1 Timothy 4:1-16 (Personal Disciplines)

Introduction

In a different life (more than 20 years ago), I worked at a gym, selling memberships and offering personal training. One of my responsibilities was to introduce new members to the equipment we had there. I would take them around to the main areas and show them a few basic exercises… and off they went.

On one occasion, I met a middle-aged woman who said she’d already lost more than 50 pounds over the last year or so, and she was really excited about her progress. That’s a big change in a short time, so I asked her what she’d been doing. She said that her method was simple. “I eat only one meal a day… a fast-food burger and fries. My calories are low, but I get to eat what I want.”

I’m sure my face made it plain that I hated her answer… and I didn’t have enough tact back then to stop the words from coming out of my mouth. I said something like, “That’s terrible! You know that you’re destroying your muscle and hurting your body by doing that?!”

I don’t remember the rest of the conversation, but I’m pretty sure it only got worse from there. I knew what I knew, and she was headed for disaster.

Friends, it has often been observed that Christian growth, Christian maturity, and progress toward a well-ordered life is a lot like physical training. The Bible even uses this analogy in our main passage for today. And I am concerned that many Christians think of their discipleship the same way that poor woman approached her physical health.

Many Christians know very little about why they believe what they do, they spend very little time and effort on actually growing as a Christian, and as long as they aren’t sinning in some public or egregious way, they are quite happy with what they perceive as progress.

What’s even worse is that many Christians look to their emotional highs and lows in order to evaluate their spiritual health. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked someone how they are doing spiritually and heard the answer completely center on their subjective feelings… “I feel closer to God these days” or “I feel like I’m doing well” or “I feel like I’m going through a rough patch.”

But friends, like our physical bodies, our spiritual health and growth are dependent on simple, regular, and meaningful disciplines. If you want to be healthier physically, then you must embrace an entire way of life that sets you on a trajectory toward health. You might be able to grow big biceps without the all-of-life approach, but those won’t last long, and you will look ridiculous.

And so it is with our spiritual health. We must embrace an entire way of life that sets us on a trajectory toward spiritual maturity, toward Christian progress, toward the well-ordered life.

This is now the third installment in our topical series this year on the well-ordered life. So far, I’ve argued that God intends His people to live in an ordered way (to walk the wise path, and not the foolish one), and I’ve argued that this ordered way of living begins at Christian conversion (when the sinner is born again spiritually and begins to love and follow Christ).

Today, we are going to focus our attention on the individual or personal disciplines that ought to be peppered throughout our daily lives… disciplines that God has instructed and designed for our spiritual good and growth.

We can think of all this like concentric circles of order (me, my spouse, my kids, my church, my friends and my job, my neighborhood, my town, etc.). If you want to have better order in your whole life, then you have to start somewhere, and the place to begin is right there in the center (with you). After you’ve got the center cleaned up and in order, then you can start working your way out a bit.

We might also think of all this like a timeline – conversion, personal discipline, communal discipline, church participation and order, establishing and ordering the family, advancing and arranging our vocation, relating to ordered society, and finishing a well-ordered life. Generally speaking, we want to advance from one level to the next, ordering ourselves and others around us according to God’s design.

Now, in real life, these circles and advancements are not so neat. Life doesn’t stop and wait for us to get things in order in only one area at a time. But the general principle is right. In fact, I want to say that until we get ourselves basically in order (according to God’s intentions and instructions for us), we ought to be pretty reluctant to offer help to others. It is very likely that we will do more harm than good if we start offering advice about stuff that we haven’t actually put into practice ourselves.

It’s also an inevitable reality that our order or disorder in those more central areas or in those earlier stages will result in more of the same farther along. If we are not self-controlled and disciplined individually, then we will contribute to the chaos (not the order or well-being) of our home, our workplace, and our communities.

This whole topical series is intended to provide us with a prioritized list of experiences or practices where we ought to place our focus as we strive toward the well-ordered life. We know God has designed and called us to it, and we begin by hearing the gospel and giving ourselves over to Christ. And then, as new disciples, we devote ourselves to the practical disciplines that form our discipleship in this lifelong and comprehensive effort to trust and follow Christ.

May God help us better understand what at least some of these disciplines are today, and may He help us to devote ourselves to them.

Scripture Reading

1 Timothy 4:1-16

1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

6 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.

7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 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. 9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 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.

11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you.

15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Main Idea:

Discipleship is a lifelong and comprehensive commitment to following Jesus, and Christians must devote themselves to the practical disciplines of this way of life.

Sermon

1. Devotion is Not an Option

Our primary text for today is a short portion of a letter from the Apostle Paul to his younger pastoral-apprentice, Timothy. Timothy was young, but he was also quite experienced, and Paul sent him to various churches to provide needed leadership.

