Our Good Father's Discipline
May 19th, 2022 • by Christina Fox
I believe there are two kinds of people in the world: those who hear about potential harmful consequences of an action and determine to stay away from trouble, and those who hear about such consequences and instead take it on as a personal challenge to prove otherwise.
In case you are wondering, I am of the former.
In fact, as a child I hated getting into any form of trouble. I did what I was told as much as possible. I wanted to avoid not only any natural consequences from my actions, but also any discipline for wrongdoing. One place you’d never find me is in the principal’s office. I also worked hard to avoid getting into trouble at home.
You might say I despised discipline.
Our Father’s Discipline
As an adult, I find I continue to resist discipline, particularly God’s discipline. When trials, disappointments, and challenges come my way, I see them as things to avoid or resist. I look for ways to get around them. I find myself saying that all-too-popular childhood complaint, “It's not fair.” Other times, I look at hardships as punishment for something I've done wrong. Or perhaps, I think, I wasn't good enough and God is disappointed in me.
Rarely though do I pause to consider, “What might God be doing in my life? What might he want me to learn? How might he use this hardship to make me more like Christ?”
The author to the Hebrews wrote to Jewish believers exhorting them to persevere and run their race of faith with endurance. He showed them how Jesus Christ was greater than Moses, angels, sacrifices, and the priests. He pointed them to Christ's sufferings on their behalf and urged them to keep their gaze fixed on him in the face of their own trials and sufferings.
In chapter 12, the writer encouraged them not to grow weary in their own race of faith. He encouraged them to cast aside their sin and stay in the race, remembering the gospel and what Jesus did in his perfect life and sacrificial death. And because it's so easy to grow weary, he reminded them of who they were as children of the Father.
"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Heb. 12:5-6).
As believers, sometimes we take God's discipline lightly. We often dismiss it or overlook it. We treat sin as though it's not that big of a deal. Other times, we grow weary of the Lord's discipline. We may despair over it or respond with worry or fear. There may be times when we give up in our battle against sin because we think it's just too hard. We might even come to the point where we despise the Lord's discipline and miss out on all God is doing through it.
The writer to the Hebrews cautions us against such responses. Instead, he urges us to look at the Lord's discipline as a good thing.
“God disciplines us because we are his children.”
The Good Discipline of our Father
Why is God's discipline good?
It is good because it comes from our Father: “God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (vv. 7-8).
When hardship or trial enters our lives, it is not God punishing us—though we may experience the natural outcome of sinful behavior; instead, God disciplines us because we are his children. The Greek word for discipline means the teaching or training of children. In ancient culture, only legitimate children, only the heirs, were trained to take over their father’s estate. This reminds us of our sonship, our adoption as children in the family of God (Gal. 4:1-7). God’s discipline of us is a sign of our adoption, a sign that we are legitimate children of the Father.
“Our Father uses discipline to train us in the way of righteousness, to make us holy. Sometimes it is instructional in nature; other times it is corrective. In the context of this Hebrews 12 passage, God used the suffering these believers experienced for their training; it was used as discipline. Discipline is not the same thing as punishment… This passage teaches that while God does discipline us, he does not punish us. Jesus bore our punishment at the cross when God poured out his wrath upon him (Isa. 53:5). God has no more wrath for us. All chastisement or correction from our Father is intended for our training in righteousness. Therefore, we are not to grow weary from it. Instead, we are to take it seriously and learn from it.”
The author of Hebrews also points out that earthly parents discipline their children as they think is best, but our heavenly Father always disciplines us for our good. We’ve likely all experienced discipline that may have been harsh or unfair. Some of us may have experienced outright punishment, rather than discipline intended to teach and train us. But we can be certain that God’s discipline is always perfect, right, and true. That’s because he is good and only does what is good (Ps. 119:68). Our Father knows exactly what we need: he knows the best circumstances, lessons, difficulties, and methods to use to make us into the image of Christ. He is a good Father.
“God’s discipline has an eternal trajectory; he is preparing us for heaven.”
Discipline Rooted in Love
Whatever our experiences with earthly discipline, we can trust that our heavenly Father’s discipline is rooted in his great love for us. As Charles Spurgeon wrote: “When he afflicts his child, chastisement is applied in love, his strokes are, all of them, put there by the hand of love…. God doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve us for nought, but out of love and affection, because he perceives that if he leaves us unchastised, we shall bring upon ourselves misery ten thousand-fold greater than we shall suffer by his slight rebukes, and the gentle blows of his hand.”
Our Father’s discipline also has an eternal purpose. As it says in Hebrews: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (12:11). God's discipline has an eternal trajectory; he is preparing us for heaven.
Just as a runner’s preparation for a race involves hard work and sometimes even pain, our spiritual training involves difficult, sometimes painful work. As God strips away our sinful desires, thoughts, and behaviors, it will hurt at times. But ultimately, it will produce in us a harvest of righteousness. Like a runner who rejoices when she reaches the finish line, we too will rejoice when we see the final result of God's discipline in glory.
When we find ourselves weary from discipline, or even despising it, we need only remember our good and perfect Father who always disciplines us for our good. We are his legitimate children. So may we push onward to the finish line and rejoice to see who we've become.
Christina Fox, M.S., LPC is a counselor, retreat speaker, and author of multiple books, including Like Our Father: How God Parents Us and Why That Matters for Our Parenting. She and her husband have been married for twenty-five years. They have two teen boys and live in the Atlanta area where she coordinates the counseling ministry at her church. You can find her at www.christinafox.com and on Instagram.
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