Spartan Christianity

Bible Verses About Discipline

The Bible is a text based on the fundamentals of discipline and delayed gratification.

Through the lens of the Bible, life is nothing more than a huge delayed gratification experiment.

Can the human being deny physical pleasures for physical reward? That is our story. It is the tale of you and me.

Can we be people who give up some [not all] pleasures in this world in exchange for eternal life?

God knows it is possible. He didn’t build an impossible system. He built a system that you and I can follow to the best of our ability.

Needless to say, discipline is required of us to keep that system.

Let’s explore some of the key biblical texts surrounding the idea of discipline.

The Race of Faith

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore, I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Several times in scripture the path of spiritual discipline is compared to a race. Anyone who has competed in any sports knows there are moments when your flesh is screaming at you to give in. But in those moments you learn that you are capable of pushing through. You learn that the pain does not last forever.

Those are key lessons.

In the Biblical path of faith, there are hundreds upon hundreds of moments when we want to give in. But through discipline, we overlook the temporary discomfort and focus on the enduring reward.

Lesson of Discipline 1

Look to the long-term benefit of what you are doing. Invest in discipline and it will pay you higher dividends than any stock.

“Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.”
Proverbs 25:28

If environmental control is 80% of discipline, emotional control is the remaining 20%.

When you give in to urges, temptations, and cravings, it is because your desire to avoid pain defeats your discipline. The craving defeated discipline because you couldn’t control your emotions regarding the pain.

We fail when we tell ourselves:

“I can’t do it”
“This is too much for me”
“I can’t take any more of this pain”
“Why Bother?”

The teaching of this Proverb is that we have to start with emotional discipline. Control your thoughts if you want to control your emotions. After all, your emotions are just the lagging measures of your thoughts.

Lesson 2

Control your emotions by disciplining your thoughts. By doing so you rule your spirit.

“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Hebrews 12:11

Some discipline comes from God. We can never prove that we are being disciplined by God. But rest assured He disciplines us. We know this because He said He has. But you’ll never know for sure if He is disciplining you at any time. Anyone who claims to know what the God of heaven and earth is doing at any given time is a fool.

Though we may never know precisely when it happens, we can rest assured that God disciplines us.

He does this out of love to bring us into a more self-disciplined lifestyle.

Lesson 3

Accept the discipline of God with humility.

Allow yourself to be made better through difficult circumstances.

“He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray.”
Proverbs 10:17

We learn in the beginning by what we are taught by parents and leaders. After we are grown we have to subject ourselves to self-education or we stagnate. We have to avoid this otherwise we will be old me who knows nothing.

Just because someone is old doesn’t mean they are wise. It is possible to live a whole life and learn nothing.

Keep the valuable instruction and discard what was worthless. Not everything we learn from older generations has practical value. Respectfully thank the older generation for trying to make you better – but recognize that not everything they say is valuable.

Put everything to the fire of intellectual judgment.

Lesson 4

Gain instruction from older generations.
Critically analyze their lessons.
Continue to educate yourself.
Discipline yourself based on this instruction.

“The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing; but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich.”
Proverbs 13:4

The elements of human nature don’t change. The people in Solomon’s day were the same that exist today.

Some discipline themselves and succeed.

Others do nothing and claim that every successful person cheated to get where they are. There is no honor in this behavior.

Proverbs will teach us multiple times that the pathway to success of any kind is through simple disciplines.

Sometimes discipline is easy.
Somethings it’s moderately difficult.
Sometimes it’s incredibly hard.

The effort we exert each day exists on a spectrum.

But the easy way to get ahead of 99% of the people in the world is to just start taking action. Just get started, you will figure it out along the way.

Lesson 5

Get started in the smallest possible way. Go beyond your desire and be the diligent soul who earns what’s his.

“But hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled.”
Titus 1:8

The qualifications of leadership are being discussed here. Specifically the leadership position of the leadership in a church. If a man does not demonstrate discipline [which is self-control] then he is not fit for leadership.

What an incredible teaching that is!

The lesson is clear, if you want to be a leader, you have to be self-controlled. If you want to evaluate current leaders, just examine their level of self-control.

Lesson 6

Develop self-control to improve your leadership qualities.

Scrutinize and analyze current leaders based on their leadership ability.

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”
2 Peter 1:5-7

Self-control is found in this laundry list of good personal qualities that we should have. It is not far-fetched to suggest that self-control is the foundational characteristic necessary for any and every avenue of life.

