Let’s turn to our Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 4, 1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 7 through 8. They go into, I hope, a profitable exposition here, an application of these verses to the Christian life. 7 through 8, where we have this little section here where Paul is exhorting the young pastor Timothy to do his duty and responsibility as a public officer of the Church of the Living God. But in particular here, he makes a contrast that he flees one way, but embraces another.
And he actually plays off exercising, as we shall see. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verses 7 through 8, let us listen attentively to the Word of God. But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.
For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having a promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come. Let us pray. Gracious God and precious Spirit of truth and illumination, help us to see these texts a little more clearly, not just to understand it as what is applicable to Timothy, but applicable to Timothy as another believer.
He certainly has an office on top of that, but he’s always a believer, and so are we. And thus, to that extent, Lord, these passages are still applicable for us. We see, especially here, God, certainly we too are called, as we shall see, to exercise ourselves towards godliness day by day.
This is the Christian calling. This is the calling of sanctification in our life. May we be strengthened and encouraged to carry on, Lord, and not to grow weary and faint in this regard, we pray.
Amen. Paul, the apostle here, emphasizes to the young pastor Timothy the need to exercise himself in something other than vain babblings and old wives’ tales. He is to be exercising himself towards godliness or holiness.
Yes, pastors must preach and teach and exhort, and we went over that in part of these passages here, and the prior verses emphasize that. They must defend the flock of the living Jesus Christ and against all lies and false teachings. Reject them wholeheartedly.
But Timothy, Timothy’s mentor Paul, wants him not to forget something else as well in the midst of his responsibilities to the church of Jesus Christ, the pursuit of holiness. Verse 8, he plays off the word exercise here in this sense, contrasting it there with the profane’s old wives’ tale. In fact, exercising yourself towards godliness is also played off against godliness as well.
For bodily exercise profits a little bit, but there’s the playing off. Talk about exercise over here towards godliness. Bodily exercise, not quite the same as what I really want you to do, Paul, which is to exercise your spirit and the living God.
How does he do this? He pivots from verse 7 with the word exercise, which is transliterated into the English, gives us a word we all know. We went there when we were kids. I loved playing in this large room.
Now, we had carpets, so I had rug burns on my knees, but you enjoyed playing in the gymnasium. It comes right out of the Greek. It’s a transliteration.
Now, of course, he’s using the verb, but it’s very much the same as well. So, Paul writes that Timothy should be gymnasia towards godliness, and then he says, well, yes, I’m talking about gymnasiums, and you’re going to probably think bodily exercise, because that’s where it came from. That’s the root behind it.
But what I’m really saying here, verse 8, bodily exercise profits a little bit. Sure, that’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is spiritual exercise.
Same word, gymnasium. Gymnasia is a verb. So, this is the lesson, not just for him, but, of course, for all Christians.
So, let’s look at this in particular. Exercise towards godliness in the hearts, and exercise towards godliness in the hands is how I broke this up. There’s other ways you can go into this, and I will, because it’s Sunday School class.
I’m doing what? Sanctification. This is providential that these verses lined up with this, and so you’re getting a double dose in this sense. Exercise, yeah, I did gymnasium.
I did gymnastics, in fact, a little bit, very little. I remember in junior high, Oberon Junior High here in Nevada, there off of Ward Hill. It was actually two gyms, a smaller one and a larger one.
I guess the small one’s where they did the gymnastics, where they had the rings, right? Pull yourself up. And they had the pommel, as it’s called, with the horse or whatever, and you can play around with that. That’s about all I did.
Maybe I did some tumbling. Probably in junior high, I did some tumbling. Probably most of us did this, the older generation.
I don’t know what they do in the schools, the younger people today, what they do in schools today. But you had gyms, and gymnastics, and gymnasiums, basketball, and floor hockey. I really liked floor hockey.
You didn’t have to worry about the ice, although you did get rug burns. But I never pushed myself. It was just fun and games.
The idea Paul here clearly has is not just fun and games, because it comes from the Greek and the Greek activities they had, but to exercise, to work hard. They worked hard in those activities. To have better bodies and to compete in sports and sporting events and the like.
Now, are there other places that Paul uses this imagery? Is it just for Timothy? Of course not. It’s for the rest of us. 1 Corinthians 9, in particular, has a lot of this imagery.
Two or three different sporting imageries all wrapped up into one. 1 Corinthians 9, verses 24-27. You may remember some of this as I went through 1 Corinthians last year.
