Hebrews 12:5 And 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:

6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

9 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?

10 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.

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.
 

These are dramatic days unfolding before our eyes. Prophecies are being fulfilled, although unrecognized by the Church at large because of error rampant in her corridors of teaching. The Church is largely unaware of just how close we are to the end of the age, indeed, that the 'Beginning of Sorrows' spoken of by our Lord has probably begun, or is just about to (Matt. 24:4-8). We are on an unavoidable, wildly careening collision course with the time of Jacob's Trouble, initiating a time of global wrath and punishment. The Lord is also stepping up His disciplinary procedures so that His own may escape the venting of wrath soon to come upon the earth.

Punishment differs from discipline in that the latter is redemptive, motivated by love with a view to engendering holiness, while the former is beyond the scope of redemption. Punishment comes only when all other avenues of bringing restoration have been tried but failed, and it is discerned that the nature of the one under correction has become reprobate, i.e., unable and unwilling to be made able to respond to discipline. At that point destruction on a grand scale is called for to blot out the anomaly causing such disruption in God's ordered universe. Before that final, irreversible step is entertained, God is bringing restoration through increasingly stronger disciplines. It is important that believers know the difference between punishment and discipline, and that they recognize when they as individuals, and we as a nation, are under the Lord's disciplinary measures so that appropriate actions may be taken.

What is the discipline of the Lord?

From the above statement by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, we glean that discipline is first of all, a family affair. It is something done by parental authorities to their offspring. We also see that it is grievous, not at all pleasurable or comfortable. Here we see the example given of a father chastising his children with some sort of pain-producing measure to teach them not to cause him any more grief and aggravation. Our earthly fathers spanked, scolded, took away privileges and caused some measure of discomfort to evoke a certain type of behavioral change in us. What brought down parental correction upon us might have been something as mere as being an annoyance to them, or something gravely dangerous to ourselves and/or others, including everything in between. To stop us from pursuing such activities we were disciplined. If we were respectful, and the pain of the discipline sufficient to outweigh the pleasures of the activity in question, we learned to obey.

It is not necessarily wrong for parents to discipline their children after their own pleasure, as long as the penalty is not out of proportion to the trespass. This is why discipline should be parental, for the love of the parent for the child should act as a safeguard from the chastisement being too severe. When the pain or discomfort brought about by the chastisement is greater than the offense, a child's spirit easily becomes wounded, and bitterness often takes root. Children have a very keen and uncomplicated sense of justice (although not necessarily accurate), and they know when they have been punished more severely than was called for. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit, who can bear? (Prov. 18:14 ) Discipline that has no redemptive purpose is considered by the recipient as punishment for cruelty's sake, and thus, their delicate spirit is wounded. This is one of the reasons children grow up rebellious, worldly, and unwilling to follow the faith of their parents. Either the discipline administered was too harsh-- out of proportion to the infraction, had no redemptive purpose behind it, or was not lovingly explained in the sense of consequences and responsibility for personal actions. Nevertheless, children will prosper even under unjust chastisement if they obey their parents and trust their judgment and submit to their disciplines as unto the Lord, even when they don't agree or understand. As they willingly submit, their characters develop into those of responsible, mature human beings, capable of deep relationships with God and man. Learning to trust even flawed parental discipline develops a healthy respect for authority, and the greatest authority of all is God. God often doses out disciplines that are, at the time, incomprehensible. But by submitting to His disciplines as they learned to do to their parents', their faith is deepened, and the love relationship to God becomes stronger. At the same time, parents need to take heed that they do not provoke their children to wrath by unjust or overbearing penalties, for more often than not, a child will choose the easier path of resistance and rebellion if there is any hint of inappropriate penalty. Elders in the Church are admonished to have their children under constraint, that their children should be reflective of the upbringing consistent with godliness, else they are disqualified as leaders over God's heritage (Titus 1:6; 1Tim. 3:4-5).

