This is not
the first time God tells his church that he disciplines those he loves. This is
explained very clearly in Hebrews 12, which refers to another clear explanation
of this in Proverbs 3. In this Pondering, I am focusing on the Proverbs 3
passage to add some thoughts to the experience of God reproving and
disciplining those who are his beloved little children.[3]
My son, do not despise the Lord’s
discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord
reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.[4]
1. Reproof and
Discipline are Necessary Friends
It is
significant that, in Revelation 3, Jesus says, ”Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline”[5]
He puts reproof and discipline together because they belong together. They
are good friends with each other, and to those who welcome them. They are as
much the two sides of the same coin as two actions could be.
Reproof can
stand by itself, but then it is a hopeless life of seeing how bad we are. In
fact, is this not what hell will be like, to have sin constantly reproved,
constantly exposed, constantly surrounding us in its putrid, inescapable
ugliness, with no hope of ever having it disciplined away? No wonder there will
be “weeping and gnashing of teeth”.[6]
In the same
way, discipline can stand all on its own, but it is also a life of hopelessness
because it will keep trying to work us into shape without ever breaking the
sinfulness that has ruined us. Discipline will keep telling us to do more, try
harder, be better, believe in ourselves, but without ever exposing the cancer of
sin that is grinding us down into nothingness.
When God tells
his children that he both reproves our sin, and disciplines us as his children,
he is giving us the greatest hope we could ever hear. Sin will be reproved, or
brought out into the open, where we can see it; and then we will be disciplined
out of the sin so it can no longer ruin us. We will go through experiences that
are like the smelting furnace,[7]
the furnace of affliction.[8]
These will reprove us, by showing us all the sinful and sarky dross that has
been mixed in with our faith all this time, and then discipline us for the
removal of the dross so that we can enjoy the peaceful feeling of a purified
faith (in constant maturity, of course).
2. Reproof and
Discipline are “the LORD’s”
Again, in
Proverbs 3:11-12, Solomon wrote, “the Lord’s discipline… his reproof… the Lord reproves…” Whenever we find the
Old Testament capitalizing the word “LORD”,
it is to indicate that this is the proper name of God. We often hear this name
as “Jehovah”, but it likely was
pronounced, “Yahweh”. It is the name God
presented as Moses’ credentials when he declared, “I am
who I am.”[9]
Reproof and
discipline are from “I AM”, “the LORD”.
This means that no one can stop God from reproving and disciplining his sons
until we are holy and blameless in his sight.[10]
No one can twist God’s good plans and purposes for our discipline so that they
become something ugly and hopeless. Reproof and discipline are “the LORD’s”, and they will do what he
sends them to do.
3. Reproof and
Discipline are from “a father”
When Proverbs
3:12 says that God disciplines and reproves, “as a father”, we are to picture what is very normal and healthy.
Good fathers reprove their children’s sin, and discipline them towards
righteous behavior. We all love the proverb that tells us that, if we train up children
in the way they should go, when they are old they will not depart from that
path.[11]
God is like a father
working to train up his children in his ways. To do this, he reproves us for
sins that are not his ways, and disciplines us into the things that are his
ways. He is the only Father who cannot make a mistake in recognizing sin that
needs to be reproved, or applying the discipline that will bring about
righteous changes to our lives.
4. Reproof and
Discipline are for “him whom he loves”
God does not
give reproof and discipline out to everyone. It is actually characteristic of
his relationship to his children, not to his enemies. His children get reproof
and discipline now; God’s enemies get judgment and condemnation later.
The church
seems to face one painful hardship after another the more earnestly we desire
to know God through Jesus Christ. This is because the way to heaven is a narrow
and difficult way,[12]
and only the few who are God’s beloved children find that way, and persevere on
that way until the end.[13]
Persecution
and unfair treatment from the world, the church, or our families is not evidence
that God hates us. Rather, God has such sovereign attention on us that we have
aroused the red dragon’s fury against God’s work in our lives,[14]
and our suffering is like divine discipline that proves we are the ones he
loves.
5. Reproof and
Discipline are for “the son in whom he delights”
Proverbs 3:13
says, “the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom
he delights.” There are many of God’s children who have trouble associating
the word “delight” with the way they
think God looks at them. Troubles and hardships bring to mind pictures of God
being disappointed in us, finding fault with us, frowning upon us.