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run? Everyone’s doing it. But one receives the prize. Only one winner in a marathon.
And a marathon came from where? Greece. The messenger ran to the city of Marathon and killed himself to deliver a message. Run in such a way that you may obtain it, as he did.
And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it, these sporting guys, they do it to obtain a perishable crown. They would get the wreath and the whatnot, as you probably saw in some of the movies.
But we, for an imperishable crown. Yes, I’m giving this metaphor, this extended figure of speech, to explain to you what it is to live in the Christian life, to walk and to exercise in godliness. I want to remind you in this contrast as well, as a comparison, the contrast is, it perishes, we don’t perish.
Therefore, verse 26, I run thus not with uncertainty, thus I fight. So now he changes to another idea of sports. Not as one who beats the air.
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. Now what’s interesting here, as we go a little more carefully into these verses, is some of the key words he has. Now, the metaphor again, to remind us, is twofold.
Pursuing godliness is like running a race, and he spends a number of verses explaining this. And then here he throws into verse 26, another competitive event, boxing. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air.
Shadow boxing is what they call it, in the old days. So, boxing as well. But in all this, he wants to emphasize what? Discipline, exercise, self-control, temperance, these things that you need to be accomplished physically.
He’s saying, take that and put it to the spiritual realm that you would be accomplished spiritually. It’s a very evocative and powerful imagery, it seems to me. Especially as you go to some of the words here.
So we have, do you not know that you’ve got to run the race and only one wins it? Run that you’re the winner, basically, verse 24. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. And he says in verse 27, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.
The verse description, verse 27, the number 27 is not there, right? It’s thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it to subjection. The word discipline there means to strike beneath the eye. So you see he’s playing off the boxing idea already in the prior sentence, the prior verse.
And so it typically is translated along the lines of discipline, pester, or wear out. Because clearly he’s not saying I’m beating myself up literally with my fist. But I’m using it as a figure of speech to drive home an important point when it comes to the calling of the Christian life.
To beat black and blue, if it was a boxing context, if he was literally doing a news report about boxing, this word would be used to describe someone beaten black and blue. But he’s not, and so it’s translated disciplined. Serious discipline, serious self-control to be sure.
To bring to heel is another way of describing it as well. In the prior verse, verse 25, and everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Probably used to that word nowadays, but it means self-control, more or less.
You’ve got to be temperate in your eating and whatnot when it comes to running a race. You can’t just pig out all the time. You’ve got to have that self-control, that’s the root idea there.
If you’re going to run a race, if you’re going to do boxing, if you’re going to do wrestling or whatever else, you’re going to do it with your body. The same with the soul in matters of sanctification and holiness and godliness and following our Lord and Savior. We are called to do similar things in a spiritual way.
So we have two words here. To wear out, strictly to self-control, bring to heel, strike beneath the eye, our discipline. And here, temperate or self-controlled.
Clearly a synonym, but not as strong a language and description there. And then lastly, he talks about bringing his body, that is, I discipline or I beat my body and bring it into subjection. And that word subjection is also instructive, it seems to me, to lead into slavery.
I would call that subjection, in a serious way. And of course, therefore, he means it figuratively, to bring under control or subdue. So he says it in three different ways in these verses, about the Christian calling of self-control, self-discipline, and the like, of what it means to be a Christian.
To exercise. Here, this imagery of the gym, exercise. And now the imagery of beating ourselves in a boxing match and running as well.
One of, apparently, Paul’s favorite metaphors of the Christian, well, apparently not walk, but race. It’s the Christian race. And the word there as well, to be brought into subjection, could also be seen as to make ready to serve.
Clearly all these are overlapping ideas here. And thus, with these evocative words that describe the Christian life, ranging from exercising yourself in a consistent and rigorous manner that you can run a race, to even beating yourselves up, although not physical, but maybe even verbally at times. What are you doing, Sean? You dummy.
All this is to subject our bodies, to control ourselves, and of course control our souls as well, that we may follow Jesus, our Lord and Savior, all the days of our life. So, that passage there, 1 Corinthians 9, is a good parallel here to verses 7 and 9, with the imagery and the emphasis upon the hard work it takes to be a Christian in our sanctification. Now, let’s talk about the related words to the idea here of the word itself, godliness.
The word godliness is the idea of a life characterized by reverence towards God and respect for His beliefs and practices, or to put it in a very short fashion, to be like God. Godlikeness is how we have that English, or godliness, to be godly or godlike. In a moral sense, of course, not because we can become God as such.
