Correction, Not Rejection

“My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof,
for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.”
(Prov. 3:11-12)

Do you despise the LORD’s discipline? I know most of us would deny this if asked directly, so I’ll put it a different way: What is your relationship with God’s word? Do you find yourself avoiding the Scriptures in favor of other materials? Do you limit your reading to topics you enjoy or find interesting, but don’t seem to make any demands on your conscience or way of life?

I’ll admit that I did this for many years. Even when I was actively involved in church, I engaged in Christian topics and absorbed various Christian-ish teachings and subjects, but tended to avoid the Bible. It wanted more from me than I was willing to give. I wanted to live my life my way. In exchange for God’s blessing, I was willing to live in what I considered a sufficiently moral way. I didn’t want to subject myself to reproofs from a God I didn’t entirely trust and certainly didn’t love. I didn’t want my sin exposed, because I didn’t want to give it up. I didn’t want to be sanctified—set apart for God. And I certainly didn’t want to take up a cross. In those years the idea of God’s discipline was a horror to me. His scrutiny meant nothing but condemnation.

That all changed the day I realized that I had been falsely accusing God all of my life, blaming him for my problems, slandering him in my heart, thinking of him as a judgmental trickster, and all the while attempting to manipulate him into giving me the kind of life I wanted. For all my pretense of Christianity, I didn’t love him; I was his enemy. That night, for the first time in my life, I went to bed with the recognition that I was a sinner to whom God had been very, very patient, and very, very merciful. For the first time I realized that God might actually love me, and for the first time I actually cared. You see, when God exposes our sin, he doesn’t do it to destroy us, but to save us:

“. . . God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom 5:8-10).

That day everything began to change for me. My Bible became food for my starving soul. I was desperate to know this merciful God. I was desperate to know I was forgiven, and that this time I was really and truly saved.

I would like to be able to say that I’ve stayed that desperately hungry for God every day of every year since, or that I’ve never tired of his correction or his rebuke. But being a Christian is not easy. Bearing a cross is painful. As Jesus said, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt. 26:41). What I can say is that when I’ve drifted from his word, when I’ve despised his correction and been weary of his reproof, he has reproved me. And why does he reprove me? Because “the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights”. Consider this, even our perfectly sinless Savior submitted himself to training from our Father: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him . . .” (Heb. 5:8-9).

So God’s reproof is not a sign of his rejection, but of his acceptance. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Rom. 8:1). His correction is not punitive, but instructive. God loves his children so much that he wants the absolute best for them, and that absolute best is nothing less than the perfection of Christ himself! “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” (Rom 8:29). “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18). If you’ve come to know and love Christ, if you’ve ever looked at him with “unveiled face” this is what you want too.

And so, sisters and brothers, my encouragement for you today (and every day) is that you keep your eyes on the glory of our risen Savior. Only then will you have the proper attitude toward God’s word and its correctives, toward your sin and sanctification, and toward the painful challenges we face as Christians living in this fallen world. As the author of Hebrews so perfectly puts it:

“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. 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 (12:3-11).

May the promise of that peaceable fruit carry each one of us through the pain of this life and all the way to glory.