The Lord's Prayer - Your Kingdom Come (Mar 15, 2020)

Matthew 6:5-13

Introduction: This Lent we are looking at each part of the Lord’s Prayer as we practice using it as a pattern for our prayers. As a model for prayer and a summary of the entire Christian life – the Lord’s Prayer offers us a place to turn in an anxious and overwhelming time. “Your Kingdom Come” is the part of the prayer that most directly speaks to times when crisis hits and our lives (our “kingdoms”) are upended. Such is the time we live in now with COVID-19 bringing unprecedented changes to our lives. Praying these three words can give us new perspective and hope no matter what is happening around us and inside us. Let’s see how:

1. What Does It Mean?

The Bible speaks of the kingdom of God in two senses. In the first sense, God’s kingdom is his sovereign rule over all things that happen. As King, God never loses his ultimate control over the universe. We can take great comfort in this when things happen that don’t conform to God’s good design and ultimate intention for the world. When everything seems to be going haywire and is out of control - God is still on the throne. He never loses control. Things like disease and virus do not shake Him and cannot unseat his reign. When things are mysterious and confusing to us, we can rest in this - God overrules all sin, evil, suffering. He turns the tables on these things to accomplish His greater purposes. In this sense, no matter what is happening, we can rest in the truth that God is still the King who rules over all things.

But this is not the primary sense in which is Jesus is using the word “kingdom” here. He’s telling us to ask for a kingdom to come - implying that we are asking for a kingdom that is not yet fully present. In this sense of the kingdom, sin and suffering are not just overruled by God – sin, evil and suffering are overcome by God. This is the central idea and theme in Jesus’ life and ministry. Jesus life, teaching and miracles could be summarized like this – “I have come to re-establish God’s rule in human lives, relationships and in all creation. This is what it looks like!” He proclaimed the coming of the kingdom in his teaching. He “previewed” the kingdom in his miracles (see Matt. 4:23, 9:35-36).

This can bring us great comfort in times like these. There is a kingdom, a realm, outside of all the pain, death, sickness, sin and selfishness we experience in our kingdoms here. For all who turn over their lives to Jesus, this kingdom comes now, in part, and one day will come fully and forever. 

2. How We Are to Pray It

Just as there are two senses of the kingdom in the bible, there are two tenses of the kingdom Jesus told us to pray to come – it is an already and not yet kingdom. The kingdom has come with Jesus’ first coming into the world and will fully come in his second coming. Here’s how this informs our prayers:

The kingdom has not yet come, so we lament in prayer. When Jesus told us to pray, “Your kingdom come”, he gave us more than permission to lament, he commanded us to pray prayers of lament. Jesus often said, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. In this prayer, Jesus is saying, “Lament for the kingdom of God has not yet come fully”. He is telling us we can pray with full honesty about all the ways we experience the reality that God’s kingdom has not yet come. Lament is expressing our sorrow to God. It is how God meets us with comfort, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted” (Matt. 5:4).

Praying “Your kingdom come” is saying to God, “Living in this broken world of suffering and sickness is hard! It’s painful, scary and confusing.” Lament is crying out like the Psalmists, “How long!?”, “Why do you stand far off!?” The Bible assures us, God puts all our “tears in a bottle” (Psalm 56:8). He hears our laments and through them pulls us closer to his own Spirit who groans for the full redemption of all things (Romans 8:26).

The kingdom will come, so we long with hope in prayer. Praying “your kingdom come” is longing with hope for the kingdom to come. It’s asking God to bring as much (or all!) of his coming kingdom into our present. This is how we find hope in prayer. Hope in the Bible is not simply to wish for something to happen.  Biblical hope is living in the present according to a certain future reality. We don't know the specifics of what the future holds in the short term BUT we do know one day this prayer will be fully answered. God’s kingdom will come. What are we hoping and asking for God to do now?