But this is a longer definition here, a life characterized by reverence towards God and respect for His beliefs and practices. It gives it a fuller, richer idea, which makes sense to the rest of us, because clearly to be godly means to take the first table of the law seriously, to take God seriously, and in reverence and in honor, and of course to therefore have respect for His beliefs and His practices. The third commandment, His word and works, and worship, and His day, the fourth day, the fourth commandment, all that.
And then He’s given us the second table of the law. We must take that seriously as well. This is all godliness.
What’s another word for godliness? I think we know. Holiness. It’s a synonym.
The quality of a person or thing that can be brought near to God’s presence. So, although you can make an argument and show a technical distinction there, that is, as we have in this definition here, the quality of the person, what kind of person are you, you should be a godly person, and therefore that can be brought near God’s presence without judgment is the implication. Are you holy enough to come into God’s presence? So, although you can see some slight distinctions there between that and godliness, strictly speaking, but often in the Bible they’re very much synonymous, emphasizing that we are called to be respectful of God and therefore of His law, and thus act accordingly in accordance to His will, so that we can come into His presence by the blood of Christ Jesus.
Other such words, of course, of that particular word, in fact, I’m not going to give you the Greek. I’ll probably give you the Greek in Sunday School class when I go through it. But the word we often translate holy or be holy or holiness can also be translated as pure or set apart or consecrated.
Something along those lines. Sanctification, of course, is another word that also translates this one Greek word that we use for holiness, we use for purity or consecration. It can also be translated for sanctification or sanctified, often.
So in English you hear a lot of these different words, but in the Greek, in this case, there’s this one word that has all these different translations that are obviously very much related ideas. And it’s a constant theme between these words here. To be upright and pure before God.
Not absolutely, of course, because we all sin and need His grace day by day. But relatively, but with real development nevertheless, the Spirit of the Lord is indeed working in us, brothers and sisters. That work includes the desire to push back against sin, to be with God’s people, to hear His word, and to follow Him all the days of our life.
And in pushing back and the Spirit of God being within us and giving us regeneration and the fruits of regeneration, part of that is exercising the gifts that God has given us, exercising the means of grace that we may grow thereby. And of course, this must start with the heart. That’s why the first point is to exercise ourselves towards godliness with our heart, first and foremost, because we will certainly fail in our actions, our actions we misinterpreted.
Exercise Towards Godliness in Hearts
We will do it inconsistently. We don’t always know exactly what to do, morally speaking, in some circumstances. It can be very frustrating.
And that’s why we have to always go back to Jesus, and that begins with our heart, trusting and relying upon Him in faith and faith alone. We must have that. That’s implied, that’s assumed here in Paul’s writing to a pastor, Timothy, about what it means to be godly.
It’s not simply, oh, just forget about Jesus, forget about justification, forget about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit working in your sanctification. I just want you to focus merely upon yourself and exercise and work really hard about being a godly pastor. Just exercise very hard, Timothy, like you’re running a race.
No, that’s there. The emphasis is there, to be sure, but it’s assuming other truths about Timothy that he believes in Jesus, that he will rest upon Him even in the sanctification and not upon his own incomplete works, because you will have incomplete works in your sanctification. So the heart, I use the word heart not in the American sense, you’ve heard this before, but in the biblical sense, which is just the spiritual components, all that you are in your soul, and that is usually broken down to mind, will, and emotions, or the affections or passions.
The mind, your thinking, must exercise towards godliness. It can take some work to learn biblical doctrine and truth, and that begins with your mind, analyzing and understanding and reading the word of God. Hebrews 5.14, amongst many other passages we have here, that can apply clearly to the mind and other things as well, but solid food belongs to those who are full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
And that discernment there necessarily includes the mind, to perceive something as right or wrong. Not your emotions. God doesn’t want you discerning with your emotions in the sense of, turn my brain off and what do I feel about the person? It doesn’t matter.
What sayeth the Lord? And what is the situation you find yourself in? Make the judgment call of right and wrong. Then in Hebrews 12.11, there’s another passage here, which I’ll apply to the will, but again it doesn’t have to exclusively apply to the will. Your will must be exercised towards godliness.
You must push forward and be determined, we would say today, and insist that I will go the godly path, and honor God, honor His word, honor His law, and honor His gospel. Hebrews 12.11 we read, Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
So here’s a negative example of chastening or discipline for sin, but such punishment yields good fruit, that they are trained by it or exercised by it. That is this negative punishment upon them. And this, of course, with the intent of what? Changing not only your mind and the discipline that God gives you in providence or through the church, but your will, necessarily.
