1 Timothy 4:7-8

CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE

‘And exercise thyself unto godliness: for bodily exercise is profitable for a little.’

1 Timothy 4:7 (R.V.)

Godliness, and not asceticism, is to be the Christian’s aim. ‘Bodily exercise,’ or physical severities and privations, such as many of the early saints imposed upon themselves, is contrasted here with ‘godliness’ or piety, as being only a means to the attainment of the latter, and not therefore an end in itself. The ‘godliness’ here inculcated is well interpreted by the old English word, from which it was probably derived, viz. god like ness. It is the cultivation of a Divine character in ourselves, a heavenly temper, taste, and disposition. Just as the ‘pietas’ of the ancient world consisted of reverent and loving attachment to the gods, and to one’s parents and family, so that of the Christian should be shown in the service of God, our heavenly Father, and the hallowing of domestic ties. The supreme aim of Christianity is holiness, a life consecrated to God and in constant communication with Him. Everything is therefore to be in subordination to this, and to be tested by it. Not even ‘truth’ in the abstract is to be chiefly sought after, but that ‘which is after godliness’ (Titus 1:1); and only as securing this end is the Christian to lay any stress upon external discipline or the rites of the Church.

Godliness requires constant training. Its attainment is the loftiest to which man can aspire. It is nothing else than being like God.

I. The Christian must therefore impose discipline upon himself.—Not that he is to invent trials or to court temptation: the circumstances of every life are divinely ordered. But that which our heavenly Father has ordained, or which Christian duty may involve, ought to be submitted to, and so submitted to as to display the graces of the Gospel, and to suffer every experience to produce its due impression upon the spirit. Difficulties must not be evaded at the cost of principle. The hardest trials and most mysterious dispensations are to be accepted as from the hand of Infinite Love.

II. To be successful it must be continual and persistent.—The most energetic similes, e.g. a fight, a race, etc., are employed by St. Paul in describing the pursuit of godliness. He that would follow the Crucified must be content to take up his cross daily.

III. Its grand end must ever be kept in view.—It is not simply the infliction of penance or privation that is to be to us a source of spiritual satisfaction. Whenever we are tempted to rest in the outward works, and to congratulate ourselves upon our diligence therein, we ought to distrust ourselves. What we have to do is not to destroy our nature in any of its parts, but to render it, as a whole, responsive to the heavenly will.