The other end of the spectrum is the total lack of discipline. This is as frustrating to a child as over discipline, for it fairly shouts to the child that he is not loved enough to be restrained from harmful activities. Children need to be reassured by uncompromising enforcement that certain parameters cannot be crossed without discomfiting consequences. This provides a helpful barrier in the child's mental development of what he dare and dare not do, as well as develops a sense of security in the love of another. The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame (Prov. 29:15). A child will increase in untoward behavior (shaming those responsible for him) until he knows where the limits are, and if no limits are forthcoming, his behavior will become more and more anti-social until he becomes reprobate, beyond the ability to repent. Don't be deceived, hardness of heart can set in even at an early age, rendering such ones incapable of remorse. This is why Satan strives so intently to gain control over children at the earliest ages through such avenues as music, games, movies, television, etc. What messages are your children getting from their entertainments? What values do their heroes exalt and exemplify? Don't be fooled into thinking that 'good children will filter out bad messages, they won't. In fact, they'll be more likely to filter out the godly messages you try to instill in them if you allow the world's influences to ensnare them. Today there is precious little difference between education and indoctrination. Satan is playing for keeps, and he knows that the younger the mind, the easier it is to deceive with false values and impressions. Society at large suffers from an accumulation of generational irresponsibility in regards to the proper discipline of children. Dr. Benjamin Spock, engineer of the 'no spank' movement in the Sixties, fostered a generation of children who do not know how or why or when to discipline. Unrestricted Hedonism marks the next generation to follow, that were raised by the 'flower power hippies' of yesteryear. As generation after generation loses its moorings in their lack of parental skills, each succeeding generaation becomes more uncontrollable. Now we have evidence of that final generation emerging which Paul warned about in 2 Tim 3:1-5.

Whom does the Lord discipline?

He disciplines individuals. As Hebrews 12 shows, it is the job of parents to discipline their children. It does not fall to the state, courts, police, or even the Church to discipline children. It is the parent's responsibility. The state and police combine to punish those who were not properly disciplined, providing not loving, redemptive guidance, but harsh behavior controls through financial retribution (fines), imprisonment, loss of privilege, and sometimes premature death (capital punishment). It is not government's duty to 'reform' the criminal element, but to protect society from them. Lawmakers seem to have forgotten that in our day. Nevertheless, Romans 13 shows us that when parents fail to do their job, government steps in, not to take over shaping and forming the psyche of the individual, but to control the aberrant element for the sake of society, by removing them. The Church likewise, is to utilize discipline in a redemptive way, but not in a natural way for the children in the assembly. It is the parents job to discipline and teach their children. The Church's job is to provide the parents with a proper base and understanding of God's ways so they might do their job efficiently and effectively.

Sometimes members of the church get out of God's will, and the elders must take matters into their hands to supply what is lacking in the unruly one's upbringing through counseling, warning, and if need be, removal from fellowship until true repentance is in evidence. This is in microcosm a picture of 'spiritual' parents disciplining their 'spiritual' children, so the pattern is upheld.

In the same way, God only disciplines His children. As a man does not spank his neighbor's child, neither does God discipline the children of another father (1John 3:10). Instead, wrath awaits them (1John 3:8) as it awaits their father. The writer of Hebrews indicates that every son God receives knows the disciplinary hand of God, and if one has never been disciplined by God, it is doubtful they are truly born of God. In a sense, it is a mark of His ownership. It is likewise, a mark of sonship to accept gladly the disciplines of a loving father. Even though the discipline hurts, sometimes excruciatingly, the spirit of the son under the discipline knows, by faith, that it is for his good, and is a sign of God's redemptive love to him.

