07-09-06 The Family of God-Discipline-Part 1
In our search for the truth about The Family of God, we have discovered that we have great blessings as the children of God. But besides those blessings, there is also great responsibility. As we have compared The Family of God to a natural family we have seen many similar characteristics—name, likeness, access, inheritance, and encouragement. Today, I want to look at another part of the family that is just as important, but often overlooked and misunderstood—that is the topic of discipline in the family.
The show “Super Nanny” has shown that in our society today there is a big misunderstanding about proper discipline. While I do not necessarily want to promote this show as the authority on discipline, the few episodes that I have seen have been good in showing parents how to take control of their children and how to properly discipline them. There is another show called “Shalom in the Home” where a Jewish Rabbi takes on families that are in desperate need of help and shows them how to co-exist peacefully (to bring shalom (peace) to the home).
The fact that we have TV shows like these, as well as numerous books on the subject (my favorites being those written by Dr James Dobson (i.e. Dare To Discipline), illustrate that we have families in crisis and that we need help in learning how to discipline children and to understand the importance of discipline in the family. Depending on your childhood memories of your family this can be a difficult topic to discuss. It is unfortunate that many of us have bad memories when ever the subject of discipline is raised. If there was abuse in a home where discipline was not properly applied, this is understandable.
It is also unfortunate that often times we will carry the memories of our childhood discipline into our relationship with The Family of God. This means that we will see God’s discipline in our life through the filter of what we have experienced as discipline in our childhood. When we think about the awesomeness of God and His power and we think about God disciplining us, we may picture Him with all His awesome power coming down on us to crush us like an ant. That is certainly a frightening thought, and one that I do not take pleasure in.
Now before we go any further, I think we need to define discipline. The Hebrew word for discipline is “muwcar” (moo-sawr). It literally means “instruction, a bond, a checking, restraint, correction which results in education.” The Greek word is paideia (pahee-di-ah) and means the same thing.
4148 מוּסָר [muwcar /moo·sawr/] n m. From 3256; TWOT 877b; GK 4592; 50 occurrences; AV translates as “instruction” 30 times, “correction” eight times, “chasten” four times, “chastisement” three times, “check” once, “bond” once, “discipline” once, “doctrine” once, and “rebuker” once. 1 discipline, chastening, correction. 1a discipline, correction. 1b chastening.
3256 יָסַר, יָסַר, יָסׄר [yacar /yaw·sar/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 877; GK 3579 and 3580 and 3581; 43 occurrences; AV translates as “chastise 21 instruct” eight times, “correct” seven times, “taught” twice, “bound” once, “punish” once, “reformed” once, “reproveth” once, and “sore” once. 1 to chasten, discipline, instruct, admonish. 1a (Qal). 1a1 to chasten, admonish. 1a2 to instruct. 1a3 to discipline. 1b (Niphal) to let oneself be chastened or corrected or admonished. 1c (Piel). 1c1 to discipline, correct. 1c2 to chasten, chastise. 1d (Hiphil) to chasten. 1e (Nithpael) to teach.
3809 παιδεία [paideia /pahee·di·ah/] n f. From 3811; TDNT 5:596; TDNTA 753; GK 4082; Six occurrences; AV translates as “chastening” three times, “nurture” once, “instruction” once, and “chastisement” once. 1 the whole training and education of children (which relates to the cultivation of mind and morals, and employs for this purpose now commands and admonitions, now reproof and punishment) It also includes the training and care of the body. 2 whatever in adults also cultivates the soul, esp. by correcting mistakes and curbing passions. 2a instruction which aims at increasing virtue. 2b chastisement, chastening, (of the evils with which God visits men for their amendment).
The whole purpose of discipline is to bring correction which teaches us—that is training. In fact the word disciple means a learner—that is, one who is willing to submit himself to the discipline of another so they can learn from that person. The main idea of discipline is primarily to teach morals and values to children. It is unfortunate that in our society we mix up discipline and punishment in our understanding. Punishment carries more of the connotation of penalty and hurt. The purpose of punishment is to inflict a penalty for a wrong that has been done. It may be used to discipline, but it is not discipline.
punishment n. 1 the action of punishing or the state of being punished.† a penalty inflicted.
