Exercise Naked?

The Hebrew Epistle gives its readers a glimpse into the measure of sanctification we are to walk through. To some, this may be a grudge, but for others, it is a doorway into glory! In chapter 12, we read of bastards and sons. "Sons" are those who endure God's dealings and chastisement, while "bastards" are those who flee the spiritual scene before the work is complete:

"...Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby" (Heb 12:5-11).

Interestingly, Paul tells us of the extent of such chastisement. He goes so far to say that we're to be "exercised" in God's dealings.

In the original Greek, this phrase is "Gumnazo" and literally means, "to exercise naked". The term is borrowed from the Grecian Games, the Palaestra, or school of athletics, of Paul's day, and is used as a parallel to the spiritual athlete, the Christian. In Paul's day, these star athletes would compete in the nude. They were so outrageously toned, however, that they were not embarrassed or ashamed to bare all before the large crowds.. In fact, it was a point of pride that they could compete naked. How odd that Paul uses this term to parallel and define the extent of the believer's chastisement! We too are to exercise to this extreme degree. We too are to become so thoroughly purged by God's Word, that we can be likened to natural athletic perfection! Once this "training" is complete, no ounce of sin's fat will rear it's ugly head, all because of the furnace we've made our home; all because of the extreme degree of reckoning ourselves dead indeed unto sin (Rom 6:11), and fully exercised "unto godliness" (1 Tim 4:7).

Are you on the Holy Ghost treadmill today, sweating off your old man? Are you in the school of affliction (Ps 119:71), evermore learning the spiritual art of faith, hope, patience, experience, humility, self-denial and resignation of will? Are you walking, as a son, in God's perpetual dealing and chastening, being pounded upon by God's sanctifying, holy Word (Jer 23:29; 5:14)? Don't jump off just yet; Don't flee the "gym" prematurely. Stay upon this holy road until you likewise can exercise in the buff, unembarrassed and unashamed!