“In prayer, the believer beseeches the God of the future with the desire that the marks of God’s rule (forgiveness, sustenance, deliverance, and the Spirit’s fullness) may be present in the current situation, which is filled with want, need and insufficiency. Petitionary prayer, in other words, requests the coming of the future into the present.” (Stanley Grenz)

Right now, we all feel the want, need and insufficiency of our own bodies, our economies, our government, our health care system (while we thank God for all their heroic efforts!), our technology and our own wisdom. Jesus tells us to ask for the mercy, healing, wisdom and peace of God’s future rule to come into the present. He says, “Do not fear little flock; your father delights to give you the kingdom! (Luke 12:32)”.  We can pray with hope - this is a prayer God delights to answer - in his own timing and wisdom.

The kingdom is coming so we lay down our lives in prayer. This may be the hardest part of this prayer. The words “kingdom come” give hope but the word “your” requires humility. It means laying down everything. This is so hard in a time of crisis like we are facing. It means laying down our timing and trusting in God’s. He is the king. It means laying down our demands and trusting in his provision, laying down our own judgment and letting Him be king.

We do this knowing what kind of king He is. This is most clearly seen in Christ at the cross. It’s the only time he took up a crown, the only time he accepted the title of “King” as it was written in the sign over his head. He is the king who laid down his life for us. The king who took the worst for us so we could know the best is yet to come for us. He is a king of sacrificial love, a servant who gave his life to heal the world.

The kingdom will come because the king came to die for us. This enables us to lay down our lives in prayer – pledging ourselves to his service. Knowing the kingdom of God comes in ways we would not expect - through suffering, the washing of feet, the cross, we ask to be ready to lay down our lives for others (1 John 3:16-19) so they might find the peace and the healing of the kingdom to come. 

REFLECT OR DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. In your own words define what we are asking for when we pray, “Your Kingdom Come”. What kinds of prayers does this part of the Lord’s Prayer encourage us to pray during this unprecedented challenge with COVID-19?

3. How can knowing what the kingdom of God is bring us comfort in this time of uncertainty and fear?

4. What does it meant to lament in prayer? Why do most avoid it? How can it help us in times of crisis?

5. How does this prayer give us hope in all our prayers of petition (ie requests) to God? What kinds of things should be asking for now? How does knowing God will one day answer this prayer give you hope?

6. How are you having a hard time laying down your life in trust and service to God as King in this difficult time?

PRAY | Spend time yourself or with a group slowly praying “Your Kingdom Come”.

• Lament – Cry out to God with honesty telling him your experience and struggles in this time

• Long – Ask God with hope and boldness for anything that will be true of his coming future kingdom

• Lay Down – Ask God to help you lay down your life to him trusting in his reign and for others that they might know Him as King

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The Lord's Prayer - Hallowed Be Your Name (Mar 8, 2020)

Matthew 6:5-13

Introduction: This Lent we are learning or re-learning the Lord’s Prayer together as we look at each part of the prayer and practice using it as a pattern for our prayers. “Hallowed be your name” is the first petition in the prayer and the most powerful, disruptive and explosive of them all.  To release the power of this prayer into our lives, we need to know three things about it:

1. What We Are Asking For

The petition is made up of two parts. Each of these need to be defined so that we understand what we are really asking for when we pray, “Hallowed be your name.”

1) Your Name – In the Bible, God’s name is more than the specific titles and words we use to describe him. God’s name stands for his total person and character. God’s Name is God as he really is; God as He has revealed himself to be. 2) Hallowed Be – Hallow is an old English way of saying “regard as holy”. To hallow someone does not mean to make them holy, set apart or special, it means to recognize, treat, acknowledge and honor them as holy. So “hallowed be your name” is asking that we and others recognize, honor and treat God as He is. In other words, we are asking that we and others would step further into reality. The most solid reality in all the universe is a Holy God. Whenever the curtain of heaven is pulled back for us in the bible - what we find is all the hosts of heaven crying out “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Isaiah 6:3, Rev. 4:8). In this petition, we are asking that we and the whole world might enter into this reality – that we might more fully praise, adore and worship God for who He is.

