Some days you preach to yourself and some days the word confronts you.
For this society affects us all. It tells us not to discipline ourselves: instead to love ourselves as we are. That to be fat is acceptable. That it’s OK to accept yourself as you are (if a woman) and if you are a man and not succeeding, that you should just give up.
At times this includes the church, particularly when it comes to teaching men the habits of self improvement. One of the profound and deep ironies is that the most honest and stringent advice there is on the internet on self improvement (Don’t fap. Step away from that cinnabom. Go to the gym. Dress right. Stand up straight. Be confident) comes from the manosphere PUA group — because they know this makes them attractive. But our goal should not be to increase the number of women we sleep with, but to please God.
Because this life is not about accepting yourself. It’s improving yourself in obedience: And if yesterday you did not get everything done, do it today. Discipline is not optional.
13Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. 14Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
17If you invoke as Father the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. 18You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. 21Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
22Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. 23You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”
That word is the good news that was announced to you.
We don’t discipline ourselves or love ourselves because this makes us better as people. We do it because it makes us useful as people. We are only saved by grace. None of us are perfect, all of us have to deal with the sins of these days.
However, the very fact that we discipline ourselves, and understand that it takes hard work to be useful, to be fit, to be able do help others (if you gain too much weight your back will go out and your ankles will become unstable: this I have lived through. It’s as I lose weight that I can start running again — and as I go to the gym that I can live things and help people again). The physical here is important, but it is also a metaphor. ON the days when our conscience damns us, the disciplines of prayer and the word are most needed. This is why the monks and nuns use liturgy and hours — they pray because it is time for prayer, not waiting for the mood to strike.
To our forefathers in the faith, all this was obvious. It is to our detriment that there has to be any comments at all on this passage.