Spiritual Discipline: Do We Still Need Godliness in the 21st Century?
I will be a decade old spiritually this upcoming 2 November. The 10 years that have gone by since my repentance feel concurrently long and short; long, because of the multitude of life experiences that I have gone through (and very few of which I have shared in writing), but also short as it feels like only yesterday that I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
It also feels like only yesterday when I received the invitation to write on spiritual discipline. The topic is rather familiar as I have touched it before in some of my past articles. Looking at this opportunity as yet another grace from God to share my journey with Him through writing, the four articles of this series are written as the crystallisation of my decade-long experience “train[ing myself] for godliness.”
To begin our exploration of spiritual discipline for the next couple of weeks, we need to learn its basics first, which I summarise as three main questions.
“What does Christianity mean by ‘spiritual discipline’?”
Although the term “spiritual discipline” is not mentioned explicitly in the Bible, the concept is implied in many of its parts, especially in the New Testament. 1 Timothy 4:7b summarises it the clearest: “Rather train yourself for godliness”. The verse posits that “spiritual discipline” is essentially defined by the goal that is attained through it, namely “godliness”. In other words, spiritual discipline is only a means to obtain godliness and is not godliness per se.
After reading that last sentence, you may think, So what is the difference between Christian spiritual discipline with religious practices of other beliefs if their end goal is the same, which is godliness?
To address the objection above, we have to clarify whether the definition of “godliness” that Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 4:7b is the same as that of other beliefs, which is generally defined as “quality or practice of conforming to the laws and wishes of God; devoutness and moral uprightness”. Reading the verses before (vv. 1–7a) and after (vv. 8–10) helps us to unravel this confusion.
First of all, 1 Timothy 4:1–7a provides the background of verse 7b: there several members of the Ephesian church would depart from the faith “by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (v. 1). These people would forbid good things that God created, such as marriage and certain foods (vv. 3–5), and believe in “irreverent, silly myths” (v. 7a). It was in anticipation of this depravity that Paul directed Timothy to not only teach “the words of the faith” and “the good doctrine” to the Ephesian church (v. 6) but also to “train [himself] for godliness” (v. 7b). From these verses, we learned that spiritual discipline is practised so that godliness may be lived both personally and communally; we train ourselves to live according to “the words of the faith” and “the good doctrine” in the Bible in order to recognise and stay away from various false teachings that stray from the truths of Christ and also help fellow believers to do the same things for godliness.
The latter verse 8 then explains the reasoning behind Paul’s encouragement: for godliness “holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Don Whitney in his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life identified this promise as Christ-likeness, both in the present and in the future. Apostle John wrote in confidence that when Jesus comes the second time, “we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn. 3:2). God’s commandment in Hebrews 12:14 further anchors that promise in the present time, “strive for the holiness [that is closely related with “godliness”] without which no one will see the Lord.” So we practice spiritual disciplines to train ourselves to live as Christ has lived, seeing His real presence in our present life and preparing ourselves to enjoy eternity with Him in His second coming.
The last differentiating factor that we have to observe is our role in religious practices. Other beliefs generally teach religious practices as ways to obtain salvation, implying that humans have to actively pursue salvation through various means of godliness. Here godliness is no more than a mere result of religious practices. In contrast, Christianity argues that godliness has been lived out perfectly by Jesus Christ; those who believe in and follow Him practice spiritual disciplines in order to become like Him, not to obtain salvation (cf. 1 Cor. 1:30–31). Godliness in the form of Christ-likeness is the cause and goal of spiritual discipline, not the result of efforts by sinful humans, “so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:9). Since God has bestowed salvation upon us by His grace alone, we practice spiritual disciplines with “our hope set on the living God” (v. 10), who made Christ “to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). It is for the promise of the present life and the life to come that “we toil and strive” (v. 10), “though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).
So how does Christianity define “spiritual discipline”? In brief, it is “personal and communal practices that train every follower of Christ to become more like Him and prepare us to enjoy Him in eternity”.
This definition is clearly different from religious practices of other beliefs, isn’t it?
“What are the forms of spiritual discipline?”
Before completely shifting from concept to forms of spiritual discipline, we need to be aware of the danger of the lack of forms. If we become “addicted” to the feeling of being close to God through certain activities—which may only apply to ourselves—such as gardening \ and jogging, we could label everything as “spiritual discipline”. Don Whitney warned in his book, … worse, it means that we determine for ourselves what practices are best for our spiritual health and maturity rather than accepting those God has revealed in Scripture; we dethrone God from His place as the rightful Lord of our lives.
So what are the forms of spiritual disciplines which are taught and/or modelled in the Bible? Don Whitney observed that there are at least 10 most prominent forms, as follows:
- Bible intake (2 Tim. 3:14–17; Ezr. 7:10; Ps. 119)
- Prayer (Mat. 6:5–9; 1 Thes. 5:17; Luk. 11:1; Mrk. 1:35–39; Ps. 19)
- Worship (Jn. 4:23–24; Heb 10:24–25; Mrk. 12:30; Rev. 4:8)
- Evangelism (Mat. 28:18–20; Mrk. 16:15; Jn. 20:21; Acts 1:8)
- Serving (Heb. 9:14; Ps. 100:2; 1 Sam. 12:24; Jn. 13:12–16)
- Stewardship (Eph. 5:15–16; Jn. 9:4; 1 Tim. 5:8; 2 Cor. 9:7)
- Fasting (Mat. 6:16–18, 9:14–15; Ezr. 8:23; Acts 14:23; Ps. 35:13)
- Silence and solitude (Col. 3:2; Mat. 14:23; Lk. 4:42; Isa. 30:15)
- Journalling (Ps. 86:1, 62:8, 102:18; Rom. 12:3; Deut. 17:18)
- Learning (Mat. 22:37–39; Pro. 10:14, 18:15; Rom. 12:1–2)
You may be very familiar with several of the practices above and may feel that you can grow without practising all forms in the list, but I would like to encourage you to try practising all. Why so? Because these ten practices are the ways that the Lord has given us so that we may grow in the likeness of His Son (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16–17). Had there been other activities that would help us achieve the same goal, they would have been recorded by the Bible, wouldn’t they?
There is still one other big question that because of the limited time I cannot answer now, that of how to practice spiritual discipline. I will do just that in the next writing, in addition to sharing one conversation that I had with a mentor which unexpectedly sums up the reality of sinful humans practising spiritual discipline well.
May this article help you to start practising spiritual discipline in Christ. See you in the next writing, Lord Jesus be with you, soli Deo Gloria.
Questions for reflection
What is your understanding fo the spiritual discipline prior to reading this article?
What has been the motivation behind your practising spiritual disciplines? to become godly and receive rewards from God, or to become more like Christ?
Which forms of spiritual discipline have you practised so far? Are there certain forms that you have never practised which you can start in the near future, both personally and communally with fellow believers, in order to know and love Lord Jesus more?
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