A Disciple is Disciplined
Admiral Hyman Rickover was a legend in the United States Navy. He was a perfectionist who expected everyone else to be one too—a man who inspired either fear or fanatical loyalty in his subordinates. Rickover was the father of the nuclear submarine. From the 1950’s to the 1980’s, he wielded immense power in the Pentagon and in the halls of Congress.
It was his custom to personally interview every officer who would serve aboard one of his nuclear subs - and he really thought of them as his nuclear subs! These interviews with Rickover became legendary in the Navy. Candidates were often reduced either to tears or to blind rage under his relentless questioning and browbeating.
One day, a young officer was interviewed by Admiral Rickover. Listen to his account of that interview…
I had applied for the nuclear sub program, and Admiral Rickover was interviewing me for the job. It was the first time I met Admiral Rickover, and we sat in a large room by ourselves for more than two hours. He let me choose any subjects I wished to discuss.
Very carefully, I chose subjects about which I knew the most at the time - current events, seamanship, music, literature, naval tactics, electronics, gunnery - and he began to ask me a series of questions of increasing difficulty. In each instance, he soon proved that I knew relatively little about the subject I had chosen. He always looked right into my eyes, and he never smiled. I was saturated with cold sweat.
Finally, he asked me a question and I thought I could redeem myself. He said “How did you stand in your class at the Naval Academy?” Since I had completed my sophomore year at Georgia Tech before entering Annapolis as a plebe, I had done very well, and I swelled my chest with pride and answered, “Sir, I stood fifty-ninth in a class of 820.”
I sat back to wait for the congratulations - which never came. Instead, he asked the question: “Did you do your best?” I started to say, “Yes, sir,” but I remembered who this was and recalled several of the many times at the Academy when I could have learned more about our allies, our enemies, weapons, strategy, and so forth. I was just human. I finally gulped and said, “No, sir, I didn’t always do my best.”
He looked at me for a long time, and then turned his chair around to end the interview. He asked one final question, which I have never been able to forget—or to answer. He said, “Why not?” I sat there for awhile, shaken, and then slowly left the room.
The young officer who told this story went on to write a book entitled “Why Not the Best?” Incidentally, he also went on to become the President of the United States. His name is Jimmy Carter.
When we come to the Christian life, we might well ask that same question: “Why not the best?” In light of what Jesus Christ has done for us he deserves no less than our best as His disciples.
And if we’re going to give him our best, we’re going to have to tackle the issue of discipline—self-discipline. Being a follower of Jesus Christ means living a disciplined life. We can’t just live as we please. We’re under orders. We’re on a mission. The passage we’re about to look at today talks about this. Let’s turn to 2 Timothy 2.
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.
Now there are three things that this passage tells us about: (see study sheet)
1. The power for living a disciplined life
2. The purpose for living a disciplined life
3. The principles for living a disciplined life
1. The power for living a disciplined life
Paul says to Timothy: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” and the force of the verb is present tense - “keep on being strong—every day be strong in the grace that is Christ Jesus.”
The first thing we need to understand is that power for living a disciplined life as a Christian doesn’t come from us—it comes from God.
That’s kind of odd, because when we talk about discipline, we usually think of someone who has gained mastery over themselves. By strength of character, by determination, by sheer will-power they have managed to put their life in order.
But that is not the case with a follower of Jesus Christ. We don’t have the power to live the way God wants us to live, and if we think we do, we’re doomed to fail. Only God can give us the power, and that power comes from God’s grace.
The grace of God is one of the most beautiful concepts in the Bible. Someone has defined grace as “when God gives us what we don’t deserve.” You see, God loves us in spite of our failings, in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of our sin. And he wants to pour out His blessing upon us, not because we deserve it, but simply because He wants to. That’s grace.
And we’ll never understand how to live the Christian life unless we understand that fact. So many Christians are trying to live the Christian life according to a set of rules—a list of do’s and don’ts. They think that God will be pleased with them if they try hard to measure up to a certain standard of performance. And they become very legalistic in their thinking. And they begin to compare themselves with other Christians who are, perhaps, not doing as well as they are doing in certain areas.
