Paul's message defies any quick summary, for his
words are the very words of God to us on many issues. Yet it is the man
who brought the message we're interested in here. Scholars have difficulty
pinpointing Paul's focal contribution to the church, and lay people often
view him as having a kind of "holy fanaticism" that is beyond
our reach. Underneath it all, Paul remains an enigma largely because, while
we laud him, we fail to imitate his way of living by practicing the many
and varied disciplines he practiced throughout his life.
Paul reminds us that even before his conversion he was "far more
zealous [than other Jews] for the traditions of my ancestors," traditions
that included fasting, tithing, study, and more (Gal 1:14). He knew a lifetime
of committed discipline, and upon coming to Jesus his discipline took on
new meaning and purpose.
After meeting Christ on the Damascus road Paul prayed and fasted for three
days. Shortly after his conversion he spent a long period of time, thought
to be three years, in solitude in the Arabian desert. Throughout his years
of ministry and travel Paul spent time in fasting and prayer, both alone
and with his ministry partners. He modeled continual self-sacrifice, simplicity,
frugality, and service. He worked to support his ministry life and gracefully
endured imprisonment and beatings. He often went without food, sleep, or
adequate clothes and he dealt in love and perseverance with those who took
him for granted.
Paul asked his fellow Christians to imitate him and "train
yourself in godliness" as he was doing (1 Tim 4:7), in a way similar
to physical training. "Just as with the physical, there is a specific
round of activities we must do to establish, maintain, and enhance our spiritual
powers. One must train as well as try," writes Dallas
Willard in The
Spirit of the Disciplines. "The key to understanding Paul is to
know that, with all his 'weaknesses' and failures and personality deficiencies,
he gave himself solely to being like his Lord. He lived and practiced daily
the things his Lord taught and practiced. He lived a life of abandonment;
and it was his confidence in this path, and in the power that derived from
the rich union with Christ it created, that enabled him to call others to
do the same. His actions, his character, his motivations-and the astonishing
world-changing power derived from his lowly life-style-can only be understood
by keeping this fact in mind: Paul followed Jesus by living as he lived.
And how did he do that? Through activities and ways of living that would
train his whole personality to depend upon the risen Christ as Christ trained
himself to depend upon the Father."
Personal Reflection
· If you have practiced any of the Spiritual
Disciplines, how has God met you, changed you, and moved in your life as
a result?
 
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E-newsletter Archive
January/February 2005
