Discipline Keys That Lead to Godliness - Part 2

In the last post we looked at how everything in life benefits from discipline. It is a pathway to freedom and success in just about everything you want to achieve in life. It’s true in all of our earthly and natural endeavors and it holds true in our spiritual ones as well. If we want to grow in our spiritual walk with the Lord it will require discipline.

1 Timothy 4:6-10 says, If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

This passage holds some keys for us as it relates to discipline. If you read the first few verses of this chapter, you will discover that Paul was exhorting Timothy, who was the pastor of the church at Ephesus, to watch out for those that were teaching bad doctrine. They were teaching things that were contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So here’s our first key. The Discipline that leads to godliness is:

1) Tethered to Good Doctrine — it provides the guard rails for discipline.

The thing is that good doctrine has an arch-enemy. Every superhero has a corresponding arch-nemesis. Well, for good doctrine and right teaching there are opposing teachings of demons and irreverent, silly myths. That is what every good teacher and student of the Bible has to contend with.

Paul appealed to Timothy to reject these false teachings. He told him that some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to these erroneous teachings. These empty and false ideas were to be rejected by the true Christian.

Some of the things that he mentions in this passage was an ascetic lifestyle, a lifestyle of abstinence for certain things that promised some spiritual elitism. In our day in age there is no shortage of bad teaching. We have access to so much via podcasts and webcasts that we need to be on guard against continually for teaching that could lead us down the wrong path—away from the true gospel.

Paul encourages Timothy that to become an excellent minister he must both reject these teachings and to continue to nourish himself on the truths and teachings of Christianity that he had come to know.

He says to Timothy, “If you put these things before the brothers…”, that meant that as a pastor he needed to expose the errors. And further he says to him, "you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.” That meant Timothy had to practice the truth that he knew.

Good doctrine matters. Good theology matters. I can’t stress that enough.

Michael Jordan, arguably one of the greatest basketball players ever, had this to say about mastering the fundamentals of the game. “You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”

We need to have the fundamentals of the gospel down, both in knowledge and practice. Spiritual discipline must be tethered to good, sound doctrine so we don’t slip away from the moorings of the faith. To be able to discern the false from the true, we need to be solidly, grounded in the truth of God from His Word.

We don’t want to get real good at practicing the wrong doctrine.

The writer of Hebrews had this strong rebuke to some Christians found in Hebrews 5:11-14.
“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have come dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment TRAINED by CONSTANT PRACTICE to distinguish good from evil.”

Here’s where this is important when it comes to discipline, if I get the gospel wrong, then I think that my Bible reading, prayer, and fasting becomes a means of obtaining grace from God and favor from God. The more I pray, the more God likes me. The more I fast, the more God will have to respond to my petition for something.

Spiritual discipline is not a means of obtaining grace — it is a grace!

If I get the gospel right, then I know that these disciplines are a means to draw me closer to God, to love and cherish him more, because I have a desire to please him, knowing that I am already loved and accepted by him.

The discipline is a means — not an end.

—How is your knowledge of the Word of God?
—Would you be able to discern good doctrine from false doctrine?