If we cannot stop ourselves from taking actions we shouldn’t, and also push ourselves to do the work we need to do, how can we do anything?

We can’t.

Being able to push ourselves to do what’s necessary despite our emotional sensations at the time is key.

Lesson 7

Discipline is the foundation of all behavioral and spiritual traits.

Exercise your will in small areas before moving on to larger ones.

Push slightly beyond what your emotions are trying to tell you to do.

“He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding.”
Proverbs 15:32

When discipline comes from an outside source. It pays to listen.

Even if you disagree in the end, give the information the chance to be heard.

Neither accept nor reject and idea before you have had time to think about it.

Do not react emotionally to outside discipline. Otherwise you will miss the point the lesson is trying to teach you. And by doing so you will rob yourself of a chance to grow.

Don’t rob yourself.

Lesson 8

Calmly accept outside discipline.

Analyze lessons with your own mind before accepting them.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23

Spiritual fundamentals are rooted in self-discipline. This is the ability to do what you are supposed to do despite how you are feeling at any given moment.

And in fact if you act with discipline you will find your emotions fall in line. They will then be your allies.

If you start acting depiste how you feel, in a moment you will feel like acting.

The root of spiritual discipline is self-discipline.

Lesson 9

To be spiritual is to physical do what is required of you despite how you feel.

Just get started and your emotions will soon come to your aid.

“Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.”
Proverbs 12:1

To hate being corrected is to hate learning. The Bible equivocate these two.

To be corrected is to learn.

You are on an incorrect path one moment, and the next you are on the right path thanks to correction from an outside source. Whether a teacher, parent, book or article – the source doesn’t matter. All that matters is you take new information and you change your current course of action to something better.

That is how to be corrected with grace and use it to improve yourself.

Lesson 10

Take new information and change your course of action.

Resist the urge to become emotional about being corrected.

“Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.”
Proverbs 23:12

Want to know what most people aren’t doing right now?

Learning.
Gaining knowledge.
Improving their lives.

Good for you for reading this right now. Pat yourself on the back.

A man’s second occupation must be learning, for it makes him better at his primary occupation and all the things he does in life.

Lesson 11

Be a perpetual Learner. Apply your heart to the continual acquisition of knowledge.

“But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”

1 Timothy 4:7-8

When you look to the Biblical text to learn discipline, take the lessons and apply them.

Proverbs 16:9 – Plan Your Way

God takes care of us. He works out events according to His will.

Everything that happens does so because it aligns with God’s ultimate strategy.

However, this does not excuse us from taking our own actions and making our own plans.

The scripture is filled with admonitions to plan ahead, to think, and to strategize. If we don’t do this we will make poor decisions or fall into sin. One such verse is Proverbs 16:9.

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps”
Proverbs 16:9

There is clear and obvious interplay between God’s actions and our actions. God directs our steps but we still have to plan our way, We have to make plans. We have to think and strategize. It is not enough to hope God will do all the heavy lifting for us. We have to make some moves of our own.

Many people believe their only job is to pray to God and He will take care of the test. That is not the whole story.

If you pray for God to move a mountain, you may find that He sends you a shovel.

Prayer does not excuse us from action and work. We have to make moves in our own lives if we want progress.

Do not make the mistake that so many religionists do today and think that your level of faith is determined by your blind trust in God to do all the heavy lifting in your life. God will work in your life, but He expects you to work in your own life.

Plan, set goals, and strategize: this is what we learn from Proverbs 16:9.

Though God is in ultimate control of the outcomes of our lives, part of the outcome is determined by our own choices.

Fighting Sin – A War Worth Winning

War

No man has passively become more spiritual. No one trips and falls into religion and holiness.

Trying to shift human behavior demands work, and the Bible teaches that it demands warfare of a spiritual nature.

We live in a Culture where people wallow in sin.

And the problem is that it doesn’t stop with the secular world. People even within religion, even within the church are not standing up against and fighting their own sins.

It’s as if no one wants to put up a fight anymore.

We just act how we want, sin at will, and hope the grace of God will cover us for what we are doing.

This is not how we are supposed to act. We are at total war. And it’s high time we started acting like it.

I. The Nature of the Battle

A. Understanding The Difficulty

People give in because sin is fun and easy.

Not all fun is sin but all sin is fun.

It doesn’t take any special effort to do what is wrong.

Sin has immediate rewards, pleasures, and enjoyment.

Just because it is easy to give in, does not mean it is impossible to resist.

