Spiritual Training

Tuesday May may 27, 2014


6 If you put these instructions before the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound teaching that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with profane myths and old wives’ tales. Train yourself in godliness, 8 for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 9 The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.      --1Tim. 4-6-10

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"Train yourself in godliness."

Sure.  But what is godliness?  In their commentary on 1st Timothy,  R. Kent Hughes and Bryan Chapell describe it this way:

For Paul godliness is no static, stained-glass word. It is active—kinetic obedience that springs from a reverent awe of God. It is the Isaiah-like action that has a man, awestruck by God, rise from his face saying, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Awe—then action! Godliness is not piety as we generally think of it—upturned eyes and folded hands. Godliness cannot be cloistered. The godly among us are those people whose reverent worship of God flows into obedience throughout the week. Only God-struck doers of the Word can rightly be termed godly.

That makes absolute biblical and historical sense.  It also takes absolute hard work and commitment.  In the same way that successful athletes must train (and the rest of us diet and exercise), and the way  that serious academics study, and the way professionals commit to life-long learning--we too must train ourselves in Godliness.  It has nothing to do with piety but rather with disciplining ourselves to   Seek God through a commitment to prayer and worship, to allowing ourselves to be awe-fully inspired by his presence in our lives and then translating our experiences of him into loving Action.  

Four pillars are crucial here:

1.  An commitment to daily times of prayer and meditation.
2.  A commitment to study and contemplation of the things of God.
3.  A sense of community "because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe."
4.  Facing our baptismal responsibility to active ministry on behalf of the church and the world.

Lots of sets and reps will ensure--not perfection--but certain growth in spiritual fitness.