Proverbs 15:32

He who ignores discipline despises himself,
but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.

—Proverbs 15:32

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It’s not about how rich, famous and powerful you can be; it’s about who you can serve. That pathway of obedience is marked by discipline and suffering.

 

 

Food for Thought

 

God tempers us and makes us strong through discipline and the instilling of humility. Consider what the Hebrews author said about Jesus Christ:

 

Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest….

 

The pathway to perfection—to total and complete obedience to the Father God for Jesus—ran through the gauntlet of suffering.

 

Also consider the attitude of Christ:

 

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature[b] of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

 

Discipline. Obedience. Suffering. Nothingness. Servanthood. Humility. These aren’t terms you’ll find in the run-of-the-mill MBA program. Yet I testify to you today, that if we would dare to dream of mastery—of perfection in our lives—it’s these things, these marks of a true servant, these marks of Christ, that we must earn.

 

Are you willing to walk down this path to perfection?

 

Next Steps

 

Those who followed rabbis, or teachers, during the days of Jesus, were said to have “the dust of their masters upon them.” Do you have the dust of Jesus on you? Do you serve your fellow man regularly? If not, look how you can serve others today.

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