God’s inspired
word calls us to relate to God, and his discipline, as to a father dealing with
the children who are his delight. These are the children he calls his “treasured possession”.[15]These
are the ones he has loved with an everlasting love.[16]
These are the ones he rejoices over with glad and jubilant singing;[17]
the ones he considers his beloved children.[18]
This
should put to rest any idea that discipline from God, even when done through
church discipline, is an expression of hatred, or disappointment, or judgment,
or condemnation. It is God delighting in his children, and so personally
interacting with them, sometimes in the secret place, sometimes through the
church, sometimes through circumstances beyond our control, and calls us to
endure everything as part of his work of making us like his Son.
6. Reproof and
Discipline are for the Best Good
God’s work of
reproof and discipline is one way that God works all things together for our
good in Jesus Christ.[19] The
Hebrews 12 passage states: “he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.”[20]
This
tells us that there is no greater good than sharing in God’s holiness, since he
is giving us, “the holiness without which
no one will see the Lord.”[21] When God reproves us so that we have to see our sin, it is not
because he enjoys looking upon sin. Rather, he is bringing us to work out our
salvation with fear and trembling with our awareness that he is working in us
to give us the same will for holiness as is his will for holiness. He is
working in us to give us the same working out of holiness as he radiates through
his Son, Jesus Christ.[22] We cannot even see the Lord as a son looking upon a father unless
we have the same holiness; and that holiness is only formed within us through
the reproof and discipline of the Lord.
7. How
do God’s Children Respond to God’s Loving Reproof and Discipline?
First,
“do not despise the LORD’s discipline”.[23] We are not to react to his discipline with hatred, since his
discipline is directed towards us in love.
Second,
do not “be weary of his reproof”.[24] God has to take time reproving us for our sin because there is far
more sin in us than we want to know, it is doing for more damage than our
immature hearts can understand, and making us like Jesus requires much more
change than we can imagine. Do not let yourself get tired as God carries to
completion the work he has started in you.[25]
Third, after
telling the lukewarm church that he reproves and disciplines them in love, God
tells them to be “zealous and repent”.[26]
Reproof shows us our sin, and discipline leads us out of our sin, so we must
respond to this loving gift of transformation by being very quick to repent,
and return to walking in the righteousness of faith.[27]
When God shows
us our sin, it is fatherly love seeking to deliver us. When God is working to discipline
us into holiness of heart and righteousness of behavior, it is love seeking to
bring us into the likeness of his Beloved.[28] And,
since the promise of loving reproof and discipline is given to such a church as
is so lukewarm Jesus was about to spit them out of his mouth, surely we can see
that he would work in our lives with the same glorious love. May our response
to this reproving and disciplining love lead us “from one degree of glory to another.”[29]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Revelation 3:19
[2]
Revelation 3:14-22
[3]
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a
fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)
[4]
Proverbs 3:11-12
[5]
Revelation 3:19
[6]
Matthew 13:36-43
[7]
“I will turn my hand against you and will
smelt away your dross as with
lye and remove all your alloy.” (Isaiah 1:25)
[8]
“Behold, I have refined you, but not as
silver; I have tried you in the furnace
of affliction.” (Isaiah 48:10)
[9]
Exodus 3:13-14
[10]
Ephesians 1:4
[11]
Proverbs 22:6
[12]
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate
is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by
it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and
those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
[13]
“And you will be hated by all for my
name's sake. But the one who endures
to the end will be saved.” (Mark 13:13)
[14]
Revelation 12 shows Satan’s angry attacks on the church very clearly. Verse 12
says, “Therefore,
rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea,
for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his
time is short!”
[15]
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord
your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession,
out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)
“They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who
serves him.” (Malachi 3:17)
[16]
Jeremiah 31:3
[17]
“The Lord
your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he
will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
[18]
Ephesians 5:1-2
[19]
Romans 8:28
[20]
Hebrews 12:10
[21]
Hebrews 12:14
[22]
“Therefore, my beloved,
as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in
my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his
good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13)
[23]
Proverbs 3:11-12
[24]
Proverbs 3:11-12
[25]
Philippians 1:6
[26]
Revelation 3:19
[27]
“For I am not ashamed of
the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for
faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:16-17)
[28]
Ephesians 1:6
[29]
“And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory
to another. For this comes from
the Lord who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:18)
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