Divine Discipline
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Romans 6:13
Paul, who was a splendid example of a disciplined Christian, said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Since our bodies are to be the temples of the Holy Spirit, they must be worthy of Him who indwells us. This exhortation calls for us to discipline our bodies as well as our minds. We must pray as Jeremy Taylor once prayed, “Let my body be a servant of my spirit, and both body and spirit servants of Jesus.”
When you serve sin, your body is dedicated to the service of sin. Your appetites, whetted by Satan, rage unthrottled. Your God-given creative impulses are sacrificed to Satan on the altar of lust. A sinner, in a sense, is a dedicated person, yielded to his appetites and selfish desires. But when Christ comes into the human heart, we are to yield our bodies to Him. Our human frame is often a rebellious and unruly servant. Only through rigid discipline are we able to master it into complete subjection to Christ. We must guard against appetites which blight the conscience, wither the soul, and weaken our witness for Christ.
Perhaps many things are lawful, but are they expedient? They may bring pleasure to us, but do they bring glory to Christ? Paul was so desirous of making every thought and act glorify Christ that He said, “If an indulgence offend my brother, I will not indulge anymore.” He had given his body as a living sacrifice to Christ. We need that kind of self-discipline today.
Alexander MacLaren, the forceful Baptist preacher and writer who died in 1910, put this whole matter of self-sacrifice in clear perspective when he wrote, “All along the Christian course, there must be set up altars to the God on which you sacrifice yourself, or you will never advance a step.”
Our Father and our God, accept the sacrifice of my heart and mind to You. Please help me to guard my appetites against indulgences that conflict with my witness for Christ. Keep me pure; keep me holy; keep me in Your love. Give me an insatiable appetite for Your Word. Through Christ. Amen.
Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).