Chastisement
People have a tendency to think that when they suffer, they have done something wrong, and sometimes that is the case. God will correct His children when they err from the right path, but only because He loves them. Both the Old and New Testament tell us that correction is one of the many ways our heavenly Father demonstrates His love toward us.
Solomon told his son, “Whom the Lord loves, He corrects, even as a father the son in whom he delights” (Prov. 3:12). And before Solomon, David taught that to be chastened by the Lord is a blessing (Ps. 94:12). He knew that none of us would know when we erred if God did not let us feel His displeasure.
In the New Testament, the author of Hebrews also spoke of the blessing of chastisement:
Hebrews 12
7. If you endure chastisement, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
8. But if you are without chastisement, of which all have been partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons.
9. Furthermore, we certainly have had fathers of our flesh who chastened us, and we reverenced them. Shall we not much rather submit ourselves to the Father of spirits, and live?
10. They, for just a short time, disciplined us as it pleased them; but He for our benefit, that we might partake of His holiness.
Paul wrote that “for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). But for those who do not love God, nothing works for their good. For them, being blessed by God means that He is not chastening them; He is not bringing them back to Him. God will use blessings to make rebellious souls comfortable in their sin. How dreadful a curse that is! Many a backslider boasts in his blessings when, if he knew what was really happening to him, he would cry out for God’s chastisement for doing wrong.
Discipline
Many times when we suffer, it is not chastisement for sin. In fact, it may be a reward for righteousness. Discipline is training, the way army recruits are trained so that they may be an effective fighting force. The discipline may be hard at times, but it is not administered in hatred, and the goal is a good one. Jesus told a parable about this:
John 15
1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2. He takes away every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, and He prunes every branch that does bear fruit so that it might bear more fruit.
Two categories of believers are referred to in this parable. The first does not bear any fruit to God. Their end is eternal torment in the Lake of Fire, as Jesus said: “Unless a man abides in me, he is thrown away like a branch, and it withers, and they gather them up and throw them into a fire, and it is burned” (Jn. 15:6). The other category of believers does bear fruit, that is, they do what is right. But notice what God does to them: “He prunes every branch that does bear fruit so that it might bear more fruit.” In the past, I have said it this way: “We have but two choices. We can be stubborn and be cut off (and thrown into the fire), or we can be obedient and be cut on.” I would prefer to be cut on than to be cut off, wouldn’t you?
Every believer who obeys God will be pruned by God. God has determined that every believer who obeys Him will suffer, but only to make them more like him. The author of Hebrews gave God’s obedient children this wise exhortation:
Hebrews 12
2. [Let us fix] our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured a cross, despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. Consider him who endured such hostility of sinners against himself, lest you grow weary in your souls and lose heart.
4. For you have not yet resisted to the death, striving against sin,
5. and you have forgotten the exhortation which instructs you as sons: “My son, do not lightly esteem the Lord’s correction; neither be discouraged by His reproof,
6. for whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives.”
Jesus never sinned, and yet, how much he suffered! That is why Peter taught that when we do good, as Jesus did, and suffer for it, and if we bear that suffering with humility and faith, as Jesus also did, our heavenly Father will be pleased with us (1Pet. 2:20). To live that way is to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, and to do that is our calling:
1Peter 2
21. You were called to this, for Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his footsteps,
22. who “committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth,”
23. who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, when suffering, did not threaten, but committed himself to the One who judges justly.
Either Way, God Is Good
Whether God makes us more like Him with chastisement or with discipline, it is always only for our good, not His. If we love Him and are the called according to His purpose, everything we go through makes us happier, brings us more peace, and fills us with more joy. It is the absence of suffering, not the presence of it, that is frightening.
