because, to him, life is like a race.
These Corinthians knew that every athlete who participated in the races had to take an oath that they had been training for 10 months, and that they had given up certain foods in their diet to enable them to endure the race. They subjected themselves to rather rigorous discipline in order to win. But Paul says all that they are winning is just a fading, pine wreath, but, in the race we are running, the prize, the wreath, is of an eternal nature.
Paul sees life this way. Our aim is to run the race of life in order to be a useful instrument of God, to be used whenever and wherever he wants to use us. That is Paul’s objective. When he woke up in the morning that is what was first in his thoughts; that is what set the tone of his day. He was ready to give up certain indulgences, if necessary, which may have been perfectly all right and proper for him at a given time. But if they interfered with his objective to be what God wanted him to be, Paul said he would be happy to give them up. For him the great objective was to win the prize and to feel the sense of delight that he was being used by God.
Sooner or later I suppose every one of us has asked the question, "What am I here for anyhow? Why did I appear on the earth here in this part of the world, at this time in history?" And, of course, the answer from the Bible is, God intends to use you. He wants you. He made you. He designed you with all the peculiar abilities you have and the unique talents and gifts he has given you that he might use you and that you might be pleasing to him.
Now in this figure of a race that Paul uses, it is obvious you cannot do that if there is no self-discipline. There is always something in life that will distract you if you let it. There are temptations to turn aside, to give up, to sit back and let life go on and enjoy yourself. But all those things will sabotage your Christian effectiveness. That’s what Paul is talking about. And so he says we need self-discipline, we need self-control.
It has been said that discipline is what we need the most in our modern world and what we want the least. So we have a country filled with students dropping out of school, husbands and wives looking for divorces, employees walking out on their jobs and Christians who are becoming unfaithful. Many of them simply don’t have the self-discipline that it takes to see their problems through. They run from their problems, look for the easy way out, and quit when the going gets rough.
Solomon once said, "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small." (Proverbs 24:10). Days of adversity are going to come. We need to understand that. And we need to develop the self-discipline to handle them.
II. Why Do We Need to Be Disciplined?
As Max Anders has said, "Only the disciplined ever get really good at anything." Everything in life requires some sort of discipline. Whether it’s hitting a baseball, climbing a mountain, playing a musical instrument, or making good grades, it all comes down to a matter of discipline.
Many people have ambitions that will never be realized, goals that will never be reached, visions that will never materialize simply because they have no discipline.
A young person wants to become a doctor or an important scientist, but he doesn’t want to buckle down to years of hard study. Many young people would like to achieve greatness in music but never will because of the long hours of practice required year after year. They may have the natural talent to play an instrument. Their dreams don’t lie beyond their abilities, but beyond their discipline.
The Christian life is no different. The church is filled with people who would love to be mature Christians with a tremendous knowledge of God’s Word. But they’re not willing to pay the price to achieve it. I think it was the late Gus Nichols that a Christian spoke with and said, "I’d give my life to know the Bible like you do." To which Gus Nichols replied, "That’s what it took." A lifetime of study and dedication. The world is full of naturally brilliant people who will never be anything more than ordinary because they aren’t willing to make the sacrifice necessary to become great. And the church is full of people like that, too.
I’ve read that John Wesley traveled an average of 20 miles a day for 40 years. He got up every morning at 4:00. He preached 40,000 sermons. He produced 400 books and knew 10 languages. At the age of 83, he was annoyed because he couldn’t write more than 15 hours a day without hurting his eyes, and at the age of 86, he was ashamed that he couldn’t preach more than twice a day. He complained in his diary that there was an increasing tendency to lie in bed until 5:30 in the morning.
Trust me, I’m not suggesting we all accept that kind of schedule, but it’s still true that the person who learns the power of self-discipline is going to be the person who accomplishes great things.
III. What Aspects of Our Lives Do We Need to Discipline?
1. We need to discipline our minds, to train ourselves to think.
You say, "Well, I already think." But, in religion today, people don’t think. They don’t raise questions. They don’t search for answers. They simply listen to what the preacher has to say and accept that as truth. And that’s not just true of folks “out there”, it’s sometimes true of all of us. Paul wrote to Timothy, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (II Timothy 2:15). The KJV says, "study". That word "study" literally means to "work hard at it". We need to discipline our minds in the church.
2. We also need to discipline our bodies.
Paul says that "bodily exercise profits a little" (I Timothy 4:8). Our bodies are all we have to serve God with, and certainly it makes sense that the better we care for these bodies, the better we can serve God.
3. We need a disciplined moral character.
"For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable in all things." (I Timothy 4:8). A disciplined body is of some value, but a disciplined character is of greater value. For instance, suppose a man determines to become a doctor. It takes years of dedicated study, involving many long hours. He becomes a doctor and sets up a practice. But he indulges in drink and immorality. They cost him his reputation, his practice, maybe even his life and his soul. The discipline represented by years of study in medical school couldn’t replace the much-needed discipline of character.
4. We need to discipline our appetite.
We need to learn to make our body do the things we tell it to. You know what I’m talking about. You say to yourself, "I really shouldn’t eat another brownie." And your body says, "Thank you, don’t mind if I do." We don’t hear a lot of preaching about gluttony; maybe it’s because it hits too close to home for us preachers. Solomon once said, "Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit." (Proverbs 25:16).
