Discipline that Leads to Freedom
A Devotional from Professor Benjamin Reese
“For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
Restriction and Freedom
Getting in shape is a pain. It requires a lot of discipline. You create rules for yourself, “you can eat that” and “you can’t eat that.” In a word, it requires restriction.
Restriction seems like the opposite of freedom, doesn’t it? And yet, it is that restriction that leads to a healthy body, and there is hardly anything more free than being able to move through the world in a sound body. Just look at children throwing themselves in somersaults and cartwheels on the grass. Just look at the dancer’s perfectly-timed turn. It’s the very image of freedom.
The same is true with developing a spiritual body, “the inner self” as Paul calls it (2 Cor. 4:16). It requires discipline to develop a healthy spiritual life. You have to read the Bible, pray, commune with other believers, and you have to keep away from things that do spiritual harm. There may even be a time when you have to severely restrict yourself, like during a fast. Are these restrictions the freedom that God promised? No. But it leads to freedom.
A healthy inner self lets you move through the world with more flexibility, more creativity, more understanding. You are forgiven, loved, confident, unbothered by the obsessions of the crowd. Just observe the cramped and sclerotic mind of those who only know how to complain and have never trained themselves in gratitude. Sure, such a person may get to “do as they want” – but how narrow their wants!
The Purpose of Spiritual Discipline
It’s important that Christians don’t confuse freedom with the discipline that leads to freedom. When you are at the gym, you limit your bodily movement during an exercise. A bicep curl has a precise range of motion; however, the point of the exercise is not to walk around in the world, only repeating that movement. You would look like a robot. In the same way, the point of the Bible is not to dictate every movement you make. The point is to develop the spirit which allows for greater range of freedom. You will experience a lot in life that the Bible doesn’t give an exact answer for – that’s why you need the fruits of the spirit to respond to it with flexibility, creativity, and, above all, love.
A Summer Reminder
Summer can be a time when our discipline slips. I think that’s often because we forget the point of discipline. We see the bare salad instead of the cartwheel. Praying in the morning doesn’t take your time, it opens up your world. You will have a renewed inner self that will be free of the strictures of your own limitations. That’s a beautiful thing.
As you go through the summer, and you have more freedom in your schedule, make sure you are pursuing the disciplines that give you more freedom in your heart and mind.