That your will, your desire, we sometimes use the word synonymously, to do this instead of that, and thinking it’s the right thing, when it’s actually the wrong thing. You need to redirect it towards holiness. And so Hebrews 12.11 can apply to the mind and the will, and certainly the emotions as a side effect.
Thirdly, your emotions or affections, as they used to call them, or passions. 2 Peter 2.14 we read, in his description of the unregenerate, They have eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices and are accursed children.
So here we have another negative example, more explicitly, that these people are trained, and they’ve trained their mind, will, and emotion in the wrong direction. That they are caught up with covetous practices, which usually involves, almost always, your emotions or affections. Desiring and longing for that which you should not have or do.
In this negative example, those who are trained in wickedness, we ought to take on the flip side and say, we don’t want that, we want to be trained in righteousness. So that we are in practicing and controlling our emotions, to desire righteousness instead, and thus be blessed children. One of the things that happens, of course, is that the emotions get comfortable with sin, as probably the case he’s describing here, eyes full of adultery, because it’s exciting, and they become zealous for it over time.
And unfortunately, we see this, it seems, in spades in society more and more, as things seem to devolve, and we see more truly the face of wickedness of those who desire to kill babies and the like. Exercises for the heart. So the heart, again, biblically means all that you are, the sum total of your soul, the faculties therein.
And the Bible gives us many such exercises or tools, or ways in which we can use our mind, will, and emotion in the right way to train them, like in a gymnasium. The Bible itself, of course, is the tool of tools that God has given us, besides His Spirit, which we must always have when reading His Word. And in the Bible, we find the law and the gospel, which it has given to us, the one to reveal our sins, that we still need revelation of and for, to illuminate our minds, to redirect our wills, and to bring proper conviction in our affections or emotions against those sins.
And then the gospel that relieves us of our sins, or more precisely, the consequences of our sins, and brings us to Jesus, our Lord and Savior. The Ten Commandments, in particular, of course, guide and direct our holy walk, showing what it means to be exercised unto godliness. It defines what godliness or holiness or sanctification entails.
What are the parameters? What’s the domain of what’s acceptable, what’s pleasing before our God and Savior? And that’s His will, especially expressed in the Ten Commandments. It warns against transgressions that harm the soul, and points towards godly practices that help the soul. The gospel, in particular, of course, we should never lose sight of this when we pursue godliness, but we wish to be like Jesus.
But we know we’re going to fall short, so we must, therefore, always rely upon Him, coming to Him with repentance, a heart that says, I did the wrong thing, God, forgive me, I pray, as your child. And we learn about the gospel through reading, through preaching, and must be relied upon always by faith. Faith is always there in the Christian walk.
It can never disappear until faith becomes sight, when Christ Jesus shall return. In which case, it is fulfilled. Prayer is another way in which we exercise our hearts, our mind, wills, and emotions, and that we, therefore, need God every day, is what prayer reminds us, to bring our sins before Him, to ask for His aid in fighting the sins that easily beset our souls, to ask for more strength, that we can run the race, because sometimes it feels like we just want to give up.
In Christian life, it’s hard, we say, we just want to give up. Worship is another tool that God has given us, that we may, therefore, be trained into this path of goodness and righteousness. Prayer, I already mentioned, is part of this worship, but specifically I have in mind public, formal worship, as we have this evening, for example.
We are busy throughout the week, and that’s fine, it has its place. When I go through the topic of sanctification in Sunday School class, I will highlight this, because it gets lost sometimes. It’s okay to have an ordinary, mundane life, you have responsibilities that must be done and accomplished, but you are surrounded by lots of darkness, unbelief, lies, encounter, propaganda against the truth that you’re taught in church.
And so it’s doubly important in this day and age, it seems to me, to go to church, to learn what you can, to be with the saints, to see that you’re not alone and crazy, that the rest of us also take the Lord God seriously and wish to follow in this path, because our path should not be alone, but together. And so here is a time to learn and to exercise unto godliness, here in particular the greatest object of godliness, which is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The last point, to exercise towards godliness or holiness in our hands, our concrete actions outwardly, not just the heart, but always the hands.
