What’s the difference between discipline and punishment? Executing punishment and discipline can look incredibly similar. When I was in football season, “take a lap” was a form of punishment. But when I was in track season, “take a lap” was a means of developing skills.
In the movie Miracle regarding the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team’s triumphant victory over the Soviet Union, Coach Herb Brooks handpicked a group of undisciplined kids and trained them to play like they had never played before. He broke them to make them better players and a better team. Following a tie with the Norwegian National team, Herb Brooks made his players stay on the ice and sprint “suicides.” He made them do it over and over, repeating the word “Again.”
Why do you think Navy Seal Team 6 is so efficient and skilled to accomplish the difficult tasks assigned to them? It is because they have been trained beyond what is ordinary. They are forced to suffer hardship to create team unity. They endure physical pain and other forms of deprivation in order to equip them to face anything the enemy may throw their way. They confront unique challenges in order to hone their judgment and refine their thinking and quicken their mental and physical reflexes.
Punishment looks backwards at what you did wrong, and exacts justice. Discipline looks forward to who you want to become, and helps you get there. Punishment hurts you. Discipline strengthens you. People often punish us out of anger; people discipline us out of love.
Biblical punishment is an exercise of God’s justice against our sins. Discipline is an exercise of God’s love to improve us.
The Puritan Samuel Bolton says…
If Christ has borne whatever our sins deserved, and by doing so has satisfied God’s justice to the full, then God cannot, in justice, punish us for sin, for that would require the full payment from Christ and yet demand part of it from us…
God does not chastise us as a means of satisfaction for sin, but for rebuke and caution, to bring us to mourn for sin committed, and to beware of the like.
It must always be remembered that, although Christ has borne the punishment of sin, and although God has forgiven the saints for their sins, yet God may correct His people in a fatherly way for their sin.
Christ endured the great shower of wrath, the black and dismal hours of displeasure for sin. That which falls upon us is as a sun-shine shower, warmth with wetness, wetness with the warmth of His love, to make us fruitful and humble… That which the believer suffers for sin is not penal, arising from vindictive justice, but medicinal, arising from a fatherly love. It is His medicine, not His punishment; His chastisement, not His sentence; His correction, not His condemnation.
The good news is that if you are a Christian, there is no more punishment because there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). The bad news is, there will still be discipline in our lives because God’s grace never leaves us the way we are, but always seeks to improve us.
Tom Landry, former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said, “The job of a coach is to make players do what they don’t want to do, in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.”
As other coaches have said, “No pain, no gain.”
Growing as a Christian is not a bed of ease. Much about Christian growth is painful, involves hard work, and takes time. Images such as running the race, taking up our cross and striving after holiness all communicate extreme effort or pain.
Christian growth doesn’t happen automatically, despite the fact that God has done so much for us to make it possible. Not only does God continue to work in our lives through a sometimes painful process, He calls us to engage in growth in ways that cut into our convenience and comfort.
If you want to be a spiritual champion, you not only have to follow the example of the cloud of witnesses who lived and died by faith, you not only have to divest yourself of anything, and I mean anything, sins or even good things that slow us down; you not only have to endure; you not only have to keep your eyes on Jesus; you have to allow your Coach to get the best out of you by discipling you.
God’s grace first pardons me for my disobedience, then prepares me for my obedience.
That’s what Hebrews 12:4-13 is about.
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 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. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 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? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 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? 10 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. 11 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 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
Do you like discipline. I know I don’t. I’ve never run into a person who just “loves” discipline.
However, discipline is necessary for our growth. Notice that verses 10 and 11 mention that being discipline is that “we may share his holiness” and it “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
In verse 3 (which we looked at last week) he says, “Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.” The first glimpse of suffering we see in this church here is that something is threatening to make them “grow weary and lose heart.” Either the stress has been too great or it has lasted so long that it was deflating their faith; their spiritual stamina was almost spent.
Then verse 4 said, ““You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” In other words, things aren’t bad yet, but they are bound to get worse. The source of all this suffering seems to be “hostile sinners” (cf. Heb. 10:32-34; 11:35-38; 12:3). Jesus, of course, had suffered death because of his decision to stay on track—all the way to the cross. And some of the heroes of the faith so memorably praised at the end of chapter 11 had paid the ultimate price as well. But though the Hebrew church had experienced severe persecution early on, under the Emperor Claudius, no one had yet been martyred.
Would these Christians shrink back? That was the danger mentioned in Hebrews 10:39. Though they had not experienced “the worst of it” yet, some were in danger of cashing their chips in too soon.
So how should we respond to God’s discipline?
First, we must regard with seriousness and steadfastness God’s rod of discipline.
So our author first asks: “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’” (Heb. 12:5). Many of our difficulties in the Christian life stem from the fact that we have forgotten the truths of Scripture. The comfort and strength of God’s Word will avail us not at all if we do not remember it. This is why we must practice the ancient discipline of meditation upon the Scriptures. We need to memorize them, yes, but then we need to run them over and over again in our minds until they become second nature and come quickly to our minds whenever we need them.
The author is quoting Proverbs 3:11 here in verse 5, Scripture that they should know well. The author of Hebrews uses Proverbs to encourage them to avoid two extremes—“regard[ing] lightly the discipline of the Lord” on the one hand, and growing “weary when reproved by Him” on the other.
First, we are not to treat God’s discipline lightly, making too little of it, treating it as trivial and not worth our attention.
