Divine Discipline

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Hebrews 12:3-4

He who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself was none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. The world did not receive Him with open arms and a worshipful thanksgiving. The world rejected His grace, ridiculed His love and subjected Him to the worst possible humiliation, torture and death. His own people, the Jews; your Hebrew brethren, not only despised His truth, but demanded that He be put to death while demanding the freedom of a convicted insurrectionist. They gave more honor and respect to the murderous rebel Barabbas than to the King of Glory. They did not want truth or atonement. They wanted tradition, religion and slavery. Consider Him. Why would the world treat you and me any better than they did our Savior? How has our struggle compared to His? If we do not suffer hostility, we are not properly representing our Lord, because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and the world will not tolerate His absolute authority. Are you weary of sin? Are you growing fainthearted on the journey? Consider Him Who willingly went to the cross and died to atone for the sins of the rebels who hated Him. In so doing, He paid for our sins, who had not yet been born sinful rebels, but He knew us then.

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.Hebrews 12:5-11

In the King James Version the word discipline is translated chastening. To us in modern society, both words evoke the sense of punishment. That is not what the original Greek word meant. Punishment can be involved in discipline and chastening, but the word means to train up a child.

Chastening, discipline (Greek-paideia): tuterage. Education or training; disciplinary correction; instruction; nurture.

Human children are born tiny, naked, toothless and helpless so their parents can train them as they grow to physical maturity. Parents who do not train their children from earliest infancy are derelict in their duty and usually wind up with arrogant, uncontrollable offspring who have no respect for any authority and no appreciation for their parents’ provision. We are given children to train into our way of life; our standards of morality; our beliefs and attitudes, our sense of identity, our manner of thinking. A teacher I love and admire said the first words you must teach your child are: “OBEY! ME!”

There are namby-pamby parents who think they are doing their children a favor by not teaching them anything about Biblical truth or acceptable morals and standards. This usually means the parents themselves don’t have a good grasp of reality. One cannot teach what one does not know, so the children of those parents grow up without proper structure for their lives. Parents who don’t wish to instruct their children in any faith don’t have any faith. If they did, they’d be eager to teach it and share it, especially with their own children. Humans must have a foundation upon which to build the framework of their lives. Without that, they are insecure and aimless as they observe the world and try to make sensible decisions for themselves and their own offspring. They are victims of satanic deception in the form of Eastern mysticism, legalistic religions, demonism and all forms of human viewpoint emotionalism.

We who had conscientious parents and who have ourselves been responsible parents have both heard and said “I am not responsible for what someone else’s kid does, YOU are MINE and I expect you to do as I say.”  That is not harsh and hateful, it is protective of those we love. God gave us authority over those young souls, and it is our job to train, chastise, discipline them into adulthood.

That is the point of this scripture. God disciplines His own. If we are His children by the New Birth into Christ, we belong to the Royal Family of God and we will be disciplined into spiritual maturity. If I am not being disciplined by God, I am not a child of God, but illegitimate. There is no child of God who does not receive discipline.

Human fathers discipline as best they know, I believe, and even the best are far from perfect, but they usually mean it for the good of the child. God means it for our absolute good, and since He is perfect Righteousness, He knows exactly what we need and how much, and as we grow we can see that we are all the better for it. In the discipline, we are learning the Mind of Christ. We are learning to think like God!

Divine discipline = divine viewpoint = peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who belong to God.