2. When We Are to Ask for It

There is a clear order to the whole Lord’s Prayer: The order is God first, then us. We pray “Your” before we pray “our”. We begin with God’s name, kingdom and will before we ask Him for anything. This is a key lesson from the Lord’s Prayer. But there is also an order to our God-ward prayers. Even before we ask that God’s purposes and will be accomplished, we pray for Him to be praised, adored, worshipped for who He is.

Jesus is teaching that this order should more and more characterize our prayers as we grow. This order is the path to and a sign of spiritual maturity. Why? Because without praise (or with little praise) our relationship with God will always become more about us and less about him. Hallowed be your name is praising God for God - for his name; not for what we can get from him, but for who He is. Until we can praise God like this, he won’t be real to us and we won’t be changed because we are just coming to God for what can get from him – not for him.

3. What Happens When God Answers It 

When God answers this prayer two things happen - 1) we really know and recognize in our hearts (not just our minds) God as He really is which leads to us 2) seeing ourselves as we really are. This is where it gets powerful, dangerous. In the bible, whenever someone encounters the holiness of God’s name, they are overcome with fear. Why? The holy reality of God reveals the reality of our sin. But God never leaves them on their faces in fear. He always draws near and says, “Do not be afraid”. He hides Moses in the rock and proclaims his name to him, he takes away the guilt of Isaiah’s sin; he touches John and reminds him of what Jesus has done for him. (Isaiah 6:1-7, Exodus 33:17-23, Rev. 1:17-20).

What do we learn from these examples? When God answers this prayer we really see the name of Jesus for what it is (or better, who He is). “There is no other name given under heaven by which we are saved (Acts 4:12)” Whenever God answers this prayer in a person’s life, Jesus becomes more real, beautiful, wonderful and precious to that person. Covered in the atoning work of Jesus, the holiness of God goes from a reality to avoid to a beauty to behold. This is the power for real change. What we most hallow and worship in our lives is what most shapes us and drives us. The more holy God is to us, the more holy we will be. When God answers this prayer in a person’s life, they cannot be the same.

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. In your own words define what we are asking for when we pray, “Hallowed be your name”. How much of your own prayers are spent asking for this or doing this?

3. The Bible teaches that God’s name is the most important and valuable thing to God (see Ezekiel 36:22-23). At first this sounds strange. Why is it not conceited but loving and right for God to value his own name? For help discuss the excerpt from the sermon below:

   1. “If God is God, then there is nothing more serious or harmful than misrepresenting Him, slandering, insulting his name. If God is God, there is nothing more important to our own lives, their meaning/destiny/purpose, than knowing Him as he really is. If we get God wrong, then we get everything wrong.”

4. Simone Weil said what we are asking for in this prayer is “for something that exists eternally, with full and complete reality, so that we can neither increase or diminish it, even by an infinitesimal fraction”. How might thinking about God and his holiness as the most solid reality there is motivate us to pray this prayer more often and more urgently?

5. Why is it important that we learn to praise God first before asking anything from Him? Why is this hard? What might this look like?

6. It was said in the sermon, “Hallowed be your name is the prayer we need God to answer to change our sinful patterns, habits and addictions. Asking for change without praise and adoration will never change us. Why? Because what we most hallow/worship is what we obey/desire. ” Do you agree or disagree with this? Have you seen this play out in your life?

PRAY | Spend time yourself or with a group slowly praying “Hallowed be your name”.

• Begin by asking God to make himself more real to you. Pray the words, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”.

• Don’t ask God for anything except that you might more honor, know, treat and recognize him for who he is.

• Praise God using short simple phrases and descriptions of the character of God from Scripture. It may be helpful to use a few familiar Psalms or other passages as a way to meditatively fill and focus your mind.

