Many people do not like to hear the word discipline. And many Christians are not well-disciplined. Many of us are like children running wild. In this series of articles, let’s explore what God wants for His children and the discipline of the Lord.
“But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” (Hebrews 12:8)
1. God’s anger and love
Christians think God reserves anger for non-believers. But can God get angry with us too?
1.1 God’s anger toward Moses
When Moses did not trust God and acted in a cowardly way, even after God had showed him a couple of miracles (Exodus 4), God’s anger burned against Moses.
“Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’
The Lord said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say.’ But he said, ‘Please, Lord, now send the message by whomever You will.’
Then the anger of the Lord burned against Moses…” (Exodus 4:10-14)
1.2 Jesus’ anger toward His followers
When the disciples saw Jesus’ works but did not believe, Jesus rebuked them.
“When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, ‘Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.’
And Jesus answered and said, ‘You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.'” (Matthew 17:14-17)
So from these verses, and there are many more examples, God does become angry with His children.
Some people might ask, “How can God be angry and still love us?”.
1.3 Why God becomes angry
Can a father get angry with His children and still love them?
What causes God to be angry? Isn’t it some kind of wrongdoing on our part? Why might God be angry with us today?
Hebrews 12 gives a clue. It says, “You have not resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4).
This rebuke applies to most Christians. For most Christians, we can expect God to be a bit angry with us, because of our light treatment of sin. Do we secretly think, since Christ died for us, we don’t need to work too hard against sin because He will forgive us anyway? If we have this type of attitude, we can be sure we have made God angry and grieved His Spirit.
Q: But God often answers my prayers. He’s been very good to me, so how can He be angry with me?
Yes, God loves us very much. Compared with His anger, His love always wins. He loves us so much that He provides for us. He loves us so much that He answers our prayers and directs our steps. It can be possible that for many years, while He demonstrates His love for us and guides us when we ask Him, that we do not realize that He has also been a bit angry with us for some time.
Look at how Jesus was angry with His disciples even though He was with them and taught them in love. Look at how God was angry with Moses but He held back His anger. So it is possible that He is angry with us while He still loves us very much.
“Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)
2. God’s discipline explained in Hebrews
“You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 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.'” (Hebrews 12:4-6)
God disciplines us for our good to produce good character and fruits of the Spirit. What father wants lazy, disobedient children? But many Christians today have become lazy and disobedient.
It is wicked to think that it is ok to sin now and ask for forgiveness later. And some unscrupulous people even say, “Because Jesus died for us, we can now sin like the devil.”
If anyone thinks like that, he is without discipline and comes under the wrath of God.
“For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:26-31)
So there is no sacrifice left for those who go on sinning. These are the people who purposefully practice sin, having the attitude that Jesus’ blood provides them a license to sin. For those who do not strive against sin but mock the blood of Christ this way, they have become God’s adversary.
This warning in Hebrews was written so that people would repent. To anyone who has thought like this, repent before it is too late. Ask for God’s forgiveness, resist sin, and work with God from now on to strive against all known sins.
3. God’s desire for us as our Father
It is not true love if a parent lets his child run wild. In general, parents want their child to be well-educated and be a good person. When a child grows up, they’d like to see him get a good job and start a family.
God wants the same for us in a spiritual sense.
3.1 God’s education – His word
While learning reading, writing, arithmetic, and science are good, God goes beyond this basic education to teach us how to live a good life. God considers the best education to be from His word. The Bible gives us the wisdom of God and His commandments, because they add “length of days and years of life and peace” (Proverbs 3:2). We can learn from God everyday if we are willing just by opening up the Bible.
Not only do we learn what His commandments are, but we should practice abiding by His teaching in everything we do.
“My son, do not forget my teaching,
But let your heart keep my commandments;
For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.
Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:1-4)
3.2 Be good – avoid sin
Our heavenly Father wants His children to be good. It is not possible for us to be good without Christ. But because of Christ who shed His blood for us so that our sins are forgiven, we can be righteous through Jesus who died for us.
So after we have believed, we should try to avoid sin and learn to do good in keeping with what we have believed.
“Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness” (2 Timothy 2:19).
“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:12-14)
God has also given us His Holy Spirit who dwells in His children to enable us to obey Him (Galatians 5:16).
3.3 A good job = good works
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
“Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds…” (Hebrews 10:24)
While earthly parents may want us to get a good job, our heavenly Father gives us His good works to do.
Good works include caring for people and helping them, teaching people to do good and obey God, visiting and caring for the needy, and teaching God’s word and making disciples.
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'” (Matthew 25:34-40)
3.4 Family of God
We are in the family of God as children of the heavenly Father and bride of Christ. Those who are called child of God have only one criteria to be in Christ’s family.
Jesus said, “‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother'” (Matthew 12:48-50).
This is God’s heart and desire for us: to be His true children without shame.
This is also why God disciplines us diligently, so that we might stay away from evil and learn to do good.
Yes, God desires us to go to a good school, to have a good career on earth, and have a family as well. But beyond these things of this earth, He has our eternal well-being in mind.
“Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” (1 Timothy 6:18)
In the next lesson, we will see what the discipline of the Lord is like.