Blog : Spiritually Hygienic

Spiritually Hygienic

11/2/2009 5:27 pm

1 Timothy 4

-8

"But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." KJB

Have you ever noticed that there seems to be more commercials on TV for dieting than there is any other type of commercial? The bombardment of diet plans, exercise programs, different types of machines all guaranteed to help one have that body only athletes seem to have. All of these are given to help you change our lifestyles or to simply improve our lives. These types of things might improve the outward person or the physical insides but nothing is ever given to help our spiritual lives. But from the standpoint of being right with God is the most important thing that we need to do. Our text for today gives us some great directions in order to help improve our spiritual lives.

Cleaning up our spiritual lives is definitely more important than cleaning up our physical lives. As a child or newborn babe in Christ, we need to "...desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2) KJB. And for adults or mature Christians, "..strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age" (Hebrews 5:14) KJB. Now, mature Christians are those who are "...unskillful in the word of righteousness" (vs. 13). In other words, the more we study the word of God, as newborn babes in Christ, the closer we become to becoming mature Christians and it takes the deeper things of God's word. The more we learn about Him, the more we want to know, at least that is what I find in my own desire to serve Him in the things He has me doing.

Now, our nourishment should come from the Word of God, when it comes to our Spiritual maturity, therefore, we are to be "...nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine". (1 Timothy 4:6) Unfortunately, sound doctrine seems to be falling by the wayside and more so as we see the day of His second coming drawing nearer, and it is, everyday. We are admonished to profess and use "...sound doctrine..." (which literally means "healthy doctrine", and we are also admonished to be in "healthy faith" (1:13, 2:2). We are also admonished or told to have healthy "charity" (love) as well as "patience" (2:2). The last thing that we need to use is "healthy speech" (2:

.

Our exercise needs to be both physical and spiritual but the spiritual is the most important of the two. If you are taking any substance into your body and you know that it harmful to that body are you helping your self to have a healthy body? Well, the same thing happens when you take something into your spiritual side and it is harmful to that spiritual nature. We all have both physical and spiritual sides of our being, however, some seem to think that the spiritual is not important. Exercise for both psychical and spiritual should never be ignored. If you are not taking care of the physical being, then the chances of not taking care of the spiritual being might not be present either. Not to say that a person who does not take care of the psychical body will naturally not take care of the spiritual, but the chances are better/worse for that not happening. We should "...exercise...unto godliness..." (1 Timothy 4

), which enables us to "...discern both good and evil..." (Hebrews 5:14) KJB. In other words, the more we feed the spiritual nature the more we will be able to discern the difference between what is good and what is evil, and there are many evil things out there which seem to not be but are for Satan is very cunning and deceitful, for those are his natural desires. But, this admonishment might be in the form of "chastisement" from the Lord, because our Bible tells us that a good father always chastises or corrects his children, and God the Father of us, is no different. This chastisement is sometimes in the form which "...yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness..." (12:11). In other words this chastisement might be there to guide us into the right path in which we are to walk. Do not ever despise any form of chastisement or correction, from our earthly fathers and especially from our heavenly Father.

Now, cleanliness is also important because we read: "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word" (Psalm 119:9) KJB. We learn as we study our Bibles that Christ gave Himself "...that He might sanctify and cleanse [the church] with the washing of water by the word, That He might present it to Himself a glorious church. Not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but it should be holy and without blemish..." (Ephesians 5:26-27) KJB. What better way to cleans ourselves. If we clean the inside the outside soon falls into place. We cannot expect to clean the outside and expect the inside to be cleansed also, it does not work that way, but if we clean the inside the outside is soon to follow. At least that is what I have found out over the years being saved.

By Dr. Terry Cleaveland, Pastor (retired), Preacher, Teacher of God's Holy Word, Grand Junction, Co.

Used with permission

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