A Compelling Testimony: Maintaining a Disciplined Walk, Christlike Character, and Godly Relationships as God's Servant

Ses s i on 3: The Ce l ebrat i ons of a Di sc i p l i ned L i fe 89

3. Supporting commentary:

So the Christian needs to observe a strict exterior discipline. But we are not to imagine that that alone will crush the will of the flesh, or that there is any way of mortifying our old man other than by faith in Jesus. The real difference in the believer who follows Christ and has mortified his will and died after the old man in Christ, is that he is more clearly aware than other men of the rebelliousness and perennial pride of the flesh, he is conscious of his sloth and self-indulgence and knows that his arrogance must be eradicated. Hence there is a need for daily self-discipline. It is always true of the disciple that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and he must therefore “watch and pray.” The spirit knows the right way, and desires to follow it, but the flesh lacks courage and finds it too hard, too hazardous and wearisome, and so it stifles the voice of the spirit. . . . Therefore we have to practice strictest daily discipline; only so can the flesh learn the painful lesson that it has no rights of its own. Regular daily prayer is a great help here, and so is daily meditation on the Word of God, and every kind of bodily discipline and asceticism.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Cost of Discipleship . New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1963. p. 189.

D. A rule that allows for the aid of a spiritual director, pastoral equipper, or godly model (i.e., the direction principle)

1. Exegetical evidence

a. We imitate our leaders as they imitate our Lord, 1 Cor. 11.1 – Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 4.16).

b. We pass on the faith entrusted to us to faithful people who can teach others, 2 Tim. 2.1-2 – You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, [2] and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.