But that kind of thinking eliminates the grace of God. It turns Christianity into an exercise in merit. Who can win the most brownie points with God?
But Paul says to Timothy: “Look, if you’re going to be strong in the Christian life, it’s only going to happen by laying hold of the grace of God. By understanding that He loves you unconditionally. By realizing that God isn’t judging you on the basis of your performance.”
Knowing and appreciating that God is a God of grace is the only thing that can give you the desire and the strength to live a disciplined life. Because Christian self-discipline is rooted in love.
2. The purpose for living a disciplined life
Paul describes Timothy’s purpose or mission in verse 2:
2 Timothy 2:2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
The Olympics are going to be held next year in Atlanta. Before the games begin, they are going to light a torch at Mount Olympus in Greece. Then they are going to carry that flame all the way to Atlanta, Georgia. There are going to be hundreds of runners along the way, each of whom will take a turn carrying that torch before handing it off to another runner.
That’s the picture we get here. Timothy has received the torch of truth from Paul. He had spent many years with Paul, learning from him what it meant to be a Christian. But now Paul was at the end of his life. He was in a dungeon in Rome facing execution. Now it was Timothy’s turn to take the torch and run with it.
And Timothy’s mission was to find some faithful men to whom he could in turn pass that torch of truth.
If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, let me ask you a question. How did you get it? How did you come to understand that God loved you and that Jesus Christ died for your sins? Someone told you, right? Somebody handed you the torch. And because they did that, now the flame burns in your life too.
What does God want you to do? He wants you to hand that torch to someone else. If you are a Christian, that’s your mission. That’s your purpose in life. And if you’re going to carry out that purpose, you’re going to need to live a disciplined life. You’re not going to be able to do whatever you want whenever you want to, because that might affect your ability to hand the torch to someone else. And that gets us to our third point:
3. The principles for living a disciplined life
There are three illustrations that Paul uses here to describe what it means to live a disciplined life: a soldier; an athlete; and a farmer.
A. The soldier:
2 Timothy 2:3 Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer.
Being a soldier isn’t an easy occupation. You get shot at. You have to live in uncomfortable conditions sometimes. And the pay isn’t always that great. But true soldiers take all that in stride. It doesn’t faze them. It doesn’t make them want to give up. They are willing to endure those hardships in order to do their duty.
And they have their priorities straight. They know that they can’t get involved in extraneous activities if they are going to be effective as soldiers.
A few years ago, the President of the United States called up the reserves to go and fight in the Persian Gulf War. And it was interesting to see the reaction of some of those soldiers. Many of them had joined the reserves just to earn more money—kind of like a second job, one weekend a month. They never dreamt that they might actually have to go fight in a war.
But when that eventuality became a reality, a few of those soldiers said “No we can’t go. We’ve got obligations here. We can’t possibly leave and go to Saudi Arabia. Who will take care of the house? Who will take care of the kids? Who will mow the lawn? Who will make sure that Johnny gets to his piano lessons?”
They were so entangled in civilian affairs that they were of no use to their commanding officer when he called on them to do their duty. They had a problem with their priorities.
The word entangled here is “emplekomai”. It describes a soldier who has a sword on, and the enemy is attacking, but he can’t get his sword out because it gets all tangled up in his cloak. If he’s going into battle, he shouldn’t have his cloak on, right?
As Christians, we can so easily get entangled in “civilian affairs”—things which are not bad things in and of themselves—but commitments which keep us from being available to obey our commanding officer, Jesus Christ.
We need to look very carefully at our priorities. We need to examine our commitments. Getting our priorities straight produces obedience.
B. The Athlete
2 Timothy 2:5 Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.
The 1988 Olympic Games were held in Seoul, Korea. One of the highlights of the games was the final of the men’s 100 meter dash. Two outstanding runners were pitted against each other in that race—Carl Lewis of the United States, and Ben Johnson of Canada.
When the starter’s gun fired, they rocketed out from the blocks. Johnson was always noted for his explosive starts and he immediately shot ahead of the pack. Carl Lewis was not a good starter, but he was a great finisher. But as they streaked down the track and Lewis put on his finishing burst, he found that Johnson was just too far ahead. He couldn’t catch him.
