Monday, January 18, 2010
Discipline or Legalism
I was asked, "why do Christians need to be disciplined, after all we have grace, so why discipline?" My antinomian friends question seems to permeate our culture today. I began to think about this and found that disciplined Christian lives are the exception and not the rule. Even many church leaders seem to have a lifestyle that lacks discipline. I think the conscious rejection of spiritual discipline is the fear of legalism. They may think spiritual discipline is putting oneself back under the Law with a series of strict rules that no one can live up to. We need to understand what legalism and discipline are. The difference is the motivation - Legalism is self centered; discipline is God centered. The legalistic heart says, "I will do this thing to gain merit with God." The disciplined heart says, "I will do this thing because I love God and want to please Him." So how do we do this? 1 Timothy 4:7 tells you and I to, "train(discipline) ourselves to be godly". All of our energy needs to be directed towards godliness!
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2 comments:
well said Mark. Looking forward to visiting with you all soon. I also like your music selection on the side bar. :)
I thought that it was interesting how legalistic the Pharisees were that they created rule upon rule so that they might not break the commandments while it is the impulse of our culture to tread as close to the commandment as we can and try to pull back at the last second. I believe that both sets are guilty of the same thing, missing the heart (or the motivation, as you put it) of all of the commandments, which is to worship God through obedience.
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