The Battle With Sin: Spiritual Discipline

After being saved, I naively believed that my sin issue was over. I repented and believed, and the Lord saw fit to save me! So, as I understood it, that nasty ol’ sin problem was over. The joke was on me, though, because I had a lifelong battle with my flesh awaiting me, and I had no clue. I was immediately an enthusiastic new believer, but I lacked one of the greatest weapons a Christian has to fight sin. Spiritual discipline.

Christians Still Sin

Did you know that Christians will continue to sin throughout their lives? Some believers teach that real Christians won’t sin anymore, but the Bible itself doesn’t support that idea.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

1 John 8:9-10

Some of y’all are going to take that as me saying that sin is all right, and we should feel free to go about our sinful business. That, of course, would be completely incorrect.

First, our relationship with sin is different after salvation. We are indwelled by the Holy Spirit (John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and He convicts us of sin, making us less comfortable with it. As we grow in our faith, we will move closer to God and detest the things preventing us from being closer to Him.

Second, we are in a daily battle with our flesh.

“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

Galatians 5:16-17

In other words, our sinful desires will still look for footing in our lives and can supplant the Spirit-filled walk we are meant to have if we aren’t vigilant. Peter’s warning to us is especially meaningful when we remember that we are at war with our own sin nature.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

1 Peter 5:8

The Enemy will do whatever he can to weaken your faith. In First Peter, the Church faced physical, life-threatening persecution. Fear certainly abounded in that community of believers. Today, in America, the enemy can use countless other ways to rattle our faith, tempt us to fear, and entice us to give into our sinful lusts.

Remember, John and Peter were speaking to believers. We are the ones walking around with a target on our backs. If we aren’t careful and don’t have spiritual discipline, then we can be overcome in this battle with our flesh.

A Slave To Sin

We don’t think of ourselves as slaves, especially as Americans. We’re free and liberated in a nation that, generally, lets us do our own thing. And as believers we are freed from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2) through Jesus’ work on the cross and His subsequent resurrection. But we’re not liberated from the potential to be deceived and make decisions that lead us into bondage.

“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”

2 Peter 2:19

When I think of something overcoming a person, I think of someone feeling incapable of choosing not to do that particular thing. Think: addiction. So, what can overcome someone? Many routes we can take to bondage are not only easy to access but socially acceptable, as well, such as gambling, excessive alcohol consumption, and even pornography. These areas of bondage can ruin our lives and devastate our relationship with the Lord, but there are other habits that can enslave us that we should consider.

Although not inherently sinful, social media can enslave a person. I would be surprised if you didn’t know at least one individual who is on social media platforms all day. Maybe you’re the girl who is constantly staring at your phone and posting selfies. Side note: No one is interested in seeing three hundred selfies of you on Instagram besides you and perverts. Put down the phone.

Other things we find ourselves overcome by include gaming, food, sports, and the opposite sex. Videogames are fun, food can be a blessing (and delicious), sports are a valid form of exercise and entertainment, and it’s only natural to find yourself romantically interested in someone. However, all of these things can go too far.

Self-Made Prison

In my youth, my college sweetheart and I began a relationship that fell into enslavement. Neither of us were Christians, so it seemed “normal,” but I can see now that we were both overcome by our relationship. Despite beginning as a simple young crush, our relationship morphed into an idol. Everything was about each other and our relationship. It held the highest position in our lives, and we couldn’t break free from it.

We may not have been behind bars, but we were in a self-made prison. That can be true about any number of things. We love to create idols, and it doesn’t matter if what we turn to is objectively bad such as tobacco or just a normal thing like exercise. John Calvin famously said, “the human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.” Others have translated that to say “the heart is an idol factory.” The point is the same no matter which way you say it. We continually create idols in our lives, and those idols attempt to remove God from the throne.

The Bondage Of Sin Can End

Despite what we may think in our darkest moments, God has no plans for us to remain in bondage. There is freedom for us as believers, but that freedom can only be found in Christ. Without a relationship with Him, we cannot know freedom from sin at all. However, Christians can also create a life in which sin overcomes their lives even though they have been saved from death’s consequence. (That is, hell.)

Believers can live without an active relationship with Jesus. These Christians may keep other believers at an arm’s length, irregularly attend church, neglect prayer, or allow their Bible to accumulate dust all week. They take charge of their lives, sometimes living as if Jesus isn’t even real. This is the perfect breeding ground for one to accumulate sinful habits and weaken his or her ability to fight against sin. These habits are often secret and sources of shame.

