I have often said that the best gift you can ever give your children is good godly discipline. (Proverbs 13:24) tells us: “He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” But just why is godly discipline so important? I believe that there are three main reasons God disciplines us when we stray from doing what is right and obeying His will.
Character development
As an ambassador for Christ, we represent God on the world stage to both believers and non-believers. One of the best ways we can show the world that Christ is a great and holy God is to represent Him through our behavior and character. While we can never be perfect as Christ is we need to strive to be people of integrity, compassion, and holiness. In short we need to be people of high moral character.
While the Bible is a perfect book and has all the answers to leading a full and wonderful life, most times the only Bible that non-believers will read is your life. Our character, therefore, needs to reflect Christ, so when we step out of line godly discipline is the tool God often uses to correct our character flaws and mold us back into being men and women of high character. Thus, we should welcome godly discipline since it is designed to help us become more Christ-like. People always respect those who have high character and the more we can reflect Christ, the better platform we will have to share Him to a world that is searching for real meaning.
Training
Pastor Charles Swindoll shares the following insight here: “Discipline is training that corrects and perfects our mental faculties or molds our moral character. Discipline is control gained by enforced obedience. It is the deliberate cultivation of inner order.”1 When one becomes a Christian he or she begins a program of training for eternity. And part of the training process God administers to His children is to discipline them when necessary in order to teach them important lessons that can’t be learned in any other way. Discipline allows us to evaluate what we are doing wrong and course correct as needed.
Any training course on following after Jesus by necessity will on occasion require the spiritual rod to be administered. I like what Billy Graham said when he shared: “God does not discipline us to subdue us, but to condition us for a life of usefulness and blessedness.”2 God’s training is not something we look forward to but it leads to the third reason for divine discipline.
Partake in His holiness
Aiden W. Tozer once said: “God sees us perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness.”3 One of the key reasons God disciplines us is that we can stay in close fellowship and communion with Him. If we were not disciplined we often would stray from God and lose the peace and joy that comes with a close relationship with Jesus.
Scripture makes this point clear when we read: “Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:9-11).
My friends God loves us too much to allow us to fall away from Him. His divine discipline is always perfect and He exercises it for the spiritual good of His children. His discipline allows our Christian character to be built up, trains us to be better ambassadors for Christ, and keeps us on the path of holiness which guarantees us peace and joy as we journey with Jesus. No wonder the psalmist said: “I know, O Lord, that your regulations are fair; you disciplined me because I needed it.” (Psalm 119:75 NLT).
1 Charles R. Swindoll Quotes About Discipline | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
2 Billy Graham Quotes About Discipline | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
3 Aiden Wilson Tozer Quotes About Discipline | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)