In Dallas Willard’s book, Spirit of the Disciplines, he proposes Protestantism’s rejection of the disciplines as critical to life with Christ has created a view of salvation that stunts the disciple’s ability to carry out the New Testament’s instruction. Developing the character of Christ requires effort (Philippians 2:12) and the power of the Spirit. Our effort is not a means of earning salvation— Jesus alone has secured this—rather it is how we partner with him in becoming people who embody who Jesus is.
As we seek to become apprentices of Jesus, our aim is to unite our will with God’s will through obedience. We must be formed in the way of Jesus to the point that our knee-jerk reactions are worthy of God’s kingdom. The Christian disciplines are the means of training us to do what we can not do by our own willful efforts. We practice so that when the time comes we respond naturally in obedience and Christlikeness. These practices also create space for attentiveness to God, helping to train the habits of our flesh; it is, however, only through the Holy Spirit are we transformed into his likeness.
Training off-the-spot in order to respond like Jesus on-the-spot
Our true character is seen in moments under stress. Our habits train our character as seen in both 1 Timothy 4:7 and 2 Peter 2:14—one may have a heart “trained in godliness” or “trained in greed.” We are the sum of our daily habits. The Christian disciplines or practices, such as silence, solitude, worship, and celebration are habits that transform our character in partnership with God. The goal is not merely to ask ourselves “WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?)” but rather to train so that our character is continually coming into alignment with his until our subconscious cannot help but respond in the way Jesus would.
The WWJD framework is powerless in the heat of an argument over politics, someone cutting you off in traffic, or when life continues to knock you down. The “practicing” of these disciplines or practices help prepare us in the “offseason” so when the moment arises we do not need to ponder what Jesus may do, we automatically do it. Willard suggests that if the disciples would have stayed awake in Matthew 26:41 to pray throughout the night, they may have had the “condition of body and mind” to not desert Jesus (or attempt to cut off the servant of the high priest’s head!). The training of the disciples’ bodies seems to play an integral role to their response in that moment.
Information alone will not transform
In an age obsessed with information and the ideology that a person changes primarily through adjusting beliefs alone, it is important to note the vital role our bodies play in spiritual disciplines and the development of our character into Christlikeness. In Ephesians 4:28 Paul says, “anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands…” It’s interesting that Paul points to replacing the habit of stealing with your hands to doing something useful with your hands.Our character formation begins in the body, as this is the vehicle by which we experience life.
Our “power, freedom, and – therefore – responsibility” according to Willard, are all born in our bodies. Our body is where we experience the impulse to take action—if we attempt to transform character solely through information and the mind, we are growing shallow roots of change. Throughout Scripture our character formation is connected to physical exercise (or qumnazo). Because we are not dualistic in nature—all parts that make up our personhood are interconnected (body, soul, mind, emotions, will)—our exercise in Christlikeness must always involve our bodies. One way to begin training the body is physically slowing down to create awareness.
To create soul space, practice silence
Two of the most crucial Christian disciplines for the American disciple today are silence and stillness. One of the greatest gifts of these disciplines is their ability to create space to hear the voice of God and encounter him. Intentional, Spirit-led reflections upon our life and experiences are monumentally important to our development into “little christs” or mature Christians. Greg Ten Elshof, in his book I Told Me So, states “we manage our attention in order to not see things.”
What a tragedy to live such a hurried life that one creates no time to reflect upon it with Jesus in such a way that opportunities for spiritual growth go unnoticed because of our own inattentiveness. Transformation almost always begins in the form of disruption or interruption. Human life bears out what Scripture also attests: suffering is the greatest disruption to our life and faith. As humans who love to indulge and escape pain, it is remarkable to consider what we might be missing that a simple practice of silence could unearth.
Discipline always requires relationship
The Holy Spirit’s power and companionship is central in these practices. The process of discipleship always requires a relationship—in this case an apprentice/Master relationship. Willard reminds us that “the activities constituting the disciplines have no value in themselves.” An important warning: we must be careful not to elevate our actions (disciplines) over Jesus’ supernatural action. If we do, we easily slip into legalism and desolate liturgies that produce self-righteousness and all kinds of evil much like the Pharisees. The goal in our practice of disciplines is to learn a life of unceasing prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17–19) for all practices sit on a bedrock of prayer. As Simon Chan states in his book Spiritual Theology, “Rules can make us or break us. They break us if we pursue them as ends in themselves, and they make us if we see them as means to an end.”
First and foremost, the end in mind is fellowship with King Jesus. Through this we continually grow into gospel-formed co-laborers reigning with Christ in his good and glorious kingdom here and now and into eternity.
As Augustine observes, “He who made us without ourselves will not save us without ourselves.” In other words, practicing the Christian disciplines are within our realm of responsibility and producing fruit is within our Father’s domain. Just as we have boundaries with those we love most, God has boundaries with us; he will not do what is ours to do and we cannot do what is his alone to do.
The role of the discipline or practice in developing a character of Christ is to train us to embody Jesus’ character instinctively through creating space for attentiveness to God; this allows us to partner with the Holy Spirit in training our flesh into kingdom-character so that in every context we display glimpses of the kingdom. We train so we are prepared to reign with Jesus in his kingdom forever.
