📖 Biblical Definition
Training, in Scripture, is deliberate, repeated practice that shapes the saint’s body and soul for godliness. Paul commands it of Timothy: "exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come" (1 Timothy 4:7-8). The Greek verb gymnazō (from which our word gymnasium) names the discipline of the athlete. The saint trains for fitness in righteousness as the athlete trains for the games — through repeated, ordinary acts of obedience, Scripture intake, prayer, fasting, and accountability. Spiritual maturity is built, not granted; the unexercised soul atrophies just as surely as the unexercised body.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The act or process of forming by instruction, drill, and practice; education for a particular purpose.
expand to see more
TRAINING, ppr. Drawing along; educating; exercising in any thing for the purpose of forming habit.
Greek gymnazō (1 Tim 4:7; Heb 5:14; 12:11) is the New Testament word: deliberate, sustained, often painful exercise — not a one-time decision but a discipline.
📖 Key Scripture
1 Timothy 4:7 — "Exercise thyself rather unto godliness."
1 Timothy 4:8 — "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things."
Hebrews 5:14 — "Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."
Hebrews 12:11 — "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."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity often expects spiritual maturity to arrive without training; Scripture treats it as gymnasium-grade discipline.
expand to see more
1 Timothy 4:7-8 contrasts bodily exercise with godliness. The point is not that one is good and one bad; the point is that both require training, and the second yields more.
Hebrews 5:14 puts senses through use to discern good and evil — the saint trains his moral perception by repeated faithful choices. There is no shortcut; the gymnasium has the only door to fitness.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek gymnazō is the underlying verb.
expand to see more
Greek gymnazō — to exercise (as in a gymnasium); to train by sustained discipline.
Note: cognate with gymnasium; the New Testament normalizes athletic-training language for spiritual formation.
Usage
"The gymnasium has the only door to spiritual fitness."
"Exercise thyself unto godliness — the verb is athletic."
"Senses are exercised to discern good and evil; there is no shortcut."