The Hole in my Holiness

Discipleship and accountability. These two words frighten my sin habits. “Intrusive, uncomfortable, awkward, and time-consuming.” My flesh sets its mind on these immediately. That, though, proves the point. The point Jesus makes as His Word so often emphasizes its necessity. But what is required for it to be effective? I’m convinced that a teachable heart is the key to success. Let’s begin to explore that.

The Thessalonian Christians had a teachable heart. See 1 Thessalonians 2:13:

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Note:

1.    "thank God constantly for this..." God gifts a teachable heart.

2.   "when you received the word... from us, you accepted it... as... the word of God..." God's Word comes to us through faithful men who tell it to us.

3.   We can  receive the Word yet receive it wrongly. To receive God's Word through faithful men as man's word is to insult God. To receive man's word as God's Word is to insult God. To receive God's Word as God's Word, though through faithful man, is to honour God.

4.   "...which is at work in you believers."  The pathway to spiritual growth is eager reception of God's Word as God's Word, when communicated through fellow believers.

The point is this: God speaks. He speaks through His Word. He speaks His Word through His people. We are to receive His Word as His Word, when spoken through His people. This is the teachable heart in action. Its benefit is growth by the working of God’s Word in us.

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. (1 Thessalonians 2:13, ESV)

As Christians we ought to be discerning, always testing what we hear to see if it accords with Scripture. To that end Paul ensures that Christian communication is true, and thus trustworthy. Paul does so by instructing us to speak the truth to each other. See Colossians 3:16:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom… with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Note:

1.    "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly..." First, both you and I are instructed to let the words of Jesus dwell in us. Dwell means “to make one’s home.” Thus “dwell” isn’t speaking of mere passing acquaintance. It is to have our heart super saturated with the words of Christ. Think Psalm 1: it is the one who day and night meditates on the Word that bears fruit and prospers. Think Joshua 1: it is the one who let’s not the Word of God from his bosom, who has the Lord's nearness and prospering hand.

So, how are His people to speak His Word to each other? By first soaking their hearts in it; not merely to be therewith acquainted, nor to merely intellectually comprehend it. Rather, the relationship between the words of Christ and your heart is to be like your relationship with the place you considered home; intimate, sweet, cosy – rich with personal insight and affection. Like how the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the Father make their home [dwelling place] in us as believers (John 14:23), making our bodies the temple of the Lord. Just as the LORD tabernacled [dwelled, made His home] in the Tent of Meeting, or Solomon’s Temple, in Old Covenant times.

2.   "...teaching and admonishing one another..." So, as we are each with the Word at home in us, we are to instruct one another and admonish one another. Note that one is commanded to receive teaching from another, and one is to receive rebuke, correction, and exhortation (entailed in admonishment) from another. This requires the teachable heart we've been speaking of. That is, to receive God's Word as God's Word when communicated through His people.

To give further insight into Paul’s command to us in Colossians 3:16, let’s compare it with a similar command he gives in Ephesians 5:18-21:

be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another… giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Note:

1.    In this  parallel passage, Paul after instructing the same things he did over in Colossians, only here adds, "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." Note, one is to submit. Submission means to arrange oneself under another, to allow another to take lead over you, to respond to their initiative, to let them be over you, etc. More specifically, in the case of truth communication, submission would be to arrange oneself under the instruction of another, to respond to the other’s instruction, to allow their verbal cues to lead the conversation, and for us to follow them where they want the conversation to go. Further it is a heart-submission. Not a pretence of submission, nor a bleeping of phony responses we don’t mean, but a real heart-response of humble submission to the conversational leadership of another. So submission to each other, especially as we receive teaching and admonishment from each other.

Not only submissiveness outside of receiving teaching and admonishment, but especially in the moments we receive it, for those reveal whether we truly are submissive, humble and teachable, or whether pride, insecurity, and haughtiness rule and dominate our hearts.

Also note the following: we are to be submissive in receiving instruction and admonishment from our brother out of reverence for Christ. Why out of reverence to Jesus? Because the words of Christ at home in our brother, who is speaking to us, are the words to be received as it actually is, the Word of Christ, not the word of our brother. So it is a matter of revering Jesus, not a matter of revering our brother. A matter of receiving teaching and admonishment from Christ though our brother, not from our brother. As long as our brother is faithful in dispensing his responsibility to be "a workman approved, accurately handling the word of Christ." (paraphr. 2 Tim. 2:15)

2.   Going on, in both Colossians and  Ephesians, Paul says, "giving thanks to God the Father through Jesus." Not only are we to submissively receive the word of Christ from our brother, we are to thankfully receive it. With thanks are we to receive the rebukes of a brother. As Scripture says, "faithful are the wounds of a brother, deceitful the kisses of an enemy" (paraphr. Prov. 27:6). Also, "A fool is right in his own eyes, the wise receive instruction and reproof" (paraphr. Prov. 12:15). 

  We are to praise God that He cares enough to grace His children with the particular knowledge of how we are to be conformed to Jesus. And that He does it so clearly for us, through the means of fellow believers' exhortation and encouragement (1 Pt. 4:10).

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom… with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16, ESV)

be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another… giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-21, ESV)

Let’s consider some other characteristics of discipleship and accountability:

1.   Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13, ESV)

"exhort[ing] one another every day" is how God means for us to be kept from being "hardened by the deceitfulness of sin" which would develop in us "an evil, unbelieving heart" eventually "leading [us] to fall away," or backslide. Exhortation from a faithful, Scripture-indwelt brother is to be received submissively and thankfully, as a grace of God; instructing us to renounce ungodliness (Tit. 2:12), and so keeping us from backsliding. This is the benefit of discipleship.

2.   And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25, ESV)

"...let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works..." Discipleship is loving; it takes the initiative to benefit another brother. Each of us ought to so know, think about, and understand our brother, and so regularly think of fitting ways in which we can encourage him to love and good works. Like, "What can I say to, and do for, my brother that can refresh his heart in such a manner as to motivate him to self-sacrificing love and useful works?" (i.e. Philem. 6-7b, 20). Or, "Knowing my brother, his personality, and present temperament, how may I interact with him, so as to reinvigorate him spiritually to restore him to former usefulness?” (i.e. Gal. 6:1-2).

3.    so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro… carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning... Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him… into Christ, from whom the whole body… when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:14-16, ESV)

The antidote to being a child tossed about by human cunning, is the people of God speaking the truth in love to you. This is the means of spiritual growth in the body of Christ. Each part must function properly, that is, be so spiritually lively so as to have the capacity to “speak the truth in love.” When the word of Christ communicated, is received, it matures and works in the one who receives it with thanks and humility.

See all 32 NT "one another's" as filling in the whole picture of discipleship (though, yet still lacking):

In summary, discipleship is that distinctly Christian love between the people of God, "love... in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18). And its aim is to make us more and more like Jesus who fulfilled all love, even love supremely shown on the cross.

... to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ... speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into... Christ… (Ephesians 4:12-13, 15, NASB)

Yet the requirement for successful discipleship, particularly in the context of one-on-one accountability, is that both hearts are submissive to the words of Christ, especially where a brother calls another to love and good works.

More can always be said, but look to Christ, He "became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption," (1 Cor. 1:30). Enough is said in Him.


soli Deo gloria