“Let all men know and perceive and recognize your unselfishness (your considerateness, your forbearing spirit). The Lord is near [He is coming soon].” —Philippians 4:5 Amplified
The word frugality is an archaic word to most of us Americans. But I want to assure you that it is still in modern dictionaries. Here is my favorite definition of this word given by Dr. Dallas Willard, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California: “In frugality, we abstain from using money for goods to our disposal in ways to merely gratify our desires or our hunger for status, glamour, or luxury” (page 168).
In this brilliant book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dr. Willard lists sixteen important disciplines the Christian is to consider to be a true follower of Jesus. He mentions the following as disciplines of “engagement”: study, worship, celebration, service, prayer, fellowship, confession, and submission. Then he lists the disciplines of “abstinence”: solitude, silence, fasting, chastity, secrecy, sacrifice, and frugality.
It goes without saying that Jesus engaged in all of these disciplines. Jesus’ success in his spiritual mission depended on a) the power of God, b) Jesus’ utter dependence on that power, plus c) his exercise of these disciplines. If you would like to question whether Jesus could have succeeded to become the spotless Lamb of God without these disciplines—think twice. Do you really believe that Jesus could have lived without prayer at the beginning of each day and throughout the day, and keep his heart pure? Do you really think that he could have defeated the devil at the beginning of his ministry without first having fasted for forty days? Do you really think that Jesus could have put down the Pharisees, scribes, and lawyers every single time had he not memorized vast passages of Scripture? We are in the same battle, fighting the same enemy as our Lord did. What makes us think that we, by just having been converted, can win without giving ourselves to the same commitment in discipleship as Jesus did?
Yet, this mistaken idea that once we have our conversion in our pocket, we can be spiritually sloppy and still receive a crown of life is as old as Paul’s Corinthian letters. There is a race to be run for every Christian. No Christian is called to sit on the bleachers to encourage others to run. All must run! There are bleachers in heaven—“...we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1)—but there are none on earth for God’s dear people.
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:24–27).
Do you know what that last word “castaway” means? It means “reject.” At the Judgment, there will be a rejection of runners—runners who started the race with Jesus, who ran in the race but who ran without discipline, who ran carelessly, who ran wastefully, who ran without temperance, breaking many of the rules of the race.
This little passage begins with, “know ye not.” In other words, you Corinthian Christians who come behind in no gift (1 Cor. 1:7), don’t you know that you still have to run the race, and you have to run it in such a way as to win an incorruptible crown which does not fade away? And that, my friend, involves engagement in spiritual disciplines, as I mentioned.
Frugality: Living
Sensibly
Can an athlete run a race without frugality? Can he
be a waster? Can he give himself to excesses? Can he
do it without temperance or self-control? Why does
Paul give us this word-picture from the gymnasium or
from the Olympics? Because in spiritual life, sports
are not for watching but for engagement.
Back to frugality. Here is another definition:
frugality is living sensibly within our means. It is
avoiding excesses. It is “to do justly, and to
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God”
(Micah 6:8). Did Jesus do that?
...This article is continued on page 12 of the
Premier Issue of Brush Arbor Quarterly.
Reimar Schultze is a senior pastor in Kokomo,
Indiana. Pastor Schultze is not only the author of
the Call to Obedience articles, but he is the author
of a devotional book, Abiding in Christ: The Essence
of Christianity. This book came out of a collection
of Call to Obedience articles over the past 28
years. For more information about this devotional
book, contact BookMasters: 1-800-247-6553. To view
additional Call to Obedience articles and other
resources that will help you walk with God, visit
www.schultze.org.
