Spiritual Discipline vs Legalism: Theology in Action

Tony: welcome back to theology in action my name is Tony Caffey and I'm here with my co-host Levi Levi good to see you this morning how are you doing good we're going to talk about an important subject today something that I know you're passionate about absolutely and something that I've thought a lot about as well so uh but the issue is legalism but I I think let's before we get into legalism let's talk more generally about spiritual discipline okay so what does it mean to be a spiritually disciplined follower of Jesus

Levi: yeah I think the first thing that I would think of is having a consistent walk uh some of the practices that I think come up first is spending time with them every day whether uh I I know something that I've personally tried myself to do more consistently because I'm not a morning person is get up early enough and make sure I give that first that first fruits of the day the first part of the day give that to the Lord get in the word uh study pray making sure I'm putting any time toward that every day praying studying his word even just a benefit of reading scripture that I'm finding now in the morning is I can meditate on it all day and it helps me to memorize it which has been a struggle of mine for many years so the the spiritual spiritually discipline follower I think that's kind of one of the first things that comes up is consistent is is the big word that that strikes in my mind is having a consistent walk with with Christ and the relationship I guess would be a good word for that any thoughts or elaboration there

Tony: I agree nothing has been more beneficial to my own life than consistent time in God's word that's been the the most significant part of my growth as a disciple of Jesus and it's also been enjoyable to spend time with the Lord to think you know I this creator of the universe actually wants to communicate with me through his word and and I can communicate back in prayer so that's incredibly valuable to me so let me play devil's advocate for you sure you talked about daily you know habits you're just a legalist that's what you are leave you're just legalistic in your approach to discipline that's why you feel like you have to do it every day and then if you don't do it you feel like God's angry with you yeah true untrue oh true or untrue my brain loves to play hypotheticals there

Levi: I would I would say I would say untrue in most in any cases and from my personal background outside of Faith even in uh being a personal trainer and being in Sports and Fitness in really any area of Life there has to be some consistency for some growth I'm not personally married myself but you have a wife if you didn't spend time engaging with your wife every day there would be some level of problems there'd be some communication issues things would arise from that and I I think that would be my my first surface level pushback to that is it's not it's not a legalistic approach that I'm I'm approaching as I am looking at it as a relationship and to have growth in that relationship I have to spend time with that person and and God gave us his word he gave us the Bible as a means to spend time with him he gave us prayer he gave us worship on the corporate and the personal level to spend time with him so those are those are the facets that he gave us and has asked us and directed us to say if you want this growth if you want the process of sanctification to carry out if you want me to be able to work in you in this way this is how you do it I I think that people can absolutely cross into legalism and that's that's a very important topic because it can become kind of a poison or Venom in the church or in a personal personal life but I think on the surface level to say you're having to having a disciplined Walk With Jesus is a foundational important matter

Tony: yeah the some of the legalistic ways in which people approach spiritual spiritual discipline I would even say it's more than a legalism it's like a superstitious kind of thing yeah you know I'm having a rough day today I didn't read my Bible so if I would have read my Bible my day would have gone well today well that's just Garden variety sure Superstition yeah you know uh it's kind of funny think about Paul not reading his Bible in the morning and yet he's in prison and he was telling um Timothy in second Timothy you know bring me the Scrolls bring me the scriptures so I can read in prison in this dark dank cell you know he's not saying that so that he can have a good day there he's saying there's he's saying that so he can spend time with the Lord so that he can study the word so that he can encounter the god of the universe while he's suffering so I think the legalism side of it is alleviated when we think about the nature of our relationship with the Lord word our disciplines are an outworking of our relationship not uh not a way to access our relationship with the Lord so it's not work based it's not workspace right exactly so similar to our Salvation our Salvation is by faith alone um similarly our relationship with the Lord and our identity in Christ is what fuels those disciplines not the other way around we're not appeasing an Angry God every day by reading our Bible we're actually interacting with the gracious God who loves us um and and that that might take a a shift of thinking for some people because we do have folks even in the Christian world who who wake up every day thinking God's angry at them and they've got to appease him sure versus you know having that that anchored identity that I'm a Child of God I love God and I want to spend time with God I want to pray I want to I want to go to church as an an outworking an outgrowth of my my faith and my relationship with him

