“Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.” 1Cor.9.25 ESV
Christians are not the only people in the world interested in transformation. Personal improvement has close connections to a good many disciplines and discipline is the one thing common to them all. Athletes religiously practice self-control to improve performance, as do many business executives. Self improvement is common in our culture not only professionally but personally and people discipline themselves to walk, take up reading, or go to a gym, for no other reason than for health and happiness. It should not surprise us to find that many people outside the Christian faith are healthier, happier and have more personal discipline. Why, because joy is found in doing something not just defining it. Self-control is a grace that benefits anyone who will practice it.
Christians are told to discipline themselves for godliness, simply because godliness promises to be profitable not only in this life but also the one to come. It only makes good sense to seek an eternal health and happiness, one that will follow us far beyond the grave. Brenda and I often walk for health in a cemetery. When you think about it everything we do here, we do in a cemetery. Any act of personal discipline will not keep us from dying, but disciplines can serve our body so that our body may in turn serve our soul. And that is precisely the benefit of godliness. We would not make our soul a slave to serve a temporal body but would discipline our body that it may serve our eternal soul. 5/20/2008 ts
Just me trying to be honest with God.
