Pondering Proverbs - Discipline (1)

  

A few years ago, when pondering Proverbs, I jotted down verses under a few headings, subjects that had been speaking to me through my regular reading of this book of wisdom. I wonder what I’ll find as I revisit them?

 

Discipline: Just yesterday I was talking to a friend about Hebrews 12:4 – 11, in which we read a quote from Proverbs 3:11 – 12, “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.”

 

In Hebrews 12:4 – 11 we also read, “…shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” And then we see that God our Father, “disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” And then we see that “those who have been trained by it [discipline]” will see the “peaceful fruit of righteousness” in their lives.

 

Can we hear the words of Jesus to the church in Laodicea? “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.” (Rev. 3:19).

 

Discipline is an expression of God’s love for us; yes, yes, yes, as Hebrews 12:11 states the obvious, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful…” Nevertheless, discipline distinguishes between “illegitimate children and…sons” (Heb. 12:8). In fact, all of God’s children “have become partakers” of discipline (Heb. 12:8).

 

The way of discipline is the way of discipleship, it is the way of learning and growing and training and transformation into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Biblical way of discipline is within the context of God’s love for us, and within His love is His desire that we share in His holiness – that we partake of His Nature (2 Peter 1:4).

 

We can partake of the nature of the world, of the present age; or we can partake of the Nature of God. If we partake of the nature of the world we will imbibe poison, if we partake of the Nature of our Father, submitting ourselves to His discipline, we will yield “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

 

Hebrews Chapter 12 begins with the call to “run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…” Running a race to win requires training, and the race that Hebrews calls us to run is patterned on the men and women of faith in Chapter 11 and especially on our Lord Jesus Christ “who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:2).

 

Getting in the game requires training, and training requires discipline, and discipline requires endurance. Do we allow ourselves to be content sitting on the bench – usually a pew – watching others engage in the game of life? We watch videos of the game, we have small groups that study the game and talk about it, we attend lectures on the game, we sing about the game – but we don’t play the game ourselves, we aren’t in the game – in fact, we won’t accept the discipline, we won’t endure the least discomfort (we usually seek to avoid it and gravitate toward teachers who help us avoid it), we refuse to learn the playbook, and we pretend to be injured when called to get off the bench end enter the game.

 

Is discipleship a “virtual reality” in our lives, or is it an actual reality?

O that we might always remember that our Father’s discipline is an expression of His love for us!