Don’t just shrug it off, ignoring it or treating it as “bad luck.” Rather, pay attention to the fact that it is God’s discipline meant to correct you or protect you or perfect you.
See God’s personal, providential care in all that happens to you. Nothing happens to us by chance.
- If a believer encounters a trial and responds with stoic fatalism, he is regarding God’s discipline lightly.
- If he grits his teeth and endures it without seeing God’s loving hand in it, he is regarding it lightly.
- If he does not take the discipline to heart by prayerful self-examination, asking God to help him see how he needs to repent, he is regarding it lightly.
Don’t remain indifferent to God’s discipline. Most of us vaguely intuit that we are experiencing discipline but remain indifferent to its significance. First, we must recognize that it is “of the Lord.” It is not just some unfortunate accident that is happening in our lives, but is the purposeful, sovereign hand of God chastening us so that we change direction.
We need to understand not only that this discipline comes from the Lord, but discern why He is using it in our lives.
When we sin we violate that purpose and God disciplines us to correct our paths.
David experienced this corrective discipline in the aftermath of his sin with Bathsheba. We are aware that although God forgave David, he disciplined him through years of family conflicts.
In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul deals with corrective discipline of a man involved in sexual sin. Paul said,
“deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
The purpose of this man’s discipline was “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord,” but the discipline was to allow Satan to afflict this man’s body in such a way as to lead him back to holiness.
God uses intermediate agents, such as Satan and other people, to administer His discipline, but He still exercises Fatherly control over it, as we see in the book of Job.
Discipline puts us back into a proper state so that we can function as we were intended.
Sometimes God uses discipline to protect us from moving into deeper, or more serious, sin, or to teach others not to sin.
Church discipline is designed not only to bring a sinner to repentance, but also to protect the rest of the church from getting involved in the same sin.
When a parent grabs their child’s hand or shoulder to keep them from rushing out into traffic, it may hurt but it is done to protect them from danger.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 that his thorn in the flesh was given him to “keep me from becoming conceited” (v. 7).
God will administer loving discipline for wrongdoing in order to keep His children from experiencing even more extreme consequences of sin. This discipline can be quite rigorous, because while the damage of sin unchecked can be so devastating, our wayward impulses can be so strong. There is an appropriate dread of divine discipline that motivates us to avoid sin. Still, in order for discipline to operate properly in the Christian life, we must remember that God’s discipline for his children is never punitive or damaging.
So discipline may be to correct us or to protect us. It can also be used to perfect us, to make us more like Jesus Christ.
That is what our passage is saying—that God uses discipline to bring us to holiness and righteousness.
The recipients of this epistle of Hebrews were going through persecution. They needed endurance because their life was about to get harder.
Our author is encouraging them that also when opposition comes via the hands of sinful men, it is ultimately the wise, loving discipline of our heavenly Father. “What adversaries are doing to you out of sinful hostility, God is doing out of fatherly discipline,” writes John Piper.
Also, we must “not faint” when God reproves us.
To faint or be weary is to become depressed and hopeless, as if God has abandoned us. As the author goes on to show, our trials are actually evidence that God loves us and that we are indeed His children. But the person who faints has lost sight of this. He or she is self-focused, absorbed in the trials to the extent that they cannot see God’s purpose or perspective.
All that he can see is, in Jacob’s words, “all these things are against me” (Gen. 42:36). Poor me.
But actually, God was working all these things for Jacob. Joseph’s perspective was much better, one which enabled him to persevere, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20a).
Second, we are to remember God’s encouraging Word that we are His Sons.
God’s Word is our source for encouragement and our writer explicitly warns them about “forgetting that word of encouragement.” Look at verse 5.
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
The first encouragement we can take from this is that God is addressing us, claiming us to be his “sons.” Thus, discipline is from the hand of our loving Father. This is no tyrant punishing us, no prison guard beating us; this is our loving Father disciplining us for our good. Discipline is never a sign of God’s rejection; but an indication of His love as our Father. Discipline means that God is treating us as His children.
Failure to discipline a child really shows lack of love (cf. Prov. 13:24), or even worse, it may really be that we don’t belong to this father; we aren’t really a part of this family. In fact, verse 8 goes on to say that if we are not disciplined, then we are actually illegitimate children. If we go on sinning without any discipline from God, it proves that we don’t actually belong to Him. A parent only has jurisdiction over his or her own children.
Now the Bible teaches that none are God’s children by natural birth, but only by spiritual birth through faith in Christ (John 3:1-16). Paul wrote, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26). Those who are not sons will face God’s wrath, but those who are sons by faith experience loving discipline. Those sons whom “He accepts” are those among His children whom He is preparing to inherit His blessings.
Because we are God’s sons, His most vital desire for us is to become like our brother Jesus Christ. Through regeneration we now have a new nature which enables us to pursue holiness. God’s purpose is that we may be “conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29).
A novice once asked the great Michelangelo how he sculptured such beautiful statutes. Pointing to an angel he had just chiseled out of marble, he said, “I saw the angel in the marble, I chiseled until I set it free.”
In a similar vein, yet not as eloquent, a southern artisan had completed sculpting a horse out of rock. Bewildered by the transformation, a spectator said, “How in the world did you do it?” The artist replied, “I knock everything off that don’t look like a horse.”
That “chiseling,” that “knocking off,” is the painful process of making us into something that we are not yet, but shall be. God has to knock off the rough edges of our sinfulness, chisel away our wrongful attitudes, and sandpaper our character flaws. That is discipline. And it’s good for us.
Grace Still Amazes 