In preparing a preach to our local Church from the text in Hebrews 12 below. I want to answer how does discipline prove God’s love?
HEBREWS 12:5-8
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; 6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
This love mentioned in Hebrews 12 is real agape love – God’s kind of, unconditional love. It is a love that we as humans often struggle to walk in and it is belived in Christianity that it is only possible to exercise it by having the love of God inside of us. It is the 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love that always benefits the other and not self. My favourite writer Edwin Louis Cole – makes the distinction well that love – seeks the benefit of the other, while the opposite lust seeks the benefit of self. Operating in true love is harder than we first think.
So this kind of love is uncommon and goes against the grain, which immediately can strike us when we read this text, in the pampered and often very comfortable western world of the 21st century, we have moved far from the tough love approach of by gone years, modern philosophy thinks it will do harm to be tough and discipline our children. In many countries you can no longer freely smack your children for correction – something people from every class and nation 70 years ago would of been no doubt quite amazed at, as it was common place. And the excepted formula for correcting children especially boys.
And it is true, I know it first hand of receiving and also administering discipline this way, and hearing of tales from my Father and Grandfathers that, receiving correction from their Father in this quick and admittedly sometimes painful manner did them good – in as much to warn them of the consequences, to alert them to the dangers and to give them a reminder to not go in that direction again! This undisputed strategy of parenting from former generations has almost now been lost and outlawed – and yet it raised men. Men often of discipline and character, and not violence that those who oppose it today suggest. It can be suggested today that their is more violence and self contentedness (which this all boils down to) because of what we allow and compromise now than ever before.
I knew, especially as I got older (though my father didn’t smack me – for correction after the age of 6) that because he more often than not, got involved it showed that he was interested in me and my behavior and who I was becoming. I remember when I was around 16 and he found that I had saved Porn on the family PC which was set up in my bedroom (bad idea!) He told me that I should delete it so that my Mum and Sister never see it. That was it! I interpreted that to – be clever and hide it somewhere so hiden that they will never find it! I felt unloved and unimportant in that moment because he didn’t discipline me enough to get involved and correct me – by that stage I was already unknowingly to him in to a disgusting addiction to Porn which led to much self hatred.
Fatherly discipline I have come to believe proves that you are loved because the Father has loved you so much to get involved and correct you, even when it may be difficult, messy, painful. He loves you so much, that he is NOT prepared to allow you to stay that way!
That is why I rebuke my son if he is nasty to his sisters (or anyone else) because I want more for him than that – I want him to treat others well and with dignity – so relationships will go well for him and them.
So when we think of our relationship with the Heavenly Father – it is right that He discipline us and not just leave us in our mess. If he left us, it would not show any care or protection of us. He knows that sin will lead to our destruction – if it is undealt with and becomes a lifestyle of rejecting Christ’s grace for us then it will lead us to eternal destruction, but even the sins we have not left behind – which earlier in the chapter the writer of Hebrews tells us to when we fix our eyes on Jesus and if we allow these things to derail us and trip us up – it will bring destruction on our life on earth – too many men have allowed lust and porn to lead in to physical adultery which often splits a marriage and family! What a huge price to pay!
So the Father wants to rebuke us, correct us and even chastise us before we go down that route of ruining our lives and legacy!
Are we aware and hearing the correction of the Lord? Are we meditating on scripture – to allow the mirror of the word to speak hard truths to us!? That is what it is there for and that is the primary way God speaks – hold that word up to yourself and see if you reflect it? If not you need to repent and forsake the sin you were holding on to!
Are we accountable to other men? This is a concept of true Christianity that I rarely see in today’s modern Church. Even in the mentoring groups that I have been in, in Church there is a surface level that too often dosn’t get pentrated and the men and even the leader are too scared to actually be vulnerable and real with their sin. But scripture commands us to forsake our sins one to another!
The Elders and Pastors are given to the Church for its saftey too – often we run from our Pastors, Pastors no doubt are often unsure how tough to be out of concern the person will run from the Church – this happens all too often – and so the world mocks us! As we are anything but what the Bible portrays. Ghandi was right when he said I like your Christ but not his people. He rejected the power of the Gospel – because the Christians he had met, had also denied its power – choosing rather a ‘form’ of godliness. And so the people in our world when they see the epistle of Andrew? Or Steve? Or Mike? What do they see – do they see a man who is forsaking his sin and choosing instead to pick up His Cross, just as he was commanded to do! It is high time we do.
It is high time we choose to love discipline and except that the Father actually does want to mold us in to the nature of the Son, molding is a painful process, I remember being taught about gold being molded in the forge – it gets hot in there – so hot you would want to run to a cold shower sharpish! But that is not the way of true biblical manhood. Yes maybe the worlds way will allow this, your church may even. But the Father has a different plan and that is that manhood and Christ likeness are synonymous – so we better embrace the loving discipline!
How have you experienced God’s discipline? Have you embraced His love this way? Feel free to comment your thoughts.
Godly Men University: 