The information and instructions here are especially applicable to pastors.

It is primarily pastors or elders or overseers in the local church context who are to counter the bad doctrine and bad morals of those who lead people to “depart from the faith” (1 Tim. 4:1).

It is primarily pastors who ought to hear…

the command to “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13)…

the exhortation to “command and teach” what pertains to “godliness” (1 Tim. 4:8, 11)…

the mandate to “practice these things [and] immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress” (1 Tim. 4:15)…

and the charge to “keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching” (1 Tim. 4:16).

But this is not to say that regular, everyday Christians (i.e., those who are not pastors) can gain nothing from this passage. On the contrary, there is much for us all to learn and apply here.

The one thing I want to focus on at the beginning of my sermon today is the reality that there is no way that any of us will not be devoted to something. In other words, devotion is not an option… we will be devoted to something.

Note the contrast between those who “depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (v1) and Paul’s command to Timothy to “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (v13). The underlying word (translated “devote” in the ESV) is the same in both places, and it means to pay attention to, to give oneself to, to be occupied with.

Devotion is what we have when we know all the names and stats of our favorite sports teams. Devotion is what we are doing when we know exactly when and why to expect an investment to payoff. Devotion is what we have when our kids can depend on us to protect and provide for them. And devotion is what we are doing when we’ve celebrated 20 or 30 or 40 years of marriage.

Devotion is the intentional and persistent occupation of ourselves with some object or objective (i.e., a person, an idea, a goal, an interest, etc.). And in our lives, we will most definitely be devoted to something… actually, many things.

In our passage, the contrast is between those who are devoted to deception and false teaching, and those who are devoted to the sincere teaching of Scripture.

The ones devoted to deception and false teaching…

They will “depart from the faith” (v1).

They will seem to be Christians for a while, but they will grow tired of following Christ, and they will turn away from Him.

They will listen or give attention to the “teachings” of “insincere” or hypocritical “liars” (v2).

And they will follow the ethical standards of those “whose consciences are seared” (v2-3).

In other words, they will live by a code of morality, but it will be a false morality, a dead morality, a corrupt and deceptive morality.

Friends, to reject God’s word, to rebel against God’s moral standards, and to resist the teaching God has given us about what is true and what is good… this does not prevent anyone from having deep devotion. Many non-Christians are quite devoted to some false religion. Many people are devoted to whatever feels or sounds or looks good to them. But no one is completely without devotion.

In order to avoid the pitfalls of bad morals, to steer clear of the dangers of false teaching, and to resist the soul-killing temptation to depart from the only Savior God has given us, we must clamp our grip around that which leads to salvation and life. In order to grow in health and vitality as Christians, we must give ourselves to the activities that produce such things. In order to travel the path of the well-ordered life, we must be devoted to the practical disciplines that form disciples of Christ.

In short, we must commit ourselves to the lifelong effort to know and follow Jesus – we must take up the comprehensive challenge of training for godliness.

2. Training for Godliness

In our passage, Timothy (as a pastor) was commanded to “devote [himself] to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching” (1 Tim. 4:13). And we all ought to embrace that same sort of devotion – to reading and hearing the Scriptures, to heeding and obeying wise exhortations, and to hearing and applying true and faithful teaching. This devotion is for all Christians, not just for pastors.

But the word I want to key in on now is that of “training.” Paul uses it in two distinct-but-related ways here – one in the sense of child-rearing and the other in the sense of exercise.

The first use of “training” is there in v6. Paul says that Timothy had been “trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine” and he was to “put these things before the brothers” (v6). That is, Timothy was to put before other Christians the “things” or teachings that Paul had been going on about in this letter. Paul said earlier that he was “writing these things to” Timothy “so that” he would “know how one ought to behave in the household of God” (1 Tim. 3:14-15).

So, Timothy’s “training in the… faith” was not only for his own benefit, but also for the benefit of others. He was to “train” others “in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine” (v6). And the word Paul used here means to be “raised up in” or “reared in.” It carries a connotation of parental training in the life of a child.

Friends, just as a child must be taught (both by word and deed) how to eat like a human at the dinner table, how to share toys (and not be a barbarian) with other kids, and how to be respectful to those in authority over him or her… so too, new and untrained Christians must be taught (by word and deed) how to believe and behave.

Like children in a family, like army recruits at boot camp, or like aristocrats in 19th- and 20th-century finishing schools, we all (particularly those of us who are church members)… we all have entered into the Christian training program. We must be raised up in the basics of Christian thinking and living. We must be reared in the practices of Christian belief and behavior. We must be trained for godliness.