I love to eat. Set a table full of good food and I can eat from it all day long. But, brethren, we’ve got to learn to discipline ourselves and this is one area we need to begin with. Those of us who don’t smoke are often critical of those who do saying, "Why don’t they just quit?" when we’ve never learned to say, "No" at the dinner table. I don’t say that to justify smoking. But I do say it to emphasize the fact that we all need to learn to control our appetites.
5. We also need to discipline our speech.
No matter how self-controlled you are, if you haven’t bridled your tongue, you’ve still got a way to go. James said, "If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this one’s religion is useless." (James 1:26). You may have a disciplined mind, a disciplined body, a disciplined will, even disciplined appetites, but a loose tongue will get you in a lot of trouble. James also said, "For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body." (James 3:2). Whether the problem is swearing, using God’s name in vain, lying or gossip, the solution is self-discipline.
Some people pride themselves on their frankness. "I just say what I think." But, according to the Bible, that’s what a fool does. "A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back." (Proverbs 29:11). Frankness is a virtue when it is coupled with discipline. It often requires a great deal more discipline to refrain from speaking at all.
6. We need discipline in arranging our priorities.
The problem here is not understanding what is most important. I think all of us as Christians recognize that God and his church should hold first place in our lives. We all know the words of Jesus: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33).
Without hesitation, we would all agree that heaven is infinitely more important than earth, that people are more important than things, that developing our mind and character is more important than entertainment, that being busy for the Lord is better than doing nothing, that soul-winning is the greatest task we can work at, that righteousness is more important than popularity. When confronted with those simple alternatives, we know which one to approve. We would say, "Yes, these are the values that are important to me." The problem isn’t knowledge. The problem is actually giving first place to these values in practical daily living -- and that is a matter of self-discipline.
Day by day, we select the things that are most important to us. The problem is that were confronted by so many things that will take up our time, our money, our talents. And we’ve got to select. We can’t participate in every good work, so we’ve got to choose. We can’t give to everything and everybody, so we’ve got to choose. We can’t attend ball games and school meetings and church activities all at the same time, so we’ve got to choose. We can’t read everything, so we’ve got to choose.
Our maturity as Christians will be determined exactly and entirely by our skill in selecting. If we’re determined to "major in minors", if we show a "first-rate dedication to second-rate causes", then we’re never going to mature as a child of God.
We need to discipline then our minds, our bodies, our moral character, our appetites, our speech and our priorities.
IV. The Dangers of Discipline
Discipline is a good thing and something that we all need to work at. But there are some dangers that I think need to be mentioned. Some people may get the idea that achieving discipline is the greatest thing we can strive for as a Christian. But it’s not. A right relationship with God is the most important thing. Self-discipline by itself doesn’t make us right with God.
In Colossians 2, Paul rebukes the Christians in Colosse because some of them were laying down strict rules, "Don’t touch this! Don’t taste this! Don’t handle this!" thinking that those rules would make them right with God, but they didn’t. The Pharisees were a highly disciplined people, but their hearts weren’t right. We always need to remember that discipline is only a servant to be used in our attempts to glorify God.
Secondly, we need to be careful that discipline doesn’t fill us with pride. There is a certain satisfaction in being able to control ourselves. But it’s wrong when that satisfaction becomes a self-satisfaction. Such a disciplined person gives himself the glory rather than God. Like the Pharisee who prayed, "Father, I thank thee that I am not as other men are..." (Luke 18:11-12).
Third, there is a danger of imposing too harsh a discipline on oneself. This is called asceticism. We recall the monks and other religious men of past centuries who denied themselves anything that brought them pleasure. They didn’t marry, didn’t eat much and some of them even wore rough hairy shirts and put stones in their shoes. What is the difference between asceticism and healthy self-discipline? Asceticism focuses on prohibitions and rules concerning things that are petty. Discipline deals with things that will help us to be better people and better Christians. For instance, wearing a pebble in my shoe is asceticism. Setting aside 20 minutes every morning to study my Bible is discipline.
Asceticism tends to despise the good things of life. It denies joys and pleasures which are really the gifts of God, and which God intended for us to have. This comes from a mistaken idea that everything in this world is evil. In contrast, discipline never despises earthly things, but uses them to accomplish spiritual purposes. It uses them, but is careful to use them with restraint and moderation.
Paul spoke of false teachers "forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." (I Timothy 4:3). For instance, living on bread and water is asceticism. Controlling how much I eat at meals and between meals is discipline. Not marrying and forbidding others to marry is asceticism. Choosing not marrying because I’m planning to do mission work in a difficult environment is discipline.
Conclusion:
If we’re ever going to mature as Christians, we’ve got to learn the power of self-discipline. I could preach all day long about attending worship services, studying your Bible, prayer, teaching the lost, seeing to the needs of one another, getting involved in the work of the church, and countless other things that we need to be doing as Christians. But it wouldn’t do a bit of good until we develop the self-discipline needed to do those things.
To develop the self-discipline we need is going to take a great desire on our part to want to change what needs to be changed, a will-power to see it through, and the power that God offers us through his Son Jesus Christ.