Individual people are not the only entities the Lord brings under His governmental, disciplining hand. God deals with nations too, administering correction on a wider scale. Once a nation has come under His banner as a 'Christian nation', expecting and experiencing His blessings and providence, they are likewise obligated to obey His commands to nations. He who chastens the nations, will He not rebuke, Even He who teaches man knowledge? (Psalms 94:10 NAS) A nation does not come into eternal salvation, but it can enjoy prosperity and blessing and peace under God's loving care. America has enjoyed such blessings for many decades, even though now we begin to see the erosion of those tender expressions of God's providence. Can a nation that has claimed to be a nation under God, and then turns away from all godliness, expect his blessings to continue? As God disciplined Israel and Judah with removing His blessings when they wandered away from Him, so, too, will He remove His blessing and protection from any nation that turns away from Him after receiving His benefits. What happened to Israel and Judah were lessons for future generations, allowing us to avoid making the same mistakes. A nation under chastisement will experience unusual weather patterns disrupting the growing cycle, causing havoc with droughts and/or floods and food shortages; increasing hostilities from foreign nations; diseases and plagues (see Jer. 24:9).

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.( 1Co.10:11)

If we don't learn as a nation how and why God disciplines, and eventually enters into judgment, as He did against His Chosen people, can we escape the same fate? In fact, it will go worse with other nations that forsake Him, for He has a purpose to accomplish yet with Israel, but not so any other nation. God has promised to restore Israel, but no other nation has that promise. As long as a nation stays under his protective guidelines (as should be taught and demonstrated by the Church within it) the longer His blessings will be shed upon them. When it leaves the safe moorings of God's guidance and standards, it will be prone to assault from nature, economic problems, foreign nations, plagues, crime, famine & drought, and the like. The rise and fall of many a 'Christian' nation can be traced through the record of history as they abandoned the God who established them. These catastrophes are just corrections when they start out, calling the nation back to repentance and obedience. But when such natural phenomena are rejected as God's dealing with an errant people, ruthless leaders, and a slumbering church, corrections become increasingly severe until only punishment is left.

Can we much longer ignore the harsh weather causing damage and death in our nation this winter, draining our national emergency funds and stretching our resources? Is it simply El Nino, or is El Nino a tool in the hand of a powerful and offended God? When will the prophets arise and call the church and the nation to repentance? Who will hear them if they do?

The Church too, is in rebellion and disobedience, and so will come under the discipinary hand of God. The nations of the world are openly hostile to God and His Christ, but should this be the situation in the Church? And what of leaders in the Church? What onus do they bear for their part in the Church's flagrant disobedience to God's Word? As surely as Jesus sent His angel to testify to all but one of the churches mentioned in chapters two and three of the Revelation, warning them singly of the danger they were in as a church if they did not repent, so too, must the Lord come in our day with judgment on the churches that flagrantly disobey Him. We have shredded his Word, ignored His anointed leaders in favor of educated leaders, substituted our own form of programmatic worship in favor of worship in Spirit and Truth, and sought to be tickled and coddled till the Rapture, in complete denial of His words to be prepared. The nation, indeed, the world, is in the shape it is in because the Church has been slack in her duties. Can she escape severe discipline?

Why does the Lord discipline?

Lam. 3:32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33 For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.

It is important to note that God would rather not discipline if He doesn't have to. We are the ones who make it a necessity. It connotes something about how bent and perverted our Adamic nature is that every son received needs to be disciplined. God would rather not discipline us, but it seems we all need it from time to time to keep us straight. If we have not ever been under the hand of God's discipline, we are not born of Him. Hopefully those who are mature in the things of the Lord have outgrown their need for painful reminders of what is allowed and what is not allowed in this new life. Those who are relatively newborn in the kingdom often need 'attitude adjustments' from our loving Father, but mature saints should be beyond that point in their development. Nevertheless, the Lord sometimes finds it necessary to discipline even his more mature servants. These disciplines are not to be confused with the Lord working a more thorough obedience and knowledge of His will in us through trials (Heb. 5:8 ; 1 Pet. 4:12-13).

