{"id":13135,"date":"2024-10-15T15:53:37","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T20:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/?p=13135"},"modified":"2024-10-15T16:19:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T21:19:28","slug":"should-our-spiritual-disciplines-have-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2024\/10\/should-our-spiritual-disciplines-have-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Should our Spiritual Disciplines have Rules?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Don Whitney<\/em><\/a>, author of several NavPress books, is the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Here are several short, practical posts from his always-timely book, <\/em>Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed<\/a>. In these selected excerpts, Whitney will help us consider ways to simplify our journaling, our prayer, our Christian life in general, our priorities, and our time in Scripture. In this post on the Christian life, Whitney will help us understand when rules are helpful, and when they’re not.<\/em><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My wife Caffy and I have a longtime friend who asked me about the book I was writing. When I told her the title was Simplify Your Spiritual Life,<\/em> she responded abruptly with, \u201cNo rules.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere should be no rules for the spiritual life. <\/strong>I try to read in four different places in my Bible every day, but some days I read in only two or three. I don\u2019t want a rule that says I have to read four.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Bible itself gives us some rules about our spirituality.<\/strong> One of them, for example, is in 1 Timothy 4:7: \u201cDiscipline yourself for the purpose of godliness\u201d (NASB). In obedience to this command, every Christian should pursue intimacy with Christ and the imitation of Christ through the practice of the personal and congregational spiritual disciplines found in Scripture. What we should oppose is measuring this pursuit by rules that aren\u2019t in the Bible.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legalism is the improper emphasis on works in our relationship to God.<\/strong> It focuses on the manifestations of spirituality that can be measured by number, frequency, duration, amount, and so forth. No one has the authority to force upon themselves or anyone else external measurements of spirituality that have no scriptural basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposite of legalism is license, that is, living as though freedom in Christ means there are no measurable standards of spirituality. License leads a person to presume he can be faithful to the Lord\u2019s word in 1 Timothy 4:7, even if he never reads the Bible again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spiritually disciplined Christian life should be lived between these two errors. <\/strong>On the one hand, because of the grace of God experienced through Christ, believers are free from keeping manmade rules as a way of keeping the love of God. On the other hand, because of the same heart-changing grace of God at work in us \u201cboth to will and to do for His good pleasure\u201d (Philippians 2:13), we sincerely want to discipline ourselves to pursue godliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not even the most rigorous practice of the spiritual disciplines is legalistic when the motives of our spirituality are what they should be, namely to do all to the glory of God and to pursue Christlikeness<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DON WHITNEY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Donald S. Whitney<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DONALD S. WHITNEY<\/a> (under photo, link to https:\/\/biblicalspirituality.org\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Whitney<\/strong> holds the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is professor of biblical spirituality and the director of the Center for Biblical Spirituality. He is the author of several books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read More from Donald S. Whitney<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife Caffy and I have a longtime friend who asked me about the book I was writing. When I told her the title was Simplify Your Spiritual Life, she responded abruptly with, \u201cNo rules.\u201d \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d \u201cThere … <\/p>\n

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