• Make room for silence.

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The Lord's Prayer - Our Father in Heaven (Mar 1, 2020)

Matthew 6:5-13

Introduction to the Season of Lent: More than any other season on the church calendar, the season of Lent is focused on deepening our life of prayer. Though prayer can be difficult and mysterious for many reasons, we can be thankful that we have very clear teaching from Jesus on what we are to pray. He gave his disciples what we call the “Lord’s Prayer” as a pattern for prayer. There is great value in praying this prayer word-for-word from a genuine heart but it is clear that Jesus intended this prayer to be used as a pattern, or outline, for prayer. The Bible contains many prayers that don’t use the words of the Lord’s Prayer, but Jesus gave us this pattern for prayer to show us what a well-rounded relationship with God looks like and to keep us from neglecting important parts of our relationships with Him. It has been said that this pattern contains every prayer we could pray and every part of what it means to be a Christian.

This Lent we will be learning or re-learning the Lord’s Prayer together as we look at each part of the prayer and practice using it as a pattern for our prayers. Before giving us the six core petitions of prayer, the Lord’s prayer begins with an address. We often wonder, “What should I call God?” Jesus tells us: call him, “Our Father in heaven”. This shows us three things about prayer.

The Highest Purpose of Prayer - In telling us to call God, “Our Father”, Jesus teaches us that the highest purpose of prayer is communion with God as a Father; it is simply being with God as his child. Of all the titles or names for God Jesus could have chosen for the model prayer, he chose the most familial and personal one available – “Father”. Jesus is showing us the deeply personal nature of all prayer. Prayer is never transactional or impersonal. Its highest purpose is not anything we can get from God, not anything we can ask of God, not anything God might do in response to our prayer. The highest purpose of prayer is knowing, enjoying, talking and being with God as Father. If we get to this place in our prayer, in a sense, all our other prayers are already answered.

What does this mean? If God is your Father it means he will provide for all your needs, protect you from all ultimate harm, be present with you always and be pleased with you simply because you are his son or daughter. As a Heavenly Father, his almighty power is combined with his unconditional love. He sees and knows what you need, and is able to give you what is best for any situation. He is inclined to bless you before you ever open your mouth to ask for anything. All this makes prayer seem so unnecessary! But that’s the point. Jesus teaches us that prayer should begin with the recollection of our place as God’s sons and daughters. One day we will stop praying the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, but we will never for all eternity stop calling God, “Abba, Father.” This helps us remember that whatever we ask and however he answers, He is our Father who loves us and is for us with all the might and power of heaven.

The Privilege of Prayer - How can we experience and enjoy this kind of relationship with the God of the universe? We need to see that though there is a sense in which God is Father to all humanity universally, the intimate Father-child relationship described by Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer is not ours as a right. It is a privilege (the highest privilege!) reserved for all those who believe in Jesus, God’s only Son. Jesus is the only person who has the right to call God, “Abba Father”. If you look at how Jesus talked to and referred to God, he almost exclusively called God, “Father”. No one prior to Jesus had the audacity to talk to and about God like this!

In his prayers, Jesus showed us what we all have lost and how we can get it back. Of the many true and accurate titles he could have used for God, Jesus always called God “Father”. Except once. It was at his darkest moment on the cross when he bore the judgment for all our refusal of and running from the Father. He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” He took our place outside the experience of the Father’s love and favor. Why? So we could take his place as children, as sons and daughters.

Here is the truth that can revitalize and transform our prayer life - though it is not our natural right to call God ‘Father’ simply by virtue of being human, if our faith is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, it is our privilege and our right to call God ‘Father’ as his children (John 1:12). The implications of this are truly profound – it means:

• Our most important prayer is already answered. We don’t ask God to be our Father. We assume he is our Father. Like a child has the right to assume, so we can assume God’s protection, provision, pleasure and presence are with us. All these are the rights of His children.