Exercise Towards Godliness in Hands
This is the outward holiness, which is part of the Christian life, and I don’t think I have to explain much about that, because obviously the Ten Commandments cover that, and in fact, most people, it seems, fall into one error of looking at the Ten Commandments as only being outward actions. That’s what the Pharisees, that’s the game they played, but always include the inward actions. In fact, we need both, the outward and the inward.
We’re supposed to, for example, take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit. And then interesting imagery. Some read, and I’ve run across this, I don’t think it’s very well-known, but they read bodily exercise profits a little, verse 8. So why bother? People do downplay the role, I pointed at this in Sunday School class a little bit, of the external in the Christian life, or the body, bodily concerns.
The things in this world related to the body, for example. 1 Corinthians 6.19 we read, Do you not know that your body, he doesn’t mean spiritual body or something like that, he means your physical body, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. We are called to take care of the body.
And Paul’s point here, again, I think he’s playing off the idea of exercise, in gymnasium, go to the gymnasium towards godliness, well, okay, bodily exercise is okay, but what I especially mean is this kind of exercise that has everlasting consequences. So he’s making a comparative here, not saying bodily exercise, or taking care of the bodily concerns, just forget about it, godliness is everything, there is the life, isn’t it? No, he’s just saying comparatively, you’ve got to understand what I’m talking about here. Therefore, the importance of the Christian life to shun wickedness in our bodies, to control the passions of our bodies, the native desires, what are they? Eating and sleeping are the two big ones that come to mind.
You could say they’re the desire of the soul, sure. But it’s also the body, the body literally needs to sleep, and it literally needs to eat. And it’s telling you, I’ve got to eat now, I’ve got to sleep now.
That’s why often in the Bible, he talks about flesh, or fleshly desires, he’s referring to the natural desires that we have that are now out of control. You’re not controlling yourself. There’s no self-discipline, self-control, no being of your body to control those passions because you end up into gluttony, or you end up into laziness and slothfulness, or too much sleeping, or too much indifference to work, and things like that.
We’ve got to control our eyes and ears, and they are the gateway to our souls, that they flee wickedness and embrace righteousness. And some of the tools are the same as well. I mean, the Bible, prayer.
You can pray with your mouth closed, we all know this. But it helps to pray with your mouth open as well, that is, verbalize your prayer, even if it’s quietly, to yourself. The means of grace are to this end as well.
Prayer, preaching, participation in the sacraments, these are external things we do, but they should always involve our soul, to be sure, and internal action as well. They are tools of the Holy Spirit, in addition to the law of God and common sense, that we be more like Jesus. He knows we need these tangible things.
The Lord’s Supper and Baptism are physical, tangible things that we can see and taste and hear. And preaching as well, we might forget that. That’s also a tool the Spirit uses for us.
We hear and we see a man of like passions like us, urge us towards godliness and holiness and sanctification and consecration and separation from the wickedness of this world, that we may be more like Jesus. These are means, they are basically the same kind of means, although the emphasis here is on the external act. You’ve got to at least do the external act if you can, unless you’re sick, or not able to come to church for other reasons, for example.
We, brothers and sisters, whatever our calling, just like Timothy is, whatever we have, a public office or a private office, or not much because we’re retired, we’re nevertheless called to exercise, to even beat ourselves if need be, spiritually speaking, this body into submission, and our souls as well, beneath Christ Jesus and His law and His love for us. And we can, by the Spirit of God, to beat that sin, more precisely, and misuse of the body in particular. Now, more will be said in Sunday School class, but let these reminders here encourage you not to give up godly living, brothers and sisters, this is our calling.
For our Savior is indeed with you, gifting you the spirit and tools of holiness. Paul is not urging Timothy something he cannot do. Your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is not such a man that He would urge you to eat, but give you a stone instead of bread.
And He urges you to godliness because He’s giving you the spirit that you can walk that path, or even run it, and beat the enemy of God instead of beating the error. Brothers and sisters, may we continue to exercise and work hard with the confidence that our Lord and Savior is with us and indeed working through us day by day by His grace. Let us pray.
Amen. God Almighty above, with your omnipotent power working in and through us, although we don’t always see it and understand it, we know it to be true. You’ve given us these tools, these ways in which we can exercise ourselves.
We’re not at a loss what it means to work hard in the gym and apply that idea to our Christian walk, God Almighty. May these words be an encouragement and a strengthening, God, and lifting us up that we would carry on this week, day by day, that we, Lord, would remember always that godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of life that is now is, and that which is to come. We ask these things by the blood of our Lord and Savior.
Amen.