Discipline or Joy? Both!

The words “disciple” and “discipline” are closely related; this is not coincidental. To be a disciple is to be a “learner” or a “follower”. In our case, a follower of Christ. The words “disciple” and “Christian” can be used interchangeably because every Christian is called to follow Jesus; there are no “super-Christians”. Because our flesh wars against our spirit, we must be disciplined to stay on the path of following Christ, day by day and moment by moment, just as any athlete must be disciplined in order to win their upcoming competitions or a musician must be disciplined in order to put on a beautiful performance.
Because we know that love is much more than a feeling, we could say that the spiritual disciplines are simply different ways that we show our love for God, not to earn His love, but simply to respond to His love and act in love towards Him.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “this is the will of God, your sanctification…” Why? Is it because God is a tyrannical king who demands blind loyalty? Is it because God demands that we perform entirely pure and flawless works in order to enter heaven? NO! It is for three main reasons--which are really one:
1) that we might be holy as He is holy
2) that He may be glorified
3) that we may have joy!
These three reasons are so intertwined with one another that we cannot separate them and say one without saying the other two, but for clarity’s sake we will look at our one goal of discipline from these three different viewpoints.

1. “That we might be holy as He is holy.”
   
   1. This comes directly from 1 Peter 1:14-16. This is no new command to God’s chosen people, as we can tell from Peter direct citation of Leviticus 11:44. What is interesting to see is that this verse comes right in the middle of God giving the law, specifically the ceremonial law. Doesn’t this make it obvious that God is saying that we must be entirely perfect in order to be saved? Absolutely not! God is giving His people the law after He saved them out of the land of Egypt so that they might know how to properly live and worship Him. So for us the life of holiness that we are called to is not our salvation--that was accomplished with Christ’s life, death, and resurrection being irreversibly applied to us forever in a moment by the Holy Spirit--but is how we live and worship as saved people. How loving of God our Father to not only save us, but to let us know what pleases Him and how we can be like Him in our thoughts, speech, and actions! How impossible it would be if God saved us and simply left us fallen creatures guessing as to how to love Him rightly!
      
   2. If that is not enough to simply stir us up to obey from our joy, the Bible also answers our question “Why is holiness so important?” in many places, but I would ask you to read the following three passages: Psalm 15:1-5, Matthew 5:17-20, Hebrews 12:14
      
2. “That He may be glorified.”
   
   1. In John 15:1-11 Jesus Himself shows us just how intertwined the three aspects we are looking at are. Right in the heart of this passage, in v.8, He tells us that the Father is glorified when we bear much fruit and prove to be His disciples. So what exactly is the fruit that we should be bearing? Following His commandments! When we obey Christ, we abide in His love, we are proven to be His disciples because we start to look like Him, and when we look like Him, we are keeping the commandments and being holy!
      
   2. Other verses we can look to are Deuteronomy 28:9, Psalm 86:11-12; 1 Peter 2:9-12, 4:7-11.
      
3. “That we may have joy.”
   
   1. Let us look back to John 15. What purpose did Jesus give? That His joy may be in us and that our joy may be FULL! Abiding in Jesus, having His Word abide in us, bearing fruit, proving to be His disciple, loving one another, glorifying God, keeping His commandments; these are nearly synonymous and they are all our joy! What else could we want than to live in our Resurrected Redeemer and to have the Loving Creator living in us?
      
   2. This idea of disciplined joy also isn’t new, as we see from Joshua 1:8, Isaiah 55:2-3, Psalm 1:1-2, 16:1-11, 119:7, 14, 16-18, 20, 24, 25, 32, 35, 37, 97 (and so many more in Psalm 119).
      

Grace and peace,
Cody Wilson