The Pursuit of Holiness: Christian Discipline in Action
The Problem
We live in a society that prizes comfort, ease, emotional safety, gentle parenting, conflict avoidance, and impulse-driven decisions. I could go on. We have a seemingly deadly, indeed spiritually deadly, allergy to discomfort, to doing hard things, to long-term faithfulness, and to discipline. Christian discipline for the sake of holiness is hard work. It requires long term, moment by moment faithfulness. It is not quick. In a culture where nearly everything we want is available at the click of a button, the call to sustained, daily faithfulness through Christian discipline has been steadily eroded. The apostle Paul is clear that discipline is essential for the Christian:
“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather discipline 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.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8)
These are the lenses we must put on and see through as we walk the narrow path. Some of you reading this watched pornography today and have been quietly addicted for years. Others have not prayed with your wife in months. Many consistently neglect the Scriptures, lose your temper with your children, avoid reconciliation, or numb yourselves with endless scrolling and entertainment rather than pursuing holiness. These are not merely scheduling issues, personality quirks, or one off missteps. They are the rotten fruit of a failure to discipline ourselves for godliness, moment by moment, in the ordinary rhythms of life. For the Christian, this must be repented of.
Two Ditches
There are two ditches I observe Christians falling into as it pertains to discipline and the Christian life. The first ditch is that we are far too passive in our pursuit of holiness. We expect to kick back, put on an easy yoke and light burden, and functionally become a robot that the Holy Spirit will send hard drive updates to now and then that shape and mold us into the image of Christ, no responsibility we really have other than to keep ourselves on the gospel charger; He takes care of the rest. The second ditch assumes that, apart from my perfect, militant obedience, I am hopeless. There is a constant, anxious state of examining oneself to ensure that we are doing all the “right” things, checking all of the boxes so that God is not angry with me. When we perform “well,” we are content, feel worthy, and at peace (though a false peace); when we don’t perform, we are despondent and feel worthless. So, if both of these ways of thinking about discipline are incorrect, what’s the right way?
The Necessity of Effort and Obedience
Self-control, strenuous effort, sin-killing, discipline, hard work, holiness, active obedience, striving, straining, pressing, resisting, etc., are all necessary labors the Christian must be intimately familiar with. This is commanded of us and is evidence that we have been justified (by faith, not by works; we contribute nothing to our justification). We are working out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:13). We are putting to death the deeds of the body (Col 3:5). We are actively pursuing godliness (Eph 4:22), We strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14). Certainly, in all of these circumstances and efforts, our will is empowered in enabling grace by another: the will of God the Spirit. We will stand before God one day and give an account, and we will stand alone with no one else to point the finger at. We are responsible agents. Yet, we are not left to our own devices: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:12-13. We cannot wait around until we feel like pursuing holiness or have enough desire and motivation. We must discipline ourselves and do it. Where there is no sanctification, there is no regeneration. If we do not walk in obedience and instead go on sinning, we give evidence that we are not of God and do not love Him (John 14:15; 1 John 2: 3-6) . Everyone is responsible for their own sanctification, enabled by the Spirit, for we walk by the Spirit. In some sense, it is all of man and all of God. This is the mystery. In our willing, in our acting, in our obedience, in our hard work, straining, pressing, striving, sin-killing, self-control, resisting, it is all God’s enabling grace. The Christian life is not passive. Scripture is clear on this. This is not legalism. We do not do these things to gain favor or right standing before God. Works do not justify. Our justification was bought by Christ. It had nothing to do with our works so that no one may boast. By grace, you have been saved, and that is a gift.