Levi: yeah yeah good book on this subject would be disciplines of a Godly Man by arkent Hughes he actually spends that first chapter explaining the difference between legalism and discipline and discipline too just you think etymologically it's linked to this uh word disciple right so we're being disciplined as a disciple of Jesus so already built into the term is you're you're a follower already you're a disciple who is disciplined as a follower so that that helps too so you're not disciplined in order to earn favor with God your discipline as an outworking of your favorite status as a child of God

Tony: yeah I like that so you actually kind of touched on it and uh how um let me rephrase with the question in my mind here you you brought up a resource what would be some good resources uh do you have any other resources that a follower can use to help in this area

Levi: yeah so there's lots of disciplines so we're speaking generically I think about disciplines but uh obviously time in God's word is something that's modeled for us even David talks about meditating on God's word day and night Psalm 119 is a great passage that you know elaborates on the the potency of God's word prayer obviously we see that exemplified in the Old Testament Jesus exemplified us Jesus went off to a Hillside and prayed all night long to the Lord Jesus craved time alone with his father and taught his disciples to pray likewise uh so I think those are you know the two kind of core disciplines for the Christian Life and for 2000 years of church history those are typically the disciplines that that Christians um you'll focus on first but you could add to that maybe as an outworking of scripture memorization of scripture the meditating the chewing the musing on God's word instead of just you know reading it um fasting is something that we see modeled in the Old Testament and the New Testament kind of a tricky discipline uh for some people and and a hard one actually but one that can help focus our senses on the Lord and and as we kind of suffer physically we start to cry out to the Lord spiritually I've had benefit with fasting um so a good book on that subject is I think it's Whitney is the author of a book called spiritual disciplines really simple and he just walks through those disciplines as well as a few others uh I think the discipline of generosity I think the discipline of Simplicity is in there as well to kind of streamline the consumeristic tendencies that we have this one's a little more controversial but Richard Foster has a book called uh the Spirit of disciplines I think it is and um you know there's some in there about kind of meditation and there's uh there's a danger in in the meditation practice because you got to really clarify what you mean by that what does meditating on scripture mean or meditation more generally in the Eastern mindset it means emptying your mind right so that would be Eastern religions that would be uh kind of you know the idea of being in the Lotus position Kundalini type stuff things like that I don't know that word but it's tied to yoga and a lot of the new age meditation aspects

Tony: okay whereas the biblical understanding of meditation is really chewing on scripture you're filling your mind

Levi: you're emptying your mind of the distractions in order to have more concentrated focus on God in his word yeah so and and there's a world of difference between that so other than that I think I actually do think Richard Foster's book is helpful and and would be a good read for most Christians disciplines of a Godly Man is another good source but I I mean I think it would be helpful just to go through scripture or and think about the way in which discipline is a part of the daily lives of of most of of the Christians throughout time that there's a passage uh in Deuteronomy that talks about the Kings of Israel needing to uh yearly read through the scriptures and even recite them to the congregation so this was built into the kingship of the Israelites you know Moses read scripture to the Israelites we have um you know this exhortation from Paul to Timothy to to read and to teach and preach the scriptures and I already mentioned II Timothy Paul's begging Timothy to bring the scriptures to him so that he can spend time in them we have exhortations from Jesus in the New Testament as well as the Epistles to be men and women of prayer both individually and then corporately Jesus prayed alone Jesus prayed with his disciples so I mean that would be a fruitful study just to go through the Bible and see the ways in which disciplines are demonstrated by um you know Old Testament Believers in New Testament Believers

Tony: I think there's a interesting it keeps rolling around in my head we've you've touched on the word and scripture and meditating and memorizing scripture in my thought process here is the the reason behind the meditating in allowing it to change you and applying it to your life not necessarily the being able to read recite a scripture at a situation or at a person and there's a some discipline and legalistic maybe Crossing that can happen there in in I don't know that I necessarily have a question but that just keeps coming up in my mind because I know a lot of people do they would call it a discipline one of the pastors that I've uh was under uh they didn't have a lot of the right beliefs but I've never met anyone who knew scripture better he could stand on stage for three hours and recite scripture at you they may not connect to each other and you may not understand why he's saying the scriptures but he knew the Bible he knew every word of it he had memorized it whether or not he meditated and applied it I I can't necessarily be the judge there but he knew the scripture I just wonder was there some legalism behind what he was in doing and why there might be

