THE LORD'S DISCIPLINE

Heb. 12:8 If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children after all.

The question we must address is what is the Lord's discipline? We talk about it, but do we really know what we are talking about? Let us consider some things to get our thinking going.

Discipline becomes necessary when we do something wrong. You praise someone when they do something right and discipline them when they mess up. It is the way we teach one another what should not be done. We don't like to be disciplined and most of us don't like to discipline others. Yet, it is necessary if someone is going to move forward and mature.

Discipline should be done when someone is obviously sinning and giving the name and cause of Christ a bad name. For the sake of Christ's honor, we must strive to keep His name holy amongst man.

Discipline should be always done with love and purpose. The goal of discipline should be to inspire change that results in better character and choices made. If it's done with a mean spirit, it will not accomplish its purpose; people will resist and resent it. The Lord always deals with us compassionately, yet with firmness. He will not let us get away with our sinning without making it very clear that there are consequences to the choices we make.

The Holy Spirit is God's primary disciplinarian. He chastises us and convicts us when we sin. He shows us what we have done and what we should have done. He is relentless and keeps reminding us of our sin until we repent. He sometimes allows adversity to come our way if we don't pay attention to Him. He will sometimes use other people in our lives to urge us to repent. He will sometimes withhold God's blessings on our lives.

If we never experience God's discipline, it means that we are not really children of God. We are far from perfect and we do mess up, sometimes a lot. We need God's correction and chastisements. We should welcome God's intervention in our affairs. It is a good thing to be disciplined. Without it, we will never make it to heaven.