The Joy of Discipline
Our pursuit, discipline, self-control, hard work, and obedience are for the glory of God, which is our joy. When we glorify Him, we are happiest. The hard work of obedience is the work of deepest joy. In our fight with sin, we must rely and rest upon Christ. But what does that mean? To some, this has become a spiritual cliché. Does resting in Christ mean that I am completely passive while God infuses me with some sort of sanctification treatment that removes my sinful passions? Am I to let go and let God so that I become a puppet with my will and actions overruled by the Spirit so that He is entirely in control? None of these ideas fit with the commands of Scripture. This kind of passivity is like saying you will not work or eat because you trust God to give you bread and life. Of course, this is not how life works. Relying on Christ is Christian discipline via active obedience. Practicing Christian discipline means submitting to His Word and engaging fully in the fight with sin. Boxing gloves are on. You are working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You are putting to death the sinful deeds of the body. You are actively pursuing godliness. Christian discipline means trusting that obedience to Him will produce the fruit He promises. Discipline is not always enjoyable. Often it is painful. Discipline involves self-denial, and denying ourselves our desires is unpleasant. However, you discipline yourself and yield to the Lord’s discipline because you trust His promise that this death of discipline will end in resurrection to life eternal. Christian discipline is not waiting for the desire to disappear before doing what is right. It is saying no to your strongest sinful inclinations while believing that your fight will end in victory and a greater satisfaction because Christ promised it. When the apostle says we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us, this is in part, what he means. Discipline teaches us to operate by principle and objective truth rather than desire and feelings. Saying no to our impulses puts us in control of our sinful appetites rather than allowing them to control us. Progress here involves conforming the way you think about God, yourself, the world around you, and the relationships between them all to God’s thoughts revealed in His Word. Saturate your mind with Scripture, pray with your fellow churchmen, invite criticism, know your sinful tendencies, and confess sin early and often. Stop allowing the world to dictate how you ought to think and where your loyalties must lie. Sin works subtly. It deadens our affections. If temptation is allowed to dwell in our minds with secret pleasure, our hearts begin to turn toward it (often far quicker than you could ever imagine). Our sensitivity fades, and soon we are willing to indulge what we once hated and resisted. The lies follow naturally. It is not that serious. I will stop later. God is gracious. That is how we drift and spit in the face of God.
Personal Responsibility and Fellowship
No one can fight your fight for you. If you yield to temptation and make a mess of your life, it is no one’s fault but yours. You will stand before God one day and give an account of yourself, and you will stand alone with no one else to blame. Let me say it again, you are responsible. What others can do is instruct and encourage you. Wise Christians can teach you the Scriptures and how they have applied them, sharpening your weapons and adding to your arsenal in the fight. When you are discouraged, others can strengthen you with a word that may be gentle or forceful. You must fight personal sin within the close fellowship of the saints. Be involved in the life of your church. Develop healthy friendships with godly people. Find a trusted brother or sister and let them in. This is how God intended it.
God’s Power and Human Will
God’s power in sanctification never replaces our will. It works beneath it, behind it, and within it. The evidence of God’s power in our lives is not the absence of our willing but the strength of it and the joy of it. Anyone who says they believe in God’s sovereignty and therefore will sit back and do nothing does not truly believe in His sovereignty. Sitting back is not nothing. It is the active choice of your will in a decision to do nothing. If that is how you handle sin, it is disobedience. We are commanded to wage war, resist the devil, strive for holiness, and put to death the deeds of the body that we may live. Grace is not passive. Grace trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Renouncing sin is not a quiet preference. It is a defiant rejection. If we keep on sinning and do not rid ourselves of entanglement, we cannot claim assurance that we are in Christ. This should move us to take sin seriously and to kill it by keeping in step with the Spirit, supplied by faith. As my pastor has reminded me time and time again, faithfulness is consistency in the ordinary sustained over time. Holiness is the sum of a lifetime of faithfulness in the seemingly small, mundane, unseen means of grace.
Practical Steps for Discipline
Discipline yourself in prayer.
Discipline yourself in the reading of Scripture.
Discipline yourself in gathering with the saints.
Discipline yourself in your vocation .
Discipline yourself in when you go to bed and when you rise.
Strive to enter through the narrow door, trusting that in and through your striving, God is at work in you to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Final Takeaway
If you take one thing away from this post, let it be this—Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.1
Scripture References
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Col. 3:5
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:12-13
“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” 1 Cor. 15:10
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15
“By this it is evident who are the children of God… whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” 1 John 3:10
“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Heb. 12:14
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion… Resist him, firm in your faith…” 1 Peter 5:8-9
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” James 1:22-25
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” James 2:14, 18
“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Proverbs 25:28
