Danger of the Disciplines

[Editor’s Note: This post is part of a series on the Spiritual Disciplines.]

The Spiritual Disciplines require humility and submission to God and the power of the Holy Spirit. In the hands of the proud, they can actually bring death.

If you approach them without humility and submission to God, if you approach them without the help of the Spirit…

• They can be ultimately ineffective. Colossians 2:20–23 “[20] If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—[21] “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” [22] (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? [23] These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” Regulations without faith and the Spirit do little.
  
• They can be a source of hurtful hypocrisy. The original sense of “hypocrite” was acting. Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites because they were actors, and the spiritual disciplines were their props. Look, it is possible to know the Bible backwards and forwards and be a scoundrel. In fact, the Church is filled with men who know their Bible backwards and forwards, who would debate the finer points of theology with you until the cows come home, but they have no love, and they are total selfish jerks at home, and their kids hate them, and the Gospel is not good news at all in that house.
  
• They can be a source of self-confidence. Rather than trusting God, you can trust your personal discipline. As with the Pharisee that bragged about tithing and fasting (Luke 18:12) or those who think they have salvation because the read the Bible a lot (John 5:39), it is possible to transfer our hope of righteousness to the practice itself. It is possible to equate security with God to frequency of spiritual disciplines.
  
• They can be a source of burdening others. As we venture into “how to’s,” we quickly encounter manmade traditions. That is just the nature of practical specifics. So the general concept of prayer in the morning can become the specific prescription and tradition of “prayer at 5am, for an hour, before you do anything else, on your knees.” And what works for us we now foist onto others and tie weights to their feet until they drown. The Pharisees piled up such additional burdens.
  
• They can be a means of judging one another. We have a tendency to judge our best against others’ worst. So, for example, one thing teachers do is run all their recommendations through their teaching gift. So if you asked me about how to grow spiritually, I might recommend everything that works for me (e.g., I read the Bible, listen to podcasts, read books, listen to lectures, do word studies), but everything that works for me is really just under the category of “study” and is directly related to my wiring as a teacher. But you are over here killin’ it at hospitality, but I do not see that and look down my nose at you because you do not study like me. Or, you judge yourself because you do not look like me. We must be careful not to judge each other through the lens of our favorite disciplines.

What other cautions would you give?