• All our other prayers will be answered. St. Augustine said we can presume God will give us what we ask since He’s already given us the greater gift of being his children. He said, “For what would He not now give to sons when they ask when he has already given this very thing - they might be sons/daughters?”! Romans 8:31 says it like this, “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own Son but offered him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? In others words, all our prayers can be prayed with the (humble) presumption that God will give us what we ask for – or what we would ask for if we knew everything He did as our Heavenly father.

• We can still pray when it seems like God isn’t answering. Because Jesus was forsaken for us, we will never be. But sometimes it can feel like we are. In these times, we are told the Spirit of the Son has been given to us to cry out, “Abba Father!” (Gal. 4:6, Rom 8:15). When we doubt, when God feels distant, we are given one word to cry out: “Abba!” In this one word contains all the promises of God – if we are his children by faith in His Son, then He is listening and is present even when we hurt so bad that we can’t even pray.

These powerful privileges that are ours by faith are why Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones said that the essence of all true prayer is found in those two words. “If you can say from your heart, whatever your condition, “My Father”, in a sense your prayer is already answered.” May a renewed sense of the privilege of praying “Our Father” revive our hearts to run to our Father with boldness as we learn to pray the rest of the prayer Jesus taught us.

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. What is your experience with praying the Lord’s Prayer? Have you used it in your own prayer life? How so? What impact has it had on your prayers and relationship with God?

3. What are the different purposes of prayer? How might knowing that the highest purpose of prayer is being with God as his child affect your prayers? How might it motivate you to pray more? more boldly? more freely? more honestly?

4. Why do we need to see that prayer is unnecessary before we can really pray? Take your time to think about this one!

5. How does knowing that Jesus died to give us the right to pray like Him (and that God hears us just like He hears Him) give us boldness and encouragement in prayer?

6. Which of the 3 bullet points above might most energize your prayer life if you really believed it? How so?

PRAY | Using only the words, “Our Father in Heaven” take time for personal or group prayer. For the sake of this exercise, be disciplined to begin without asking God for anything. Instead, “recollect” your place as his son/daughter by thanking him and praising him for all that this means and how it is possible through the work of Christ. End by asking only that you and others might know with assurance that God is their Abba/Father and they are his child.

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Signs of Life - Church as Family (Feb 16, 2020)

Read 1 Timothy 3:14-16; 4:6; 5:1-2; 6:1-2

On only on a few occasions does a book of the Bible come right out and tell us its main theme plainly. When this happens, we have a clear answer as to why God inspired this book and why we have it today. Paul does this in 1 Timothy 3:15: “I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God.” In other words, everything Paul says in 1 Timothy is about how we are to live as a part of God’s family, the church. In this letter, which is all about restoring spiritual life and health to a church that had become unhealthy, Paul says that the big ideas we cannot miss are that life and health are found in 1) knowing that a healthy church is like a family (a household); and  2) knowing that a Christian can only be spiritually healthy in connection to - and as a part of - a household/family. There is no such thing as spiritual health in isolation or separation from this family.

1) What This Means

When Paul calls the church “household” here, he is using the language of family. Earlier in the chapter, he compares leadership in the church-as-a-household to leadership in a traditional family household (see 3:4, 5, 3:12). He uses the word “household” in Ephesians 2:18-22 to describe the corporate privileges Christians have of connection to one another and access to God as Father. In Galatians 6:10, he uses the word to emphasize the responsibility of Christians to meet one another’s practical needs, like a family would. After introducing the idea of church as household in chapter 3, Paul begins using his more common way of referring to the church as family – as “brothers and sisters”

• 4:6 – As you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of faith

• 5:1-2 – Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters with all purity

• 6:1-2 – Let those who have believing masters not be disrespectful to them because they are brothers, but serve them even better since those who benefit from their service are believers and dearly loved 

