DISCIPLINE VERSUS PUNISHMENT

Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten the word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his sons? ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the ones He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as sons.’ (Heb. 12: 3-6).

How important it was for his readers to fix their eyes on Jesus! Like Peter walking on the water, the turbulent circumstances around them caused them to waver and to lose confidence in their Master and in themselves and their resolve and ability to follow Him, no matter what. As His disciples, they knew that their relationship with Him was far closer than mere admirers. To be a disciple was to learn to become just like their rabbi, to live like him and to imitate him in everything he said and did.

By turning away and going back to the yoke – the teaching and way of life – of a lesser rabbi, they were in effect saying that they no longer believed that Jesus was most authoritative rabbi to follow. They were declaring, by their defection, that His life and teachings were no longer authentic for them, and repudiating their right to be called sons of God.

By doing that they had forgotten the reality of who they were. If they regarded the suffering they were undergoing as believers in Jesus as punishment for their sins, they had missed the truth of the radical change that had happened when they believed and received Jesus as their Messiah and Saviour. They were no longer slaves but sons.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Rom. 8:15).

Slaves had a different relationship to their master from sons. Slaves did not belong in the family. They did not share the name or the inheritance of sons. They lived in fear of punishment if they did not comply with the master’s orders. They could be beaten or even killed if they disobeyed.

‘You are not slaves, but sons,’ the writer reminded them. The troubles they were experiencing were not punishment for sin as they might have erroneously viewed them. God has dealt with sin, once and for all, in the death of His Son. The writer had taken pains to explain to them that Jesus’s once-for-all, never-to-be-repeated sacrifice had taken care of sin forever. Unlike the sacrifices of the old covenant which had to be repeated again and again as a reminder of sin, the blood of Jesus had perfected them forever and they were now undergoing the process of being made holy.

Their hardships were not punishment but discipline. Punishment was for slaves; discipline was for sons. Punishment was retribution for doing wrong; discipline was correction to point them towards becoming true sons in their attitudes and behaviour.

How important it is for us to understand what God is doing in our lives when we go through the pain and hardships that don’t make sense and seem to indicate that God is either absent or doesn’t care! “The problem of suffering” has troubled both believers and unbelievers from time immemorial. Books and sermons abound; solutions are offered or denied.

Two facts must never be ignored; we live in and are part of a fallen world – we cannot evade the effects of sin and the suffering which sin brings; we are God’s children – He uses every experience we go through to mould us into the likeness of Jesus.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Rom.8:28-29).

How else can God reveal the remnants of the old nature in us if He does not allow us to experience the circumstances that trigger our sinful responses? Since we don’t understand what He is doing, we mistrust or blame Him. Instead of growing in grace, we waste the opportunities to imitate Jesus. He endured opposition from sinners because His eye was on the reward. If we keep our eyes on the prize instead of bewailing our suffering, like Jesus we shall endure, persevere and, in the end, inherit God’s promises.

What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’ – the things God has prepared for those who love Him – these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit (1 Cor. 2: 9-10).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.