Striving and Diligence

When I first experienced the Lord’s powerful hand moving in my heart, lifting me out of great trouble and confusion, and turning my heart to Him, I was so convinced of His existence, and so deeply appreciative of His love, that I dedicated myself to serve Him with uncompromising zeal and discipline. For the next seven years I did everything I could think of to know Him and please Him. I prayed and fasted, studied Scripture and many Christian books, took Bible classes, led worship, taught Bible studies, preached in jails, fed homeless people and took them into my house, etc. And at the end of these years I was greatly humbled and confused to find that my heart felt largely unchanged. I had learned much, and done much, but I had grown very little, and was confused and frightened by seeing that my heart was still so filled with pride and selfishness, and that there was still a very conspicuous LACK of Christ’s life, light, and love.

In response to many desperate pleas for help, the Lord then began to open my eyes to the true nature of the gospel, showing me that it was a work of God in the soul, and not a work of man. I began to see that man could not please God in the flesh, nor produce any of the fruits of His Spirit. I saw that Christianity did not consist of rightly defined doctrines with rightly directed activities and prayers, but was the very indwelling power of Christ, actively living and working in man to expose and put off his entire fallen nature, and to bring forth the birth, growth, and reign of His spiritual kingdom in the soul. Seeing and feeling these things to be true, I quickly began to understand why my years of discipline and striving had produced so little fruit. And I was tempted—and I must confess also deceived for a time—to disregard or even reject the idea that there is a place for human effort, diligence, and discipline in the Christian life. 

Though I have no doubt that it was the Lord who began to open my eyes to see the inward nature and power of the gospel, I did what many people do when the Lord, in some measure, corrects their mistakes. I ran out of one error… right into another. A measure of His light had exposed a great misunderstanding. But instead of staying behind that light, and carefully and humbly watching how it would lead and teach me, I ran ahead of it, into a false belief that there was little or no place for striving, diligence, or self-discipline in the new covenant. 

Looking back, I recognize this response to be something like a fleshly knee-jerk reaction to a heavenly correction, and the main thing that I didn’t understand at that time was that there is a great difference between a diligence or striving to carefully submit to and cooperate with the work of God, and a striving to produce a work of my own. This is very similar to the error that many Jews were found in in the days of the early church. Paul says of them, “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” Now, it is entirely true that Christianity is Christ Himself living in man, and that the great work of God is carried on in the heart by the operation of His power, the birth of His Spirit, and the formation of His nature (righteousness) in man. All of this is a work of grace, and not a work of man, or a work of the law. And yet it is equally true that when Christians continue to live in the flesh, according to their selfish will and natural mind, then their life (with all of its perspectives, desires, and pursuits) amounts to a continual resisting, quenching, and grieving of the Spirit of God, where they experience little or nothing of His transforming power. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”¹

Jesus told us to “strive to enter the narrow gate;”² Peter tells us to “be diligent to be found in Him without spot and blameless.”³ The author of Hebrews insists that we should “be diligent to enter into our rest,”⁴ and encourages his readers saying, “you have not yet resisted to bloodshed in your striving against sin.”⁵ Paul is frequently commending believers in his epistles for their diligence and discipline,⁶ and describing his own walk with Christ with words like: “I strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and men,”⁷“I discipline my body and bring it into subjection,”⁸ and “I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”⁹ In fact, the whole reality of  “denying ourselves and taking up our cross daily”¹⁰ clearly implies a need for both watchfulness and diligence, and so does every other command, caution, and instruction in the New Testament. 

But in every one of the above-mentioned verses, the striving, carefulness, and effort involved on our part is never to produce life, light, righteousness, or spiritual growth,but rather (as Paul said concerning the Jews), to diligently submit to that which comes from God and works by His power, and to carefully live in such a way that our lives in the body, and our time in this world, do not wage war against His purpose for our souls.¹¹ Stephen told the Jews, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.”¹² By their response to Stephen we see they didn’t agree; and neither do we. But WE ALL do this very easily and naturally (and usually unknowingly), simply by pursuing our life in the flesh, finding our treasure in this world, and “setting our mind on earthly things.”¹³ “The carnal mind IS enmity with God;”¹⁴ this is not something it has to try to do. The first birth quite naturally and automatically “makes provision for the flesh with regard to its lusts,”¹⁵ and lives for “the lust of our eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.”¹⁶ In this way, man is very often feeding, protecting, and empowering the very fallen nature that God is seeking to put to death; and is likewise quenching, grieving, and “crucifying again”¹⁷ the Spirit of Christ that comes to save him. I say again, the carnal man does not have to TRY to do these things. He IS these things, just as much as he lives to himself, and walks in that flesh which always “lusts against the Spirit.”¹⁸

Therefore, Christian striving and diligence is always with an aim to protect the seed of the kingdom that He has sown in our hearts from the rocks, birds, weeds and thorns that naturally congregate there. It involves a careful watching, a diligent yielding and obeying the grace of God, a constant turning and submitting to the One who has all power, life, and righteousness, and who works these things in man. It involves “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,”¹⁹ “fleeing”²⁰ from immorality, idolatry, and greed, quickly submitting to the “reproofs of correction which are the way of life,”²¹ “resisting the devil,”²² and being faithful “stewards of the grace of God,”²³ etc. Not one of these verses encourages or requires man to produce a spiritual work for God. But all of them imply and demand a carefulness and diligence on the part of man to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God at work in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”²⁴ “To this end,” Paul says, “I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.”²⁵

1Romans 8:13

2Luke 13:24

32 Peter 3:14

4Hebrews 4:11

5Hebrews 12:4

6See for example: Rom 12:11, 2 Cor 7:11, 8:7, 8:22, 2 Tim 2:15, etc.

7Acts 24:16

81 Corinthians 9:27

9Galatians 4:19

10Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23

11See 1 Peter 2:11

12Acts 7:51

13Philippians 3:19

14Romans 8:7

15Romans 13:14

161 John 2:16

17Hebrews 6:6

18Galatians 5:17

19Titus 2:12 – “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.”

201 Corinthians 6:18, 10:14; 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:22

21Proverbs 6:23

22James 4:7

231 Peter 4:10

24Philippians 2:12-13

25Colossians 1:29