There is an attitude, or opinion, that some have about God, that He is a giant policeman in the sky waiting for us to step out of line so He can 'zap' us. This insightful comment by the prophet Jeremiah in Lamentations reveals that nothing could be further from the truth. God desires His children to walk in holiness so that discipline is not necessary. He is watchful over us, true, but not to catch us in faults, but to rejoice over our obedience. As John the beloved apostle had no greater joy than to hear his children walked in truth (2John vs.4), so too, God has no greater joy than to observe us obeying Him by walking in the light.

He does not willingly 'zap' us. But make no mistake, He will, if we make it necessary. He will because He loves us and cannot bear to watch us self-destruct on the pleasures of the flesh and soul which we are prone to gravitate towards. He afflicts us in response to our own heart's cries to Him for help in overcoming sins in our lives. As James puts it in chapter one of his epistle:

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.

When we are drawn away from holiness to follow after our fleshly cravings we become ensnared in them, like the proverbial sow returning to her wallowing or the dog to his vomit (2 Pet. 2:22). This happens when we toy with the idea of the sin that brought us so much fleshly pleasure-- and rationalize that we can indulge in it for just a little, then repent. The Psalmist prayed to be delivered from such presumptuous sinning (Psalm 19:13) for it is the nature of sin to usurp control, and he knew it. We don't realize the power of the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13), that it steals away our zeal for the Lord, replacing it with guilt which makes us want to hide from Him, not come to Him and repent. Then hardness of heart sets in, and we find ourselves going through religious motions that God 'ought to accept'. Like Cain we present our own offering instead of that which is prescribed, and God rejects our pitiful sacrifice. We then become offended, and rationalize how insignificant our sin really was and soon become innurred to the Holy Spirit's calling us to repentance. As Christians, we want to be honest with ourselves and God, but how can we be honest when we know we are taking advantage of the mercy of our Lord? Playing around with lustful longings (lust is not only a reference to sexual things, but, by definition, means anything for which we have a 'strong desire') starts us down the road to sin, which, in turn, puts us on the road to death. We entertain sin because we temporarily set aside the knowledge that Jesus had to suffer and die to free us from sin.. So if we willingly sin, what can we expect but discipline? Heb. 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

This judgment and fiery indignation doesn't mean a loss of one's salvation necessarily, but severe chastisement. Now the word 'wilfully' in this passage denotes a determined turning away; not the believer who stumbles now and again. Nevertheless, because of the deceitfulness of sin, every excursion away from the life of the Spirit back into the realm of sin is potentially the one that could ensnare and bring the believer to such a pitiful state that they renounce the things of the Lord in order to cling to their sin. Then indeed they have become an adversary and will be eternally cast away from the presence of God, having once known the truth but turned away. I am reminded of the young wife of a dear friend. She once participated in witnessing through music and counselling, but 'discovered' a homosexual tendency that she indulged, disowning everything Scripture declares about that sin. she forsook her vows to her husband and entered upon the 'Gay' lifestyle. To my knowledge, no chastisement of the Lord ever occurred in her life. She was not willing to come back, so the Lord gave her over to her own desires (Rom. 1:24). She who once professed Christ as her Savior, (and still probably does) has fallen from grace, and God has made no move to bring her back. It was her choice, He left her to it. Reprobate is a terrifying word to use, for it carries with it a sense of finality, and in her case the word seems to apply.

The Lord will intervene, however, in the life of one who gets enticed into sin, but still knows it is wrong and from the guilt and despair of falling, cries out to be free from it. The tragedy is that all believers are free of sin, but still live like it is an enemy to be conquered! Gal. 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. To be free of the lusts of the flesh that lead to sin we need merely to stay in the Spirit. this, sadly, is not the normative experience of believers today, but it ought to be. 1John 2:1 indicates that there is forgiveness for believers if they sin. The operative word is 'if' they sin, not when they sin. It is possible to live in the Spirit all the time, but is that preached today? No, instead we, in our 'enlightened century', have developed 12 step programs to help believers cope with their sinful lifestyles instead of overcome them. Now the world has nothing else but 12 step programs (and the like) to turn to except they repent. But not so the believer. Jesus did not die to give us twelve step programs to cope with our sins for the rest of our lives! He died and resurrected wo we too might overcome! But we are systematically taught that living the full time life in the Spirit is a nice ideal, but quite impractical. So we accept the notion that sin is an inevitability, and allow ourselves some indulgences. When we become ensnared in these indulgences (as all surely must who indulge the flesh), the Lord sends a rebuke in the form of a discipline to bring us, through true repentence, back to Himself and the way of truth. There is an 'easy' repentence that scared believers try to generate so they escape the discipline, but it always falls short of changing the lifestyle. God, in His infinite wisdom, know what will really show us the depths of our sin and how it offends Him. This is accomplished through painful discipline.