Don’t mistake difficulty for weakness.

Often we have to strain against our very nature to the limits of our ability to overcome sin. This is not a weakness, it is simply the reality of being a human being.

B. The Struggle

When going to war against sin, there are inevitable tide shifts in the battle. One moment can seem like our victory is at hand and in the very next minute we fall on our faces.

The tables turn from moment to moment.

The war is a never-ending one. It begins the moment sin enters the mind of man at the age of accountability and it will continue on to the day of his death.

This is a frightening reality about our daily spiritual walk. There is no rest, no reprieve, no freedom from evil until that day when we finally leave this earth.

However the battle turns out, there is a chance to improve ourselves and get better. In every defeat there is a chance to learn what we need to be doing. we can strategize better and improve ourselves.

From the knowledge we gain from our daily battles, we should be making spiritual progress. Many of us don’t do this because it is difficult and requires the work of reflection. But that reflection and studying of our failures should be a regular part of our lives.

II. Progression Over Perfection

A. Incremental Victories

Don’t focus on winning the war all at once. You will get discouraged.

Instead, focus on incremental victories and progress.

Study and plan how you can make changes in your life even on the smallest level. Don’t just stay where you are, improve who and what you are. But be willing and humble enough to accept small results for a while.

Real progress is made by continuing to course correct despite setbacks and failures.

Do not let the failure bring you to the point of quitting. That is what the enemy wants you to do, but you have to resist.

You have to continue to push despite wanting to quit.

People believe that religious individuals are full of blind, unwavering faith. But the reality is that religious people struggle with their faith very often.

The walk of faith looks like smooth sailing from the outside, but on the inside it is a raging storm of spiritual warfare.

But the good thing about spiritual warfare is that if you fight and win enough battles, you can create greater peace in your life.

While we’ll never be completely free from spiritual war, we can make our situation better while we are here.

B. Perseverance

There is more to the Biblical narrative than massive overarching victories. One of the key Proverbs teaches us that righteousness is found in continuing to try to overcome our imperfections.

“The Righteous man falls seven times yet rises again” ~
Proverbs 24:16

In fighting sin, there will be just as many defeats as there will be victories. In fact, there may be more defeats for a long time until we begin to shift the tide. Do not worry about how long it takes to win the war. Focus on fighting and rising again when you fall.

III. Strategic Warfare Against Sin

A. Identify Weaknesses

You have to know yourself if you are going to overcome weaknesses. Introspect and study your character flaws.

What causes you to fail?

What are the things that lead up to failure?

What types of environments trigger failure?

Answering these questions start to let you understand the state of your own weakness.

Not everyone is tempted in the same way.
Not everyone struggles with the same sin.

Learn your specific weak points and mitigate them.

B. Warfighting

Once your weaknesses are identified, you now have to strategically plan how you are going to go to war. Plan what environments you are going to war against. What are you going to cut out of your life?

If you know a certain set of behaviors, triggers or beliefs leads you straight to failure, plan what you are going to do instead.

Sometimes a change in the behavior or self actions if all you need to short-circuit the sin.

The goals have to be actionable and practical. No vagaries.

C. Warlike Intensity

Take on an aggressive mindset against your sin. So many religious people today wallow in brokenness and soft emotions. Reject the soft emotions and take on hard emotions.

You were given the emotions of anger and hatred for a reason. Concentrate those emotions on the battle when it matters. Learn to hate your sin.

When you encounter failure, use that positive aggression and anger to propel yourself back forward into fight.

Don’t give yourself time to become sad or depressed between failures. The moment you fail, repent and get back on the horse.

Don’t lose that war-momentum.

IV. Execution and Persistence

A. Resisting the Temptation to Give Up

The biggest mistake people make when fighting sin is giving up too quickly. You didn’t fall headlong into sin in one day. It took time for it to fully root in your character and behavior. It is going to take a long time to undo those tendencies as well.

Therefore, you have to build momentum and plant into your mind that you won’t quit despite many many failures.

V. Finding Strength

A. Seek the Divine

Don’t go to war alone. Ask for God’s help when waging war against your person sin.

But do not fall into the trap of believing that just because you prayed that God will do all the heavy lifting .

He has never operated that way, and He is not starting now. You still have to draw your sword and fight.

VI. Victory

Actively fight sin, don’t give into it. Stay committed to the war despite repeated failures.

If you encounter difficulty, know you are on the right path.