This first kind of “training” carries the idea of being conformed or being shaped or being arranged. And the aim is “godliness” or “reverence.”

But this does not come naturally to us. Therefore, we must not only be trained in godliness; we must give ourselves or devote ourselves to training in it. And this brings us to the second use of the word “train” in our passage. We see it there in v7-8.

Paul says, “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” (1 Tim. 4:7-8). The Greek word translated “train” and “training” here is where we get our word gymnasium… and the parallel analogy makes this plain.

The Apostle Paul compares “bodily training” with “[training] for godliness,” and his point is not to contrast them. He does not say that the one is opposite the other. Rather, the “bodily training” is “valuable” or “beneficial” but lesser, while training “for godliness” is of greater “value” or “benefit” “in every way” (v8).

The point here is that the same sort of regular, persistent, and vigorous disciplines that define “bodily training” are to be practiced in the training “for godliness” as well. Not that Christians should do cardio and lift weights to make spiritual gains, but that Christians ought to understand that spiritual gains are made by regular, persistent, and vigorous disciplines.

Friends, so many Christians seem to think that spiritual growth is inevitable and spiritual atrophy is impossible. They may not say it exactly like this (though some I’ve heard have come pretty close), but they will say, “I believed the gospel and prayed the sinner’s prayer back when I was kid/teen. I don’t need to go to church or study the Bible or learn about doctrine or have you tell me what I can or can’t do.”

That’s like saying, “I admitted that I needed to be healthier 20 years ago, and I ate a bit better and went to the gym for a few weeks. But I don’t need to keep on exercising or learn anything about food or calories or have you tell me that I’m unhealthy right now.”

Just like bodily training (even just for healthy living)… bodily training requires an ongoing devotion to (or attention to or effort toward) the practical disciplines of physical health… so too, training for godliness (or being conformed to right thinking and right behavior) requires an ongoing devotion to the practical disciplines of spiritual health. This is not a one-time statement or action. This is a lifelong and comprehensive commitment to follow Jesus in a whole new way of life.

But what are some of those practical disciplines? Well, I’m glad you asked…

3. Practical Disciplines

For the next several minutes, I want to get really practical about the sorts of daily and weekly and regular disciplines or exercises that Christians can implement in their lives in order to grow spiritually and to increasingly order themselves according to God’s intention and instruction.

I do want to be clear that this is not an exhaustive list – you might be able to name several that I won’t this morning – and it’s also not an equally-weighted list – some of these practices have the weight of should behind them and others have the weight of may.

For example, Christians should be members of a local church and participate regularly; and Christians may use a formal catechism to learn basic Christian teaching. I think both of these are good disciplines, but neglecting the gathering of the saints on the Lord’s day is sin, while choosing some other method of learning basic Christian teaching (besides a catechism) is not sinful at all.

I should also note that the level of training depends far more on one’s current spiritual state than it does on one’s age or experience. An adult might be offended by a classroom teacher starting him or her with the ABC’s, but Tarzan was raised by gorillas, and Jane had to begin with him at the fundamentals of letters and clothing.

Friends, when we first come to Christ (out of the sinful and ignorant and obstinate world in which we were raised or trained), it was like entering civilized society from the wild of the worldly jungle. Therefore, it is no surprise that we would have to begin with the ABC’s of Christianity (basic truths, elementary rules of behavior, and simple do’s and don’t’s). And if we never learned them, then we ought to humble ourselves and be willing to join in with the youngest disciples to do so.

One last note about this list… Today our focus is on personal disciplines, and my next sermon in this series (Lord willing) will be on the communal ones. I’m going to limit the scope of this list today mostly on those disciplines that each Christian may practice himself or herself… and we will get more into those that require the participation of others next month.

Ok… with those caveats in place… let’s run through a short list of the sorts of disciplines or practices that we may put in place in order to get ourselves in shape. And I’ll list them in three distinct categories.

First, active church membership.

Friends, the Bible could not be clearer about the formal and communal nature of the Christian life.

This passage we’ve been reading this morning doesn’t even make sense to a person who claims to be a Christian but is not actively and regularly participating in a local church.

You and I cannot believe what the Bible teaches and obey what Christ commands all by ourselves. We need one another, and not just for encouragement or for example.

God has so designed the Christian life that our formal church relationships are like the hub of our spiritual stability and growth.

If we are to be the sort of Christians that the Bible describes, and if we are to grow in our walk with the Lord, then we must submit ourselves to the structures of church membership and we must commit to prioritizing the main gatherings of our church.

At FBC Diana, our main gatherings are (1) every Sunday morning, (2) monthly Sunday evenings, and (3) members’ meetings six times a year.

Everything else we do is optional and supplemental, but these are the meat and potatoes of our lives together.