It should be noted that even His disciplines can be rejected or ignored until the heart is too hard to repent. Prov. 29:1 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. The Lord will send chastisement again and again to some of His sheep, yet, they turn more and more to their fleshly ways until there is nothing else the Lord can do for them. He will not be crucified again for them (He. 10:26). Instead, they show that they have lost reverence for His shed blood, and deserve a portion with unbelievers. When the Lord sends a discipline we must accept it gratefully, as sons, and then it will have its intended result in our lives. It is quite possible to thwart the Lord's purpose for good in our lives by resisting or rejecting His disciplines. He disciplines us to bring us back to our senses, but if we refuse, we turn away our last and only hope. There is nothing more but to live a life increasingly devoted to self and sin, with the end result being cast away from His presence for eternity. There is remedy for our falling into sin, and there is a plan by which the Lord brings us back to himself if we do get drawn away. But there is always the danger of our becoming too hard-hearted to respond.

Rom. 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Notably absent from this list of things that cannot separate us from the love of Christ is sin in our lives. Not that the sin wasn't dealt with by Christ, for it was. But if we continue to walk in sin rather than his Spirit, we shall be separated from Him. Paul is talking here in Romans about the play of external forces upon us, that there is nothing in all Creation that can come between us and our Lord. He isn't talking about the internal force of our own will. If we determinedly choose to walk away from Him, He will let us go. It is possible to have our name blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life ( Rev. 3:5); it is possible to have Him deny knowing us (2Tim. 2:12); it is possible to have once tasted of the heavenly gift and the powers of the age to come and yet fall away (Heb. 6:4-6). The Lord will send stronger and stronger disciplines into our lives to prevent this ultimate horror from befalling us. Nevertheless, there are some who still adamantly turn away from His loving disciplines to follow their own course to destruction.

Heb. 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. Those who recognize the Lord's hand in their distressful situation, and submit to it, will find the grace of God at work in their lives rebuilding what was breached, and restoring them to righteousness. Psalm119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. The psalmist records that his attitude needed adjustment. There was a time when he went astray, even though he had a profound love for God, there were times when he strayed from righteousness. Then the Lord sent chastisement, and he got his heart right as a result. The word David uses here for 'afflicted' in Hebrew is 'anah', and carries implications of: abase, deal hardly with, defile, hurt, ravish, weaken.... There are many false notions about God that he will not do such things to His children, but the testimony of Scripture cannot be avoided. God will touch us where we are most sensitive in order to communicate to us the harm we are doing to ourselves spiritually. Everything from physical pain to financial disaster, to even premature death (I Cor. 11: 30-32)! I have no Scripture to support this thought, but I sometimes wonder if He doesn't use pain to afflict us in order to remind us that He suffered for us, and that our disobedience cost Him pain. It is one thing to mentally acknowledge that we are responsible for crucifying Christ, and another while in the midst of our own pain to think He bore similar pains for us, and worse, to free us from our bondage to sin. We are bought with a price, and it is quite proper for Him to remind us of that from time to time if need be.

Job 5:17 Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:

18 For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
 
 

All for now, keep yourselves in the love of God (Jude vs. 21)
John & Bev MacLeod
e-mail skyeman@ConnRiver.net

© John MacLeod 1998