In the context of freedom, the individual is called of God to disciplined life. Freedom means that the individual must self-choose, and maintain control to carry through firmly on constructive resolutions – if that person expects to gain fulfillment so to be unapologetic either to self or God. In this there is a sense of righteousness in the quality of one’s life, not necessarily related to professional and social contexts. It is likely that the pattern will spill over to the social and professional contexts as well, but those entities may be so influenced by forces out of our control that anything we may do, will not assure success, as success is measured in the entity. For example, we may not succeed professionally because of conditions that visit world economic depressions. We may not succeed with our children in that the distractions they encounter may be accepted by them so they abandon vital factors from their nurturing years. Our victorious lives are related to ourselves, to be honest with self, consistent, virtuous/moral, engaged, faithful, loving, sharing, affirmative, learning, and holding a faith that covers or protects us in our omissions and stumblings – that with humility and forgiveness. For the Christian the context is found in that identified as the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. The victorious life promised of God – if the person holds commitment to righteousness. That objective is not easy to accomplish at first, but it grows as we choose (as any commitment grows) so that it dominates the Christian nature of the person of self-discipline. We feel we cannot do otherwise.
Scripture represents personal self-discipline in various words, one of which is walk. In that word we capture some of the meaning we seek. If I walk, I am choosing to move with God’s help from the point of where I am to some point where I want to be or expect to be. There is something special in the act that represents me as a person that is carrying through on an act of conduct that has some meaning, no matter how modest. Scripture suggests that we walk (discipline ourselves in an everyday process) toward improved or added-on objectives. The walk may seem unimportant, so incremental we can’t measure the meaning at the moment, but the walk may be momentous. We have all made small gestures that moved us from danger to safety, perhaps from some object that would have wounded or dispatched us if we had not moved along. Of course we may move in the direction of danger, and regret the move, but God’s promise is that if we maintain the discipline of our walk (described at length in many passages of Scripture) we are safely related to his pattern. He determined our safety, if we determine his discipline for our walk. The context of the Galatians passage above refers to both the blessed walk and some impediments of it. Reading carefully enough, the reader discovers that the curse or the blessing is invited in the obedience or disobedience of the individual to self in choosing the path to be walked along during the self-journey.
Some persons choose the negative walk. Their stories are told – as in the Eugene O’Neill drama, A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. It is a story of depressive alcoholism. I have read stories of persons who were determined to drink alcohol better than all others, so that friends were under the table before they were. Some succeeded, if the stories are true, but to what purpose? What is the destination? What is the honor – to be the best alcoholic in the crowd or any other wholly human achievement? The concept of discipline to evil is as real as the discipline to righteousness. The life to fulfillment relates to profound belief in the choice to take charge of one’s life, so to take responsibility for it in its possession, and make of its quality what it ought to be. That is best done with the aid of God directed toward the awards of his evaluation, positive for those committed to his program for the individual, and negative for those violating it. That seems fair enough in the management of life, which is a gift of God, respected because of his image in it. Those taking life casually on their own terms, will ultimately end with wood, hay and stubble (destructible), and the others with gold, silver and precious stones (indestructible). (1 Corinthians 3:11-15) If there were not serious personal responsibility for us related to human outcome, Scripture would be limited to one page, rather than hundreds of pages. From the record we have, there must be commitment to the will and plan of God, not only for redemptive purpose, but disciplined life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020