Discipline

There are two things I am deeply thankful for in my Christian walk: discipline and pruning. Both of these are painful, but necessary for spiritual growth. The purpose of discipline is to produce obedience, while more fruit comes through pruning.

At our spiritual birth a new creature in Christ comes to live within (2 Cor. 5:17), but we are still self-centered and rebellious. Now as children of God, our Father, because of his great love for us, will begin the discipline process to teach us obedience to his commands. These commands are not burdensome and are necessary for godly living. As we learn obedience, God then begins to narrow our focus to his work through the process of pruning and through our weakness he empowers us to bear much fruit to his glory.

In this entry we will consider the process of discipline and then next time we will focus on pruning.

An important aspect of love is discipline; enforceable guidance to help a loved one develop in character. As children it is easy to forget the exhortation God gives to us, “My [children], do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him” (Hebrews 12:5, NASB). We must be very careful not to despise what the Lord is doing in our life. His discipline hurts because it is a form of dying to our fleshly desires. We must also be careful not to be discouraged by the weakness his discipline seems to bring into our lives. His plan is to break our will, not our spirit, so that he can develop his will in us.

“For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives” (Heb. 12:6, NASB). There are no exceptions. You cannot separate the love of God from discipline. Love always includes restraint to keep one on course and that restraint is the result of discipline. God has predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29) and to accomplish that his discipline will reach the level of scourging at times. God has an eternity planned for us that is beyond our imagination and to prepare us for it will require the discipline of God’s love. “He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Heb. 12:10 – 11, NASB).

That training that yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness can be very severe at times and so we are cautioned to have a sufficient supply of grace on hand, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled” (Heb. 12:15, NASB). We are born into this world as children of the devil, but through the new birth we become God’s children and through his loving discipline we are guided along the path to Christ-likeness. There is a caution we should be aware of; “If you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (Heb. 12:8, NASB). Working out our salvation (Phil. 2:12) is serious business for us and also for God. Let us press on with Him.