No Spiritual Flabbiness

Read I Timothy 4:1-16, Philippians 3:7-21

“Train yourself to be godly. Physical training is good, but
training for godliness is much better, promising
benefits in this life and in the life to come.”
(I Timothy 4:7-8)

Thoughts… I like the way the Message Bible renders this verse: “Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.”

Paul must have been an athlete, or at least a big-time sports fan. If he were alive today, he’d be a big fan of the NFL, or the NBA, or the WWF, or better yet, Ultimate Fighting! Not golf—there’s too much sin involved in that! The 3rd, 4th, and 9th Commandments are broken with far too much regularity in golf! But competitive sports, you bet!

Don’t believe me! Think about the variety of sports analogies Paul uses in his writings?

He talks about wrestling…“we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood,” he says in Ephesians 6:12.

He talks about boxing in I Corinthians 9:26…“I don’t fight like a man beating the air.”

In the next verse, he talks about physical training… “I discipline my body like an athlete.” (v. 27)

But the sports analogy that Paul uses most often is that of a runner. In Philippians 3:14, Paul pictures himself as a runner leaning into the tape to get the prize at the finish line: “I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

Paul didn’t leave his spiritual fitness up to chance, nor was he passive about it. He was quite deliberate in ridding his life of spiritual flabbiness and training for godliness. Looking at Paul’s training regimen, let me suggest four training tips that you too can follow to achieve the spiritual fitness necessary to enjoy and excel in your Christian race.

Paul’s first training tip is: Don’t forget who you’re running for!

If you want to run strong and finish well, remember Who you are running for! Remember the great cost in the race he won to pave the way for you.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Here’s Paul’s second training tip: Don’t look back!

Philippians 3:13-14 says, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

You might remember the inspiring true story of missionary Eric Liddell in the movie Chariot’s of Fire. He ran in the 1924 Paris Olympics. One of the athletes comes close, but loses his race, so the coach shows him a picture of the finish, which reveals why he lost. The runner took his eyes off the finish line and looked to the side at the other runners.

That’s the cardinal rule of running: don’t look back; to run a fantastic race, focus on the finish.

Hebrews 12:1 says, “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

Weights are not necessarily sin. They’re more subtle, perhaps even harder to let go precisely because they’re not inherently bad. A weight might be a pattern that keeps God from being first, or priority that keeps you from being fully devoted to God’s purpose for your life, baggage from your past.

It might be a pattern or a priority that keeps you from full devotion to God’s purpose for your life. It might be a past accomplishment and you’re still living in the afterglow of yesterday’s glory. It might be a hurt or guilt from a failure and you’re still lugging that baggage, trying to run your race. It might even be something good—but good has become enemy of God’s best.

Sin on the other hand, is anything that breaks the commandments of God—Greed, envy, laziness, lust, anger, gluttony, pride.

What is the weight and the sin that entangles you and keeps you from running your race? I Corinthians 9:25 says, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.” Paul says we’ve got to shed some pounds if we are going to pursue the prize with joy!

Paul’s third training tip: Train with champions.

Who are you training with? Who are you hanging out with? Who is speaking into your life—and what’s the message they’re speaking? Who and what are influencing your life…you’re walk with God.

Paul knew the reality of good and bad influences upon the race, and he talked about it in Philippians 3:15-19: “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”

When Don Shula first began coaching the Miami Dolphins he showed film of the then NFL champion Baltimore Colts. The Dolphin not only watched the Colt execute plays with precision, they saw how the Colts encouraged each other between plays. They’d help each other up…pat each other on the back. Shula challenged the Dolphins to imitate the Colts during the play and after the whistle was blown. “That’s the way to become champions,” Shula said. And they did—becoming the last team to go undefeated in a season.

Got anyone doing that for you? Any spiritual champions helping you up, patting you on the back, cheering you on? Hebrews 12:1 calls them a “great cloud of witnesses.” Church is a great place to find spiritual champions.

Hebrews 13:7 says, “Take a good look at the way they live, and let their faithfulness instruct you…”

Your church has some spiritual champions, and I don’t think they’d mind at all if you started hanging with them. It may be that the present company you’re keeping is actually keeping your from spiritual fitness. Paul said in I Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’” The Contemporary English Version says, “Don’t fool yourselves. Bad friends will destroy you.

Get some champions on your spiritual fitness team! Get’s some soaring eagles in your great cloud of witnesses to neutralize those crows you’ve been flying with. You’ll need it for your race!

Here’s Paul’s fourth training tip: Keep your eye on the prize.

Philippians 3:20-21 reminds us, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

There is nothing wrong with envisioning the reward at the finish line. We’re all motivated by the thought of a reward; God designed us that way.

I Corinthians 9:25-26 (LB) says, “To win the contest you must deny yourselves many things that would keep you from doing your best…but we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step.”

The problem with earthly rewards is they don’t last. You can fill your mantle with trophies, but so what! Given enough time, somebody’s going to trash your trophies. So if you’re going to make it to the finish line, you need eternal motivation. That’s why we’ve got to fix our eye on Jesus. His rewards never fade or perish.

You are in a race…the race of your life! So keep your eye on the prize…go for the goal.

Train with champions—get some good people on your spiritual fitness team.

Don’t look back—forget yesterday’s failures and successes.

Remember who you are running for!

I’m reminded of the ‘68 Olympics in Mexico City—the first Olympics I really remember….Bob Beamon, Dick Fosbury, Tommie Smith. And in the marathon, the last runner to finish was some poor guy from Tanzania. During the race, he’d stumbled and actually broke a leg…but kept running!

Long after the other runners had entered the stadium, he came straggling in, bruised and bloodied. It was 7:00 at night and only a fraction of the crowd was left in the stands. But as he entered to do his last lap and finish this 26-mile race, that crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Later, someone asked, “You were hurt, bloody, and discouraged—why didn’t you quit?”

His answer! “My country didn’t send me 7000 miles around the world to start the race, they sent me to finish it.”

There is a country farther than Tanzania that sent its Runner—and he finished his race battered, broken and bloodied, so that other of its citizens can run their race.

So in light of what Christ did for you,  run strong and finish well!

Prayer… Father, the prize at the end of my spiritual race is worth every effort I can make now to get fit, run strong, and finish well. I will press on to win that prize. Strengthen me for my race in such a way that I will hear you say, “well run, good and faithful servant.”

One More Thing… “For a small reward, a man will hurry away on a long journey; while for eternal life, many will hardly take a single step.”— Thomas A` Kempis