I think that often we miss the encouragement of discipline because we fail to see it for what it is. We forget that even in the midst of our difficulty God is still sovereign and though Satan might desire it for evil the Lord means it for our good. When we can allow this theology to penetrate our thick minds and stop complaining when hardships come we will be able to benefit from these times.
In the first message on these verses we noted the first two items the author discusses in looking at discipline. We encountered the prelude to God’s discipline. We noted that discipline required struggle, the right mindset and endurance. Without understanding why God brings endurance we fail to think right when it comes. It is not easy because it requires endurance in the midst of the struggle.
Then we discovered the promise of God’s discipline. Discipline is promised to God’s children because it shows love, it has consequences and it shows His relationship to us. God disciplines us because He knows what is best for us. And the discipline He brings shows us that we are His children and not illegitimate.
The key idea we noted last week from this passage is that discipline, in its many forms, is God’s means to create deep Christian character and holiness without which our lives will never produce fruit.
III. The Premise of God’s Discipline (v. 9)
With that, the third item the author discusses in looking at discipline is the premise of God’s discipline. We find this written in verse 9. The author says, “Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits and live?” The premise or foundation upon which the author writes to us concerning God’s discipline is this: since God commands earthly fathers to discipline their own children it is only right that He Himself discipline His own children. For if God thought human parental discipline right and pleasing in His own eyes then it would be hypocritical for God to neglect what He deems worthy of honor.
The apostle Paul in Ephesians 6 describes this premise. He notes in verse 4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” God describes discipline as having Himself as its foundation. God has established a principle in human relations to which He has bound Himself and this is the premise of God’s discipline.
IV. The Purpose of God’s Discipline (v. 10)
The fourth item the author discusses in looking at discipline is the purpose of God’s discipline. In verse 10 we find the author telling us, “For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” Before we note the purpose God has given for discipline let’s quickly note two hindrances to human parental discipline the author mentions that are not a difficulty with God.
First, the author mentions that limited knowledge is a hindrance to human parental discipline. “They disciplined us…as seemed best to them,” he tells us. Our parents disciplined us as they thought best and we discipline our children as we think best. Unfortunately we are limited in our scope of knowledge. Sometimes we make wrong judgments; we can only guess at the motives of our children for their actions. Therefore some actions go on without proper discipline and other things are made more of than called for.
The author also mentions that limited time is a hindrance to human parental discipline. Truly, there are very few years that parents have to discipline their children. The time goes by so very quickly. And the type of discipline at various ages changes quickly too. We are fighting against the clock to instill in our children right thought and behavior. If we miss the opportunity it will be gone.
Now these difficulties in discipline on the human level are not difficulties for God. He has the complete resource of His all-knowing character. He has the entire lifetime of an individual to work in him or her as He sees fit.
And this brings us to look at the purpose of God’s discipline as the author notes in verse 10, “He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.” God wants us to be holy, just as He is holy. Isn’t it right for a father to want his children to reflect himself if the characteristic he portrays is a good one?
God is the Holy One. He is perfect in all His ways. This holiness is expressed in both a positive way (I would call this illustrative holiness) and a negative way (I would call this separative holiness). In the negative sense there is a complete absence of sin in God. James describes this in the first chapter of his letter. In verse 13 he says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God;’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” There is no flaw at all in God’s character. We also saw earlier in Hebrews a description of this type of God’s holiness in the seventh chapter. The author mentions Jesus as this example of separative holiness. How does he describe Jesus? “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.”
This negative or separative aspect of God’s holiness shows that there can be no unclean or unrighteous action, thought or desire found in God. These words from Hebrews describe this. He is innocent and undefiled. That is there is no blemish in His character. He is separated from sinners. This means He is completely different from sinners. He never participated in their debauchery; He never practiced their evil ways. He never dwelt on evil thoughts nor carried on with sinners in any way that was displeasing in the sight of His Father. He didn’t laugh at their dirty jokes, He didn’t indulge in their immoral practices, and He didn’t cheat anyone or lie to them.
In the positive (or illustrative) sense of God’s holiness we find a declaration of everything that is good and pure and lovely. We perceive everything virtuous and worthy of praise. We notice all that is just and true. These things clearly illustrate God’s holiness to us.
We might describe it this way; holiness is the light of God that shines to everything around and dispels all darkness. God is separate from darkness only because darkness cannot exist in the presence of light. So the negative aspect of holiness in which God is separate from evil is because evil cannot co-exist in this pure light. And therefore wherever God’s character is seen there is no darkness and the beauty of His holiness (as the psalmist calls it) is seen in its perfect light. This is what the passage says that John read from last week. He read from Ephesians 5. We see both the negative and positive aspects of this holiness and how it should show itself in our life. Verses 8-9, “You were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord, walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth).” This is the positive aspect of holiness. Because we have been made partakers of God’s holiness through Christ His light should shine in us. In verses 11 