The teaching is clear – a church is a family. This idea is not unique to 1 Timothy or Paul. This idea comes from Jesus and is everywhere in the New Testament. In a radical and unambiguous way, Jesus defined his community of disciples as family (see Matthew 12:48 and 23:8-12). This clearly left an impression on his early followers. The word translated as “brothers and sisters” in the NT (“adelphoi”) is used 271 times in the NT to refer to the relationship of Christians to each other - to describe what a church is. For comparison: the church is described as a “body” 30 times (18 times in 1 Cor 12); as “saints” 30x, as a “fellowship” 12x and as the “church” 60x. The weight is staggering and the implication is clear - the primary way we are to think of and conduct ourselves as the church is as a household family.

2) How This Is Possible                                                            

Is it possible in our age of fragmentation, transience, loneliness and busyness to be a church like this? With our awareness of the realities of brokenness in our own families and the dysfunctions and failures of the church, is it even desirable? Paul’s words here help us answer these questions with a resounding, “Yes!”

The first thing we must keep in mind is that church is God’s idea. Church is not a man-made idea or human institution. It is “God’s household, the church of the living God.” If God is not real and living - forget church. If the authority of God is not recognized as a real and living authority by the leadership and the members of any church, church as family will inevitably break down into division, conflict and unhealth. But if the living God – the God who created all things, who rules over all things and who has all power to redeem all things - If He is present with and over this family, then church as family is possible. 

The second thing that makes church as family possible is that this family is built on and created by a mystery. It cannot be built on or created by human ideas or effort. Paul says the church is built on and holds out to the world a mystery (3:15, 16). The mystery Paul is talking about here doesn’t mean a paradox or a puzzle to figure out. Rather, mystery can be defined as something that human wisdom and thinking cannot and would not come up with. What is this mystery? It is the gospel. Verse 16 is the gospel in poetic and hymnic form. Great is the mystery of the gospel that creates this new family! This mystery is the only possible way a church could live like a family.

Hebrews 2:9-3:6 explains the work of Jesus in family/household terms. The mystery is that Jesus, our elder brother, brings many “sons and daughters to glory” by leaving his heavenly glory as the Eternal Son and becomes like us in “every way”, suffering in our place to create a new family and make it possible for us to get in. Here’s the key - If we know this is how we got into the family – it makes it possible for us to receive each other into family as we are and not as we think we should be.  No one is Jesus’ brother or sister by right, birth, status, performance or ability. So then who’s in? Anyone who comes through Him, our Elder Brother. When we show the acceptance, understanding, help, compassion and humility we have been shown by our Elder Brother – church as family is possible.

3) What This Looks Like

A church that lives like a gospel family is like a “foundation” and “a pillar” (3:15). What does this mean? Foundations hold things steady; pillars hold things up. The church is called to hold steady and firm to the truth of the gospel in a world of ever-changing ideas (foundation). The church is to hold out the truth for others to see (pillar). We can only do this together as a household/family. It cannot be done on our own. Individually we will inevitably drift, be shaken and be drawn away from the truth of the gospel. We will favor and create our own versions of the truth without the steadying effect of a church family. Individually we may be able to present to the world the content of the gospel (as faith to believe), but it is the conduct of the gospel, our life as a family, that draws others into a community that is only possible because of Jesus.

DIAGNOSE – How would much does your church feel like family? How deeply are you convinced that a Christian can only be spiritually healthy in connection to a church family?

DISCUSS

1. What about the sermon impacted you most? What left you with questions?

2. In Bruce Malina’s book, Christian Origins and Cultural Anthropology, he describes what it meant for the church to be family in the collectivist culture of the ancient world. In our modern individualistic world, it is hard for us to grasp when it means for the church to be a family since we ourselves don’t define ourselves first in relationship to our families or any other group. Read the following two selections below (the second is a quote from Malina’s book) – which feels more comfortable? Uncomfortable? What would it look like to embrace church as family, as in the second quotation? What questions does this raise

   1. (Individualist) A person should perceive himself or herself to be an individual responsible to him/herself for his or her actions, destiny, career, development, and life in general... The individual person chooses a church and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with their personal norms and only if the action is in their best interest. The individual has priority over the church.

