The Discipline 

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “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.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. 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. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. (Hebrews 12: 3 to 10) 

Ever since Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, God’s children have rebelled against God’s will. Like an old saying that says “spare the rod, spoil the child”, if a parent refuses to discipline an unruly child, then the child will grow accustomed to getting his own way. So, God has disciplined His children ever since. The disciplines often brought suffering into our life. That’s how our flesh could learn to be obedient. Jesus Christ himself set a good example as described below. 

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. (Hebrews 5: 7 8) 

Jesus was born sinless nor committed any sin. Yet to convict his flesh, not only did he die of agony but also endured from sinners such hostility against him. So, for sinners like us, our flesh needs to endure the same sufferings as Christ too as described below. 

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. (First Peter 4: 1 to 3)  

The suffering of discipline may not be of the same magnitude, but it needs to bring us down to the same conviction as described below. 

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2: 20) 

So, we could live by faith in Christ, the Son of God. Then the law of the Spirit of life would set us free as described below. 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8: 1 to 4) 

After dealing with the flesh, then we are ready to enter the body of Christ, that is, the Church as described below. 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. (Colossians 1: 24 to 26)   

Christ is the Son of God. So, the Church of Christ inherits the sonship of God. If we, as members of the Church, are willing to submit to God’s disciplines due to the sake of love, then God would glorify those who love God as described below. 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8: 28 to 30) 

That’s why God disciplines us as sons because that’s how we could share His holiness and enter His glory. Emmanuel. 

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