There are two things that should never be separated in the Christian life; they are TEACHING and TRAINING.

When the word of God exhorts us to “TRAIN up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he shall not depart from it”, it envisages more than simply informing the child of those things that he ought to know, and ought to be aware of. What is fully involved in the operation is the constant directing of the child, and guiding of the child – much as a gardener would direct a certain plant, or “train” a certain plant to grow in the direction that he required.

This we all acknowledge to be a valid and worthwhile exercise with our children – or with our plants, as the case might be – and where we have children, we, no doubt, endeavour to follow the exhortation, and not only see them taught in the things that they ought to know, but also trained in the things they ought to do.

Now, what holds good with our children in general, holds good with the children of God in particular. And it is our duty and calling under God, not only to be taught in the things of His word, but to be trained in the things of His word, as well.

We are TAUGHT in the word of God, in the first place, when we are made aware of what the Lord requires of us as His people. This is an absolutely essential exercise, for without the instruction of the word of God to our souls, we have no clear directives to follow in our Christian lives, and no real gauge for our Christian experiences.

It is by His word that the Lord tells us how we must live, and how we must think, and how we must face various issues and circumstances in our pilgrimage. All such things we must know, and all such things we should endeavour to be taught in and instructed in as the children of the living God.

A great deal of the word of God, especially in the epistles, is devoted to TEACHING us the things that belong to our faith, and this teaching takes in the whole gamut of our lives – from our behaviour in “the house of God”, which is “the pillar and ground of truth”, to our behaviour in our own houses, as husbands and wives, or parents and children. Whether as “citizens of heaven”, or citizens in this world yet, there is certainly no shortage of teaching in the word of God regarding our manner of life.

But the true Christian life extends beyond knowing . As the Saviour put it on one occasion, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” The real blessedness of Biblical truth to our lives is not in simply being able to comprehend and know the truth; it is in being able to perform the truth, and that’s where spiritual TRAINING comes into play.

Spiritual training is simply taking that spiritual teaching from the word of God and practising it, and practising it, until it becomes built into the fabric of our Christian living and thinking There is no such a thing as “perfectionism” in the word of God, but there is, most-assuredly, a manner of life that is to become characteristic of those who name the name of the Saviour; and this is only achieved by us through constant endeavour to “train up” ourselves in the way that we ought to go.

Spiritual training is just as necessary to the spiritual existence as a thousand and one forms of other training are to the natural existence. All the knowledge from the instruction books in the world will produce nothing until the instructions are put into practice; and the more they are practised, the more able will the person become in that field.

The Christian life is no different. There are times when we do God’s word, because it happens to coincide with what we want to do, or find convenient to do at some given point in our life. Where the TRAINING comes in, is in “bending” the plant in the direction that the word requires. The more we endeavour to do that in our lives, the less we will find ourselves “departing” from that way that the Lord directs us.

“We on Thy holy Word, would feed, and live, and grow;
Go on to know Thee, Lord, and practice what we know.”

Courtesy of Wicket Gate