Second, intentional and systematic learning of good doctrine.

There are numerous ways we might do this, but let me offer a couple of specific methods.

First, regular Bible reading.

Morning, evening, middle of the day, or all of the above… Our days should not go by without some exposure to and thinking on the word of God.

I’ll never forget what I read in a book called The Hiding Place. It’s an autobiographical story about Corrie Ten Boom and her sister, Elizabeth.

Corrie’s family hid Jews and political outlaws from the Nazis during the second World War. And when they were discovered, in their home in the Netherlands, everyone in her household was arrested (81 years ago this last Friday).

On the first morning Corrie woke up in captivity, she recalled that this was the first time she remembered starting the day without hearing her father read the Bible at their family table (she was 51 years old!).

Brothers and sisters, may our children and grandchildren, our spouses and our friends see such a love for and dependence on God’s word in our lives.

Second, reading good summaries of Christian doctrine.

Catechisms are a great and simple way to know what Christians believe and how they are to behave.

No catechism is perfect, but there are many good ones. I recommend the New City catechism, Keach’s catechism, and the Westminster catechism (both the shorter and the longer).

Confessions of Faith are another great way to know what Christians believe and how they are to behave.

Again, no confession is authoritative beside or above the Bible, but there are many good ones that summarize Christian belief on some of the most important doctrines of the faith.

I recommend our own church Confession, which is heavily based upon the BF&M 2000.

The First and Second London Confessions of faith are also wonderful expressions of historic Baptist belief and practices.

The Philadelphia Confession of Faith was the first Baptist confession printed in America in 1742, and it is a slightly revised version of the Second London Confession.

Even shorter summaries of Christian belief can be found in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed.

Many Christians past and present have committed these to memory by reciting them regularly and making them a part of their own daily spiritual disciplines.

Ask me for copies of either or both of these.

Brothers and sisters, we could get a copy of any one of these catechisms, confessions, or creeds, and we could read a sentence or a paragraph each day.

And we might be surprised by just how much good doctrine we could learn over time.

Third, intentional obedience to biblical commands.

In our efforts toward the well-ordered life, we must remember that head-knowledge is not the only goal. We cannot do without it, but we must what we learn put it into practice.

Therefore, we might pick a command from our daily Bible reading and focus on obedience for that particular day.

In the Minter house, we begin every weekday with family Bible reading (7-7:30am at the dinning table), and we end that time with prayer. Normally, our prayer includes thanks to God for what we read that day, and it also includes a request that God will help us live according to it.

Speaking of prayer… this should be a regular feature of our lives as Christians.

We should pray for God’s help as we read the Bible.

We should pray for God’s help to obey His word.

And we should thank God for His work in our lives.

I’ve known some Christians to write out Bible verses and post them up in various places in their home.

We might post commands for patience and grace in the living room, where fighting and selfishness are often on display.

We might post commands for trust and contentment in the bedroom, where we are prone to go to sleep with our heads full of anxiety and discontent.

We might post commands for gratitude and worship in the dining room, where we are prone to eat our daily bread without a thought that this is a gift of God.

Brothers and sisters, if we really want to grow in holiness, if we want to strengthen our ability to resist sin and even war against our own sinful desires, and if we want godliness to be the mark of our character, then we must train ourselves for it.

We must consider the reality that the Christian life is indeed a challenge. On the one hand, trusting in Christ for His grace and forgiveness is utterly passive – we can do nothing… we can contribute nothing… to our right standing before God. But on the other hand, following Christ as His disciples is a lifelong and comprehensive commitment to vigorous and consistent activity – we must devote ourselves to the practical disciplines of this Christian way of life.

Conclusion

Friends, we’ve covered a bit of ground this morning, and our focus has been on the reality that spiritual growth is something to which we must devote ourselves… we must be trained in godliness… and that means we must be diligent to train in it.

We must regularly put ourselves into the structures of formal churchlife.

We must regularly read and hear and aim to obey God’s word.

We must daily make an intentional effort to grow in some area of obedience.

We cannot wait until we have enough time… there will always be time constraints, and we will prioritize what matters most to us. And we cannot wait until we feel like it… our feelings are a terrible judge of truth and value.

We must train ourselves for godliness as though our souls depended on it, because they do.

Look at v15 and 16 of our passage for today. Paul tells Timothy to “Practice these things [i.e., those teachings and behaviors that ought to mark the people of God], so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim. 4:15-16).

Brothers and sisters, not many of us will bear the responsibility of pastorally leading and guiding the souls of other Christians. But all of us bear the responsibility of training ourselves in godliness and helping one another do the same. We must all persist in this, and by so doing we will persevere in following Christ.