With strategic planning, persistence, and faith, victory over sin is possible. You can win. But continue to struggle until the day you die.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Noah Found Grace In The Eyes of The Lord

God is the same gracious God He always had been.

Some think that God was harsh in the Old Testament. But He showed grace then just as much as He does now.

There are instances of grace in the Old Testament. Did you know that?

The key example and even usage of the term is found in Genesis.

Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
Gen 6:8

When the whole world was evil, He spared Noah and his family. And the Bible clearly states that Noah found grace in God’s eyes.

This means that even though God had the right and the power to destroy the entire earth, He chose not to. And He showed mercy to Noah and his family.

And through careful instruction and obedience to God’s commands, Noah would prepare the ark to save his family.

God Saw Fit to save mankind despite nothing but evil mindsets. there was nothing but evil everywhere in the world. You may be able to imagine such a place in your mind’s eye. But I guarantee this world was worse than whatever you can imagine.

Everyone you look at, there is nothing but evil.

What God would have saved a world like that?

A gracious one.

A loving God who was the same then as He always has been.

God is not more gracious now than He was then. He has always been gracious to His people and mankind as a whole.

You Don’t Outgrow The Fear of Hell

I’ve heard it said that “As you mature in your Christian walk you will be less motivated by the fear of hell and more motivated by a desire to go to heaven.”

This is patently untrue.

And frankly, it is a ridiculous statement that has no foundation in the teachings of the Bible.

Let’s tear this idea to pieces.

The Core

To suggest that one form of motivation [heaven v. hell] is more righteous than another is pharisaical – it is something self-righteous individuals try to bind on others as a religious requirement.

Old Pharisees told the common man that he had to perform specific rituals to be righteous. And those rituals were not found in the Law of God.

Modern Pharisees say you have to be motivated specifically like them if you want to be righteous. You have to feel specific feelings [including the feeling of motivation] to be righteous.

And as we start dissecting this theory, it falls apart immediately.

Motivations differ wildly between people.

What motivates you will not motivate me. and that is perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with this.

First, the claim that as you mature you will be more motivated by heaven than by hell is unfounded because there is no biblical backing for this idea.

And that really should be the end of the discussion. If there is no biblical backing for an idea, it is just speculation and personal perspective.

And that is all this idea is: speculation and perspective.

Not fact.
Not reality.
Not Bible-based teaching.

Just the whimsical idea of some college-aged Bible major who doesn’t want to be afraid of hell because “it doesn’t feel good”.

If God wanted us to be less motivated by fear of hell over time, He would have stated it.

Everything God wants us to do is clearly articulated in scripture. Everything we do in faith is articulated for us [Rom 10:17].

Second, if God was interested in us being unmotivated by hell and more motivated by heaven, then God the Son would not have spent far more time preaching about hell than heaven.

The New Testament teachings of Christ are riddled with warnings about hellfire. Over and over again Christ makes the reality of hell a regular part of His teachings.

Why do you think He does that?

Because hell is MOTIVATING!

Who wants to go to this place called hell as described in the Bible literature? Not a single soul would choose to go there.

The descriptions of hell are vivid. They do generate fear.

But they push the Christians to remain obedient to the commands of God and faithful to the system God has set up.

Hell is operations just as it should have – as a motivator for everyone who is still alive.

Third, hell and heaven are simple motivators operating on the basic human drives – the desire to avoid pain and seek pleasure.

We want to avoid the pain of hell and seek the pain of heaven.

Just like in regular life, either pleasure or pain will motivate us more than the other.

The ratio of motivation will shift day to day, week to week, and year to year. With different seasons of life come different motivating factors. What motivates the young man may not motivate the old man as much.

But the old man should never be so arrogant to think that his specific portfolio of motivation is the correct one.

Neither should the young man, for that matter.

Do not worry about how your motivations portfolio looks right now. It will change over time and will never be consistent.

All that matters is if you consistently obey the commands and teachings of God. What motivates you to obey is essentially irrelevant based on all available biblical metrics.

Fourth, heaven and hell are not zero-sum motivators – they complement one another.

The motivations to avoid hell and pursue heaven are not opposed. In fact, they are complimentary drives.

We do our best when we simultaneously run from pain and chase down pleasure.

The combination of the motivations leads to the best outcomes.

It does not matter if you are more motivated by heaven or hell or vice versa. All that matters is that you do what is right.

Anyone who suggests that being more motivated by heaven is more noble, righteous, or mature is simply making up nonsense that is not found in scripture.

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