Home » Academics » Lecture Hall

How Spiritual Disciplines Work: Righteousness and Golf

Getting Good at Golf

We all know what it takes to become proficient in particular activities such as golf or piano. We start by becoming motivated to learn — usually by reading about the activity, or by watching, say, a video on golf technique.

But no one in their right mind would consider their training sufficient if it only involved a daily reading and some inspiring "golf music" designed make them feel deeply about learning golf! Yet this is exactly our view of discipleship. We think that if we hear the word preached once a week (twice if we're really committed!), if we read a bit of the Bible or other inspirational literature each day, and if we listen to inspiring music, we'll really grow in character and virtue.

If one is going to progress as a golf player, one must employ this simple strategy: practice, practice, practice. The great players are those who practice over the course of their careers. They go to the driving range, focus on specific movements under the instructor's direction, and then repeat that movement over and over again until a habit is formed. The same thing is done in learning how to play the piano, speak French, make pottery or learn math.

Spiritual Disciplines as Training Exercises: The New Testament

So what do learning to play golf or the piano have to do with getting good at life? To answer that question, let's look at two New Testament texts that may seem a bit odd at first glance. It's hard to know how to take them if we do the right thing and interpret them literally.

I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your rational service of worship. (Romans 12:1, NASB, emphasis mine)

This verse is unpacked earlier in Paul's letter:

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. … I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. (Romans 6:11-13, 19, emphases mine)

As mentioned above, at first glance these texts — especially the italicized words — may seem a bit puzzling. As we will now discover, however, they express such deep insights about human nature and prosperity that, once again, the insights of this biblical teaching and, more generally, classic virtue theory¹ provide profound insights about spiritual and moral transformation. To understand this biblical teaching, we must first clarify four concepts: habit, character, flesh, and body.

A habit is an ingrained tendency to act, think or feel a certain way without needing to choose to do so. The way a person writes the letters of the alphabet is not something he or she needs to think about. It is a habit, allowing one to concentrate on what one is writing, not on the habitual style of handwriting used.

Character is the sum total of one's habits, good and bad. Penmanship character is the sum total of one's good and bad writing habits; it is one's handwriting style.

Biblical terms such as flesh (Greek, sarx), or body (Greek, soma) have a wide field of meaning. Sometimes flesh and body mean the same thing, but in the passages above, there is a unique and important meaning for each. Body is pretty obvious. In contrast to the soul, it refers to one's living, animated physical aspect. The body can be seen and touched, and it is composed of tissue, skin and bone.

The flesh in these texts refers to the sinful tendencies or habits that reside in the body and whose nature is opposite that of the Kingdom of God. To understand these more fully and to appreciate their importance more deeply, let's return to the example of learning to play golf. What I am about to say may sound a bit forced, but I mean for it to be taken quite literally.

Getting Rid of Golf-Flesh

When a person plays golf, he or she has a golf-character, that is, the sum of good and bad habits relevant for playing golf. One's golf-flesh is the sum of one's bad golf habits. Where do these bad habits reside? They dwell as ingrained tendencies in specific body parts, particular members of the body. One's golf game may be weakened by bad habits in the wrists, the shoulders or somewhere else. One may have good habits in one's legs but bad habits — golf-flesh — residing in one's shoulders. Golf-flesh resides in the specific members of one's body.

How does one develop a good golf-character? Again, not simply by daily golf readings coupled with regular exposure to motivational golf music! No, one must present one's members to a golf instructor at a driving range as instruments of golf-righteousness instead of following one's golf-flesh as an instrument of golf-unrighteousness. These are not figures of speech. They are literal indeed. By so presenting one's members, one gradually gets rid of bad golf habits and replaces them with good ones.

How does one present one's members to a golf instructor? Two things are involved. First, one must dedicate oneself to the pursuit of golf-righteousness (to getting good at golf), and choose to submit as an apprentice to a master-teacher.

Second, one does not simply engage in a one-time act of dedication to the master-teacher. To "present one's body" to a golf instructor requires repeatedly engaging specific body parts in regular activities done over and over again, with the instructor in charge, and practicing different movements. For example, one may present the members of one's body — say, the wrists — to the instructor by practicing over and over again a specific wrist movement, a particular swing.

The result of such habitual bodily movement will replace the bad habits of the wrist with good ones. The golf-flesh that resides in the wrists will give way to golf-righteousness in those members. Later, the instructor may require the habitual presentation of other members — say, the hips — to replace bad habits that reside there.

A golf discipline is a repeated golf exercise, a bodily movement involving specific body parts, repeated over and over again, that is done for the purpose of getting rid of golf-flesh and gaining golf-righteousness in one's body. A golf-discipline is done repeatedly not to get good at the discipline, but to get good at the game of golf.

Getting Good at Life

The parallels with becoming good at life should be clear. When one presents one's body to God as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), it involves not only a one-time act of dedication, but a habitual, repeated bodily exercise (1 Timothy 4:7-8; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27). It involves specific body parts (Romans 6:11-13, 19), putting to death one's bad habits (Colossians 3:5), i.e., removing the flesh that resides in those body parts, and replacing them with righteousness that comes to reside in the members of one's body.

C O F F E E  S H O P

---

What sorts of disciplines are you or will you be putting into practice?

Join the discussion!

A Christian spiritual discipline is a repeated bodily practice, done over and over again, in dependence on the Holy Spirit and under the direction of Jesus and other wise teachers in His Way, to enable one to get good at certain things in life that one cannot learn to do by direct effort.

What's Next

In part two of this series, we will look at a menu of classic spiritual disciplines and concentrate on describing a "non-classic" discipline: witnessing.²