   2. (Collectivist) What this means is, first of all, that the person perceives himself or herself to be a member of a church and responsible to the church for his or her actions, destiny, career, development, and life in general... The individual person is embedded in the church and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with church norms and only if the action is in the church’s best interest. The church has priority over the individual member.

3. Given the description of church as family shared in the sermon, is it hard for you to believe that church as family like this is possible? Why? Is it hard for you to believe it is even desirable? Why? Do you have any stories/experiences that you can share that shows it is indeed possible and desirable?

4. What would it look like for a church to guard itself against losing sight of God’s presence and authority over its life as family?

5. To paraphrase Dietrich Bonhoeffer “He who loves his/her dream church more than his/her own church becomes the destroyer of their church.” How does the gospel make it possible for us to receive our real church family as it is and not to continually judge it for not being our ideal church? (see Heb. 2:9-3:6).

6. What step(s) can you take to make your current church be more like a family?

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Signs of Life - Training (Feb 9, 2020)

Read: 1 Timothy 4:7-16

The New Testament provides us with several images and pictures of the church. Each of these pictures gives us a different perspective on spiritual health. The church as household” (or family, see 1 Tim. 3:15) shows us that spiritual health can only be found in committed familial connection to other people. The church as a “hospital for sinners” (the implied picture from Paul’s self-description as the “worst of sinners” in 1:15) shows us that we are all infected and afflicted with the disease of sin far more than we’ll ever know. None of us will be fully healthy or holy in this life. The church as temple shows us that spiritual health is a by-product of a life of worship lived in the presence of God. In 1 Timothy 4:7, Paul gives us an image that doesn’t get as much attention: church as gym. He says, “train (in Greek – “gymnase”) yourself in godliness, for the training (in Greek – “gymnasia”) of the body has limited benefit but godliness is beneficial in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” This text leads theologian Kevin Vanhoozer to say, “The church is to be a gym for training in godliness”. The point Paul is making is clear – spiritual and physical health work in the same way – training is required.

1) The Requirement of Training

Though Paul is speaking directly to Timothy in this passage, Timothy’s life-in-training was to be an “example” for everyone (v12). The training required here is not just for pastors or “serious” Christians. Training is required for anyone to grow in godliness, which is the pastoral epistles’ way of saying “becoming more like Jesus”. Absence of training is a sure sign of spiritual unhealth and a possible sign of a missing spiritual life altogether. This is why Paul underscores the requirement of training by saying, “This saying (referring back to verses 7-8) is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance”. This is basic and core Christian teaching – training is required to become like Jesus. This is another way of saying that to be a Christian is to be a disciple of Jesus, and training is required for all disciples. As Jesus said, “a disciple when fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).

1. How does the comparison of physical exercise/training and spiritual exercise/training help us understand what training in godliness is like? How does it help us understand the crucial difference between training and trying harder? (i.e. trying to run a marathon, play a sport or even master a musical instrument)

2. Have you ever tried “really hard” to be more patient, joyful, less anxious? What was the result? What would be different about committing to train in patience, joy and being less anxious?

3. Do you agree that our choice is not between training and not training but rather, what we are already training to do and/or become? As you look at your own habits and patterns, what would you say you are in training for?.

2) The Reason for Training

The first way we can miss what is being taught here is to mistake training for trying harder. The second way we can go wrong is if we train for the wrong reason. Both of these mistakes will leave us exhausted and less healthy; less alive, not more. So many Christians are exhausted and discouraged because they are training for the wrong reason. In v10 Paul reminds Timothy of the reason we train for godliness as Christians. He does not say “For this is the reason we labor and strive, because our hope is that if we train hard enough and become godly enough, and reach a certain level of training, then we can have hope that we will be saved and earn God’s favor on our lives.” No. He says, “Our hope is that we ARE saved by the living God by believing.” This is the reason why we labor and strive - because we have already received God’s grace and favor on our lives by faith in Jesus Christ.

