Discipline in the Church
If you were to drive down the road and pass any gym or fitness center, you might notice the parking lot to be at maximum capacity. Peering through the windows, you might even see people having to wait to use treadmills or other workout equipment because people are everywhere. That is a stark contrast from just a week or two before when driving past the same fitness center there might be only a few regulars in there and someone could choose any piece of equipment they wanted. Why such a change? Well, we all know the answer to that – the turn of the new year – and with the ringing in of 2024, a new sense of renewal and commitment to improve are ripe on the mind. With this newfound enthusiasm comes the same ebb and flow of previous years, and when the newness wears off it becomes harder and harder to continue the course, which will lead many to fall from their commitment right back into the same patterns they were in before.
This never-ending cycle is something all humans deal with and in almost every aspect of life. The will to continue or not give up is a choice we make all the time. This war of wills is not just with the physical aspects of life but is very present in our spiritual life as well. We, as Christians, are people committed to putting God and the spiritual things of life first, and this mind set comes with all sorts of struggles. Paul speaks of this war in Galatians 5:16-17: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please.” It is of upmost importance for the Christian to be disciplined and have self-control, for this is how we put our Lord, the brethren, and spiritual things first in our lives, while our wants and desires take a required back seat.
We are a collective group of Christians at Southside, each with different backgrounds, influences, and personalities that make up this church. When you take all of that and put it together, it’s what makes our church who we are. For our church family to maintain discipline, it starts with each individual member. As mentioned earlier, individual discipline starts with putting spiritual things first in our day-to-day lives and, just like the gym, there is an ebb and flow with our spiritual focus throughout the year. If you were to look at our attendance numbers at the end of the year, compared to the first 3 or 4 Sundays of any given January, the difference is quite large. At times we could be down 100 people in the later part of the year, but when January rolls around we are busting at the seams. Of course, many are traveling, but there are also times when the busyness of the season affects where our focus is. It might be our individual Bible study that started off great only to fade as the year progresses, or that our prayer life or serving the brethren have slowed, signals we are letting our guard down by allowing the physical and self to creep into the number one role. By maintaining constant focus on these it will help renew our faith and commitment day by day and make it easier for us to keep our focus on the Lord and the service of Him. To do this, we must plan to incorporate these into our daily lives, and being disciplined to that plan, it will renew our faith.
There is another way that the collective church must be disciplined: we must align what we believe and teach with what the Word teaches, and we must be diligent to make sure that we are rightly proclaiming the Word of Truth. This starts with our elders and their role of leading our group to be consistent with the teachings we find in the New Testament. However, it is also our responsibility to hold these men to that ever-important task. That is why it is so important for each individual Christian to be a Bible student, to be able to take a question or topic and go to the Word for the answer. Our world is one that sees little need for the Bible, but that in no way diminishes the importance of having a working knowledge of it, and that benefits the individual Christian in every way, and as a result the whole church. If we remain disciplined to the Word when a situation comes and we must take a stand or defend the faith, we will have the understanding and confidence to do that, knowing we are standing for the Truth and defending the Word of God.
As 2024 comes, let our discipline in the faith never waiver but stand firm, renewing day by day.
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