2 rough treatment.[i]
So how are we to look at the discipline of our God? Well the first thing is to go back to the fact that He is our Father and we are His children.
¨ Heb 12:5-11 (NIV) 5 And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son.”
7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that the primary concern in this passage is about being a son and that discipline is necessary to train us in son ship. V. 5 starts off saying that they had forgotten the word of encouragement that addressed them as sons. This is a quote from Proverbs:
¨ Prov 3:11-12 (NIV) My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent His rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a Father the son He delights in.
It is interesting that in Proverbs the wisest man on earth (Solomon) would address this subject of discipline. In fact, this is not the only passage that deals with discipline in Proverbs. So if Solomon thought it was an important subject, then I think we can all learn from him just how important it is today. But here is another interesting part about this passage—Solomon does not tell his son not to despise his discipline, but that of the Lord. His whole message in this passage is about God’s discipline. As you read Prov 3:1-10 you see that Solomon wants his son to understand that the wisdom he is giving his son is to bring him into a greater relationship with God and to make his life the best it can be. He wanted his son to see that keeping God’s commandments brought great blessing (v. 2 length of days and years of life and peace, v. 4 favor and good name, v. 6 straight paths, v. 8 healing/health to his body, v. 10 barns and vats overflowing)
¨ My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, 2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. 3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. 9 Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.
Then in vs. 12 he says that the reason the Lord disciplines us is because of His love. In fact, not only does He love us, but He delights in us! As parents, it brings us great joy when our children learn from our discipline. We may not enjoy seeing them cry when we spank them (yes, I do believe in spanking—not with the hand, but with the “rod of discipline” Prov 22:15(NIV)—we had a board that we called the “pow-pow” and it worked very well), but we do desire to see them learn from the discipline and take pleasure when they do. After we have spanked them, we take them in our arms and hold them to ensure them of our love—while they are still crying and their bottom hurts. This is how children learn that discipline is not to hurt them, but to teach or instruct them in proper behavior and to show them our love.
As a father who has raised sons, I can tell you that I learned more about God’s discipline when I had to discipline my own children. Naturally, I did not want to hurt them in any way, but instead wanted to teach them the difference between right and wrong. So that they would grow up to be responsible adults and be able to live a life of peace. The word we use is maturity—we want them to become mature adults. I also learned that in disciplining them I was showing them that I loved them. In fact in this scripture we see that if you love your children you will discipline them. If you do not discipline them, then you do not love them.
As the fact that we discipline our children because we love them is true with us as parents it is even truer of our Father in heaven. Where we may have disciplined wrongly He will never do so. Where we may have spanked out of anger or frustration, He will never do so. Our discipline is administered out of our poor understanding and what we have primarily been taught by our parents. However, God is the One who wrote the book (The Bible) on discipline, so He never makes a mistake.
Let’s not forget that this is a “word of encouragement” (v. 5) to the Jewish believers to teach them how they should behave as Christians. They were considering returning to Judaism and leaving Christianity because of the difficulties and suffering they were going through. This warning and encouragement is to teach them the error of their thinking and to keep them from making a serious mistake. They needed to be reminded that God loved them and was not giving up on them as His children. No matter what they went through, He would be with them and give them the strength they needed. In fact, he has promised that He will never leave us, or forsake us (Heb 13:5). They also needed to be reminded that when they were disobedient, God would discipline them as a sign of His love.
Can we take this as a “word of encouragement” for our lives as children in The Family of God? If we are going through a time when we feel like God is disciplining us, we can sulk and pout in our corner—showing our immaturity, or we can recognize that it is because God loves us that He is disciplining us so we can become more mature. We can also understand that if He is the one who is in charge of the discipline, it will be for our good—not to destroy us or our faith. He will never do anything to harm us, but He will teach us and train us to be good children. Thank God that He loves us so much! Thank God for His discipline!
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n n: noun
m m: masculine
TWOT Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
GK Goodrick-Kohlenberger
AV Authorized Version
v v: verb
TWOT Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
GK Goodrick-Kohlenberger
AV Authorized Version
n n: noun or neuter
f f: feminine
TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
TDNTA Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume
GK Goodrick-Kohlenberger
AV Authorized Version
n. noun
[i]Soanes, C., & Stevenson, A. (2004). Concise Oxford English dictionary (11th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.