From the outside, this training may look the same, but there is a world of difference at the motivational level. One is training for the hope of earning something from God (self-salvation), the other for the hope of enjoying more of the gift God has already given (salvation by grace).

We have the wrong view of grace if we think grace gives us a way out of training; if we think being saved by grace means effort, labor and striving are optional. If that’s what we believe, we don’t really know what grace actually is. This misunderstanding lies behind so much of the spiritual unhealth in the church today. What is the free and undeserved gift God gives us by faith? He gives us the life of Jesus Christ for the present and the life to come. The gift is the status of Jesus (righteous and beloved) and the life that comes from living in this status – in short, the gift is a Christ-like life. We really “get” grace when we realize the greatest gift we could ever be given is to be told that every disciple of Jesus “when fully trained will become like Jesus”. What could be better than this?

1. What are some signs that we might be training for the wrong reason? In your own words, describe the difference between the two reasons/motivations for training as described above.

2. How does the hope of salvation by grace give us motivation/reason to train, labor and strive for godliness?

3. How do the following quotes help establish the connection between grace and effort, laboring and striving for Christ-likeness?

   • Dallas Willard - “The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one. Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude. You have never seen people more active than those who have been set on fire by the grace of God. Paul, who perhaps understood grace better than any other mere human being, looked back at what had happened to him and said: "By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." (I Cor. 15:10) …The disciplines of the spiritual life are simply practices that prove to be effectual in enabling us to increase the grace of God in our lives…”

   • Dietrich Bonhoeffer – “We must attempt to recover a true understanding of the mutual relation between grace and discipleship… Happy are they who know that discipleship simply means the life that springs from grace, and that grace simply means discipleship. Happy are they who have become Christians in this sense of the word.”

3) A Regimen for Training

All this means that every disciple of Jesus needs a regimen for training in godliness. Training is not haphazard or accidental. It is intentional and focused. Historically, a regimen for training in godliness has been called a “rule of life”. It includes spiritual disciples like reading Scripture, meditation, prayer, silence, serving, celebration, fasting, sabbath and many more. Just as in physical training, no two regimens are exactly alike. Training changes according to our needs and season of life. In 4:11-16, Paul “coaches” Timothy by reminding him of three things that are a part of any effective regimen for training in godliness:

Practice (verse 15) – Instead of feeling easy and relaxed, spiritual growth and change will feel like practice. It’s important we see this as normal. We don’t change instantly. We will fail (often!). Growth comes from practice and immersion in the disciplines of grace.

Perseverance (verse 16) will be a part of every Christian’s training regimen. This means adversity, difficulty and hardship will be a part of our training in Christ-likeness. Hebrews 12:11-13 says, “No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead”.

Pay Attention (verses 13, 16) – Any training for godliness must include training in paying attention to two things: 1) ourselves and 2) the gospel. We must develop an honest and accurate self-awareness (which builds humility) alongside a laser-focused attention to the gospel (which builds confidence). In an age of distraction, training to pay attention is never more necessary.

• Which of the three pieces of Paul’s “coaching” for training most encourages you? challenges you?

DIAGNOSE - How would you describe your current training regimen for following Jesus? What rhythms or exercises are training you in godliness and grace (Christ-likeness)? What do you think is most important for you right now: 1) getting clear on the difference between training and trying harder? 2) having the right reason for training? 3) developing a regimen for training?

Further Reading

1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer | The Cost of Discipleship, Especially Chapter 1, “Grace and Discipleship”
2. Dallas Willard, “Life to the Full”
3. James KA Smith, You are What You Love
4. Justin Whitmel Early, The Common Rule

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