Two Errors About Following Jesus
We are to combine the two concepts of temperance in order to live the victorious Christian life. But there are those who miss the Biblical balance and veer to one extreme or the other.
There are some who talk as if they live for the Lord by faith without the element of discipline. I have met some who have made a mess of spiritual living by talking this way and living by this extreme standard. They have read the classics about the victorious Christian life. But the fact is that they have mostly misread or misunderstood them, and are infected with a strange aversion to any form of commitment or deliberate and planned activity. They are afraid that work done based on planning and preparation rather than on the prompting of the Spirit, may be of the flesh. Some who have rejoiced in what they have learned about living in Christ have a tendency to free themselves of responsibility to live a holy life. It is as if they tell Jesus in the morning, "I can't, but you can," and then at night say, "Well, you didn't do a very good job today, Lord." So-called faith without discipline is not right.
Then there are those who live by discipline apart from faith. These are carnal people who keep the rules and get a lot done, but are in some ways dead and frustrated and defeated. They lack the life of Christ, and really don't do as well as they say they do about living right either. They work hard, but they have little joy or victory in their lives. Their work is what the book of Hebrews calls (in 9:14) "dead works," driven by a guilty conscience and not based on the liberty our Redeemer purchased for us on the Cross.
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