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.