Levi: or or even I mean it can be a prideful thing as well I went through a period I'll just call it immature Tony an immature Tony stage where uh my Bible reading was really uh not not totally but partially focused on having all the answers and being able to to say the right things at the right moments to people you know to be the know it all in the room and um and I also was intimidated by people like who you said who uh knew scripture and and I kind of had this thing inside of me like nobody's gonna outscription me you know I'm gonna read this and until I know it until I can recite it and and it really took the joy out of it to have that mindset it became very anthropocentric instead of theocentric whereas you know now my time in God's word is not about like I got to gather some facts so I can you know at the next cocktail party be able to impress somebody it's I really do want to just spend time with the Lord I want to focus on him and and it's not about you know what I can show off or what I can say in front of another person and it's not and I preach every week so I have to get in front of the church and and says say thus says the Lord I try to keep my spiritual disciplines separate from the preparation for that so otherwise I have this kind of weird mixture of my uh personal devotional time with also my work life yeah so I know some pastors do that and advocate for that but for me it's healthier to separate that here's my time with God in terms of you know study his word and spending time with him and then after I'm done with that then I focus on work which is preparing a message which which is still very much you know time with God contemplative studying his word Etc but but it it's it's separate from my my own personal times of devotion that's been healthy for me

Tony: yeah so I think it applies to every Christian wherever they're at say I'm wanting to grow in my walk with with Christ with Jesus a grow in spiritual discipline disciplines what would be some keys some points how what are some next steps or beginning steps let's start at the beginning

Levi: well you need to get saved if you're not saved so put your faith in Christ Romans 10 9-10 if we confess with our mouth that he is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead we shall be saved so the the discipline comes from being a disciple from being a follower of Jesus Christ now as your identity is settled in that I would encourage think of it like a stool like a three-legged stool three things are going to be the foundation of your your discipleship and your growth one would be uh daily time in God's word reading studying meditating memorizing in some cases if if uh you have time for that as well so and then on top of that having a prayer life so we're Allowing God to speak to us through the power of his word and then we're communicating back to God in prayer and Jesus gave us a great model for prayer in terms of you know confession and and intercession and even the supplications that we need give us our this day our daily bread and those kinds of things so the Lord's Prayer is a good model for that there's other places you can go John 15 to to see the way in which prayer is modeled but I mean we don't have to get carried away with it just spend time communicating with God on a daily basis let let God its word even informed the way that you're praying and then the the Third Leg of that stool would be and I've said this before you know get to church you know go to that what better discipline than that to have that Rhythm that goes all the way back to the Old Testament of once a week we're going to spend time worshiping the Lord in The Fellowship of the Saints so that discipline was taught to me as a kid by my parents and even if he didn't have that upbringing you can still experience the benefit of that at whatever stage of life you're in by the rhythm of going to church going setting all the burdens aside stop working on Sunday morning or stop whatever activities you're involved in turn off the distractions forget about football until Sunday afternoon anyway and go to church and spend time worshiping the Lord fellowshipping with the Saints so I mean you can build on that you can have a four-legged stool if you want or a Five Legged stool and incorporate maybe some other components to that fasting or we talked about memorization you know generosity Simplicity there's other kind of specific disciplines you can add to that category but that that three three-legged stool is a good place to start and move on from

Tony: yeah that's that's great information something to excuse me build off of theirs where I saw lacking and where I found benefit in and you talked about going to church but finding a mentor finding so that they could kind of point out this is the area you're lacking if in a worldly sense if I'm going to the gym I see someone has results that I want I'm going to ask him what are you doing how do I get that it's that same concept kind of applies in the Christian walk you come to church you see examples I I Mentor under one of our elders and he has helped me extremely in my walk and he can see my blind spots he knows I'm vulnerable enough with him that he knows where I'm at and what I need to grow in and he's helping me sharpen the disciplines I already have and add new ones that I hadn't even thought about

Levi: good Levi yeah everybody should be discipling and then being discipled as well so having that kind of Matthew 28 mindset in your life is good and you know I'm a senior pastor I'm a 44 year old disciple of Jesus Christ I'm growing uh in my walk with the Lord and benefiting from my fellow elders and others within the church like like everybody else in the churches so well good talk thanks for that good discussion about discipline and legalism if you want to see more theology in action you can check out our YouTube page or go to vbvf.org you can also access weekly sermons as well as live stream on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings that's messiahbible.org/