Attacked From All Sides

For instance, a young woman might find she is pulled into media content she knows in her heart is wrong. We think of men watching pornography and looking at questionable images, but it’s a growing problem among women. Covenant Eyes reports that 65% of Millennial women claim to watch pornography “a few times a year.” That was twice as much Generation X. The problem is growing and becoming more normalized.

Obviously questionable material isn’t the only troublesome media, though. What about music that pushes racism and hypersexuality like we hear with Beyonce or the perpetually spurned lover, Taylor Swift, who embodies casual intimacy, victim mentality, and revenge? Then, of course, there is the hard push from television and film to accept “alternative lifestyles” as something to celebrate rather than as sin that our Lord Jesus Christ died to save us from.

The fight is coming at Christians from all sides: school, work, peers, television, radio, and sometimes even other “Christians.” Over time, a believer can easily adopt the lies as yet another truth, but those alleged truths simply pull us from the Lord. When we accept the lies of the world over God’s truth, we demonstrate that we no longer trust God’s Word.

Spiritual Discipline Kills

Can we even fight sin? How do we discern truth in an endless stream of lies and curated images on social media, entertainment, and from sources we thought we could trust? Well, it starts with spiritual discipline.

The fight is serious, and you’re in it whether you want to be or not.

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

Colossians 3:5 (ESV)

Do you understand how serious the fight is? Paul didn’t tell us to put aside what is earthly in us. He told us to kill it. Ladies, this isn’t a suggestion to be passive. Rather, it’s a call to aggressively remove sin and the things from our lives that are hurting our walk with the Lord. As we assess our lives, we must consider our thoughts and behaviors carefully. Is what I think about in opposition to my life as a Christian? Is that habit distracting me from my spiritual life? Think about this. Are you doing or saying things that hurt your testimony? Put another way, are you representing Christ well?

This should be easy, right? If we love the Lord, then we’ll obey Him and be willing to make any sacrifice for Him we can.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:20

Crucified with Christ is a serious statement. We are supposed to die to ourselves, but have we really offered ourselves up as the living sacrifice described in Romans 12 (v.1) when we won’t focus our energies on godly pursuits?

I used to say that I could stop drinking any time I wanted to before I became a Christian. Guess how many times I stopped drinking before my salvation. If you’re thinking zero, then you’ve got it. I can list any number of things that I had let overcome me and determine my life’s choices in the twenty-six years I spent without Jesus in my life.

Spiritual Bondage Starts In The Mind

I was unable to break free from the sins that held me prisoner for multiple reasons. After all, I wasn’t a Christian yet. One big component in my life then that affects Christians, too, was my thought life. The thoughts I had didn’t just come and go without repercussions. The more time I spent thinking about something, the more I began to believe it.

For example, I watched a lot of music videos in my teenage years, and the women featured in those videos looked nothing like me. They were gorgeous, tall, heroin chic (it was the 90’s). I compared myself to them and thought about them as the template of the perfect woman. Meanwhile, I looked like, well, not that template.  Those thoughts became a belief that I was not good looking enough, and that meant I had less value. That belief led to many bad decisions. I binged and purged food, sought out male attention anywhere I could get it, and dressed provocatively to be more “valuable.”

Stinkin’ Thinkin’

My retelling is, admittedly, a simplified version of what happened, but the facts are relative to believers and how to fight being overcome by sin. Our choices are guided by what we believe, and our beliefs begin with our thoughts. So, what are you putting into your mind? What do you meditate on and commit to memory?

Let’s look at Second Corinthians.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (emphasis mine)

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

So much of Scripture speaks on the flesh, but the battle is really a spiritual one. I won’t pretend that fight is always easy; it’s not. However, the fight can be won. In fact, the key to successfully resisting Satan’s snares in your life is in those three verses, especially in the fifth verse. Fight arguments against God, and bring those thoughts that pull you from Christ into captivity. How? It’s finally time to look more deeply at the solution: Spiritual discipline.

What Does Spiritual Discipline Mean?

Discipline can be defined as training which is expected to produce a specific character or pattern of behavior. Spiritual discipline is the same thing, but the focus is on one’s spiritual life. Understandable, right?

All Christians ought to display spiritual discipline, though, it will not look identical from person to person. I bet you know someone who you might describe as a disciplined person. She is focused, demonstrates self-control, and works hard at her goals without being constantly reminded to do so. A believer who has spiritual discipline will have those same characteristics, but she will very clearly be focusing a great deal of that self-discipline on her Christian walk.

Focusing on spiritual things, living in obedience to God, and knowing His word are the foundation to controlling your thought life and navigating temptations and outright lies you’re fed on a daily basis. You can’t battle the Father of Lies if you can’t identify lies, and the only way to know a lie is by being armed with the truth.