Ben Johnson broke the tape in 9.79 seconds - a new world record. He raised his arms in triumph and all Canada swelled with pride as he accepted the gold medal. But then one day later, the world came crashing down around Ben Johnson. The International Olympic Committee revealed that Johnson had flunked the after race drug test. He was using steroids.
He was disqualified from the race and stripped of his gold medal. He disgraced himself and humiliated his country because he had not competed according to the rules.
Being an athlete means submitting to the rules of the game. Submission produces victory.
Likewise, in the Christian life there are some rules, or principles for living. They are found in the Scriptures. Are you putting the Scriptures into practice in your life?
Last June, just before school ended, the coach of the Whitehall cross-country team gave out a training manual. It spelled out a training program for the runners to follow over the summer months. One boy in particular, who was a freshman and had never run cross-country before, decided that he would make it a priority to follow the training manual.
Every day throughout the summer, he ran the prescribed distance. He said it hurt at first, and there were times during that incredible heat wave that he wanted to quit. But he kept on running. He kept following the manual.
And it’s paying off this fall. He’s the best freshman on the team. He finished fourth out of over a hundred runners in the Centaur meet at Allentown College last weekend. All because he followed the program that his coach gave him.
Likewise, as a Christian, you can’t win unless you get with the program.
C. The Farmer:
2 Timothy 2:6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.
There’s an old Jewish folktale of two brothers who had spent all their lives in the city. They had never seen a field or a pasture. One day, they decided to take a trip into the countryside. As they were walking along, they saw a farmer plowing, and they were puzzled about what he was doing.
“What on earth is he doing?” they asked each other. “This fellow marches back and forth all day, scarring the earth with long ditches. Why should anyone destroy such a pretty meadow like that?”
Later that afternoon, they passed the same field again. This time, they saw the farmer sowing grains of wheat in the furrows. “Now what is he doing?” they asked. “He must be crazy. He’s taking perfectly good wheat and tossing it into those ditches.”
“The country is no place for me.” said one of the brothers. “The people here act like fools. I’m going back to the city.”
But the second brother stayed in the country and a few weeks later, he saw a wonderful change. Fresh green shoots began to sprout up in the field with a lushness he had never imagined. He quickly wrote to his brother and told him to hurry back to see the miraculous growth.
So, several weeks later, his brother returned from the city and he too was amazed at the change. As the days passed, they watched the green earth turn into a field of golden wheat. And they began to understand the reason for the farmer’s work.
Then the wheat grew ripe and the farmer came with his scythe and began to cut it down. The brother who had returned from the city couldn’t believe it. “What is that imbecile doing now?” he cried. “All summer long, he worked so hard to grow this beautiful wheat, and now he’s destroying it with his own hands. He is a madman after all! I’ve had enough. I’m going back to the city.”
But his brother had more patience. He stayed in the country and watched the farmer collect the wheat and take it to his mill. He saw how he separated the chaff and how he carefully stored the rest. And he was filled with awe when he realized that by sowing a bag of seed, the farmer had harvested a whole field of grain. Only then did he realize that the farmer had a reason for everything he did.
Farming isn’t an easy life. I’ve known some farmers in my time, and every one them was a hard working man. Up before dawn, chores to be done, little or no vacation time. And for all that effort, not a lot of respect or admiration in the community.
But a farmer knows what he’s doing and why he is doing it. Even though it appears that there are no results, he just keeps working hard. And when the harvest comes in, there’s a tremendous satisfaction in a job well done.
The faithful hard work of the farmer produces a harvest.
As a follower of Jesus Christ, God wants to produce a harvest in your life. He wants you to be fruitful. But fruitfulness is going to take faithfulness.
There are going to be times when you don’t think anything is happening in your life. Those are the times when you’re going to just have to keep working by faith—doing the right thing, keeping your priorities straight, following the program—and one day, God will bring in the harvest.
Following Jesus Christ means living a disciplined life. And discipline enables us to do our best for Him.