Discipline

 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor faint when you are reproved by Him;

For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,

And He scourges every son whom He receives.”

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so 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. -Hebrews 12:5-11

There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding God’s discipline.  The ways of the Lord are unknowable and the Spirit moves as the wind,  indeed many times suffering is wrongly attributed to sin (John 9:2-3),  but there is suffering as a result of sin (John 5:14).

A further distinction can be made between the discipline of the Lord and the earthly consequences of sin.  (1 Peter 2:19-20)  The discipline of the Lord will always bring us into submission, obedience and furtherance of holiness. 

Suffering can be a result of:

 

1) Happenstance – unexplainable things happen that seemingly have no rhyme or reason (Luke 13:4-5).   We are to trust that God is in control and that He will be faithful even if we can’t understand why things happen.

 

2) God’s Testing – there are times that God specifically allows trials to occur such as with Job, to test our faith and build perseverance that leads to godliness (James 1:2-4).  We are to trust God to see us through and not lose hope, it is for our good.

 

3) External Sin – suffering happens to innocent people because the consequences of sin effect everyone.  Other people sin and hurt us.  God never promises to shield us from these things, indeed we become targets of evil because we are children of God.

 

4) Our own sin – the consequences of our own sin can range from losing friends to being incarcerated.  When we break the law or hurt others we should expect to be punished by the governmental system that God has established.  This is different than God’s discipline, the proper response is to accept the punishment as just without attempting to subvert or escape it.

 

5) God’s Discipline – God’s discipline usually involves secretive sins that we are treasuring in our hearts and need to be rooted out.  God deals with each of us in unique ways, but if we persist in sin we should be expecting His discipline and not acting as if we are being dealt with unjustly.  We will clearly feel His calling to repentance during the time of discipline.