Do you think truth just floats into your mind because you’re a believer? I wish! I’ve been talking about spiritual discipline as a general concept, but there are books and websites dedicated to discussing “the spiritual disciplines.” Some say there are three or eight or twelve or…or…or… The point is there many ways you can grow in spiritual discipline.

Example Spiritual Disciplines

1. Study The Bible

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17

2. Memorize Scripture

Having God’s Word ready in your mind when you’re met with temptations is invaluable. As we scroll through our phones on TikTok and Instagram with an average attention span of, like, six seconds, then we need to be prepared to say “no” to the temptation on the screen and move on. Scripture can help with that when it’s already in our thoughts.

3. Meditate On Scripture

Think about God’s Word. I know, that seems a bit simplistic, but I imagine you don’t spend a lot of time considering what you heard Sunday morning during the sermon, read that week, or came across in a devotional time. Most churchgoers hear the Word and don’t think on it again throughout the week. Don’t believe me? On Monday afternoon, ask people what the pastor preached about Sunday morning. You’ll be met with blank stares and stalling tactics.

4. Prayer

Prayer is a challenge for many Christians. It requires us to take time out of our day to spend with God. Meaningful prayer will often include praise, thanksgiving, confession, and asking God for something. Usually, those intercessory prayers are about people’s physical health, and that’s fine. But can I challenge you to be transparent with God and someone close to you by asking for spiritual things, too? I might ask God to give me courage to share the gospel with my family, to make my words gentler in the home, or for Him to forgive the bitterness I’ve harbored toward someone who wronged me in church.

Spending time in prayer aligns us with God’s will and brings our thoughts to Him and His ways.

Do We Need Spiritual Discipline?

Spiritual discipline can sound like a bummer at first. Discipline means work and purposefully living life. Isn’t just going with the flow easier? Sure, it is, but remember what Colossians 3:5 says. Kill what is earthly in you. I don’t know about you, but to me a command to “put to death” sounds as if going with the flow is out of the question.

If you don’t have spiritual discipline, will you lose your salvation? No, but your spiritual life will suffer.

The Effects Of No Spiritual Discipline

1. Easily Deceived

2. Lose Sight of Your Identity In Christ

3. Be Spiritually Dry

4. Lose Your Grasp On Christian Joy And Hope

5. Dead Prayer Life

6. Adopt Sinful Behaviors In Your Life

7. Shame

The New (Wo)Man

If spiritual discipline seems difficult that’s because it is, but salvation through Jesus Christ makes it entirely possible. Not just that, but you will grow in a desire to draw closer to the Lord which will only enhance your spiritual discipline.

“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.”

Colossians 3:5-11

Colossians brings us excellent news. We, like the Colossians, can leave behind the bondage of sins such as impurity, anger, and blasphemy because we are made new through Christ. This section of Scripture tells us we can “put off the old man,” and “put on the new man.” The old man and new man will battle in us for control, and the only way for the new man to win is for us to renew our minds. That requires the spiritual discipline needed to learn God’s Word and the truths revealed in it. We must be disciplined about what we put in our minds.

Christians, you are already new. You just need to pursue the truth so you can live it out.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

2 Corinthians 5:17

Moreover, you are an heir of God, and you don’t have to live under the control of sin. You’re free.

“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

Galatians 4:6-7

You Don’t Struggle Alone

Do you struggle with your thought life? Do you have a compulsion to consume media and have a hard time separating from it? Would God say you look at things that are poisonous to your spiritual development? Well, you have company. This is what Paul said.

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

Romans 7:14-24 (ESV)

Is that you? Are you a believer losing the battle for your mind. You might say to yourself, “I know what’s right to do, but I don’t do it. I just can’t stop.” Maybe you’re wondering who can deliver you from this battle. Paul has the answer.

“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

Romans 7:25 (ESV)

Final Thought

It is a fact of the Christian life, your renewed mind will seek to serve God, but the flesh will continue to rage and try to make you its slave. However, you will find victory in Jesus in your new nature. You will find yourself able to resist temptation. As you submit to God as your authority and accept biblical truth, you will win spiritual battles. Following His Word will give you the ability to resist temptation and bring your struggles to Jesus’ feet. Involving the Lord in your life will strengthen your spiritual discipline, so that no binding of Satan will be able to enslave you. And that is a freedom that will bring joy and peace which can only be found in salvation through Jesus Christ.

How do you practice spiritual discipline in your life?

Image courtesy of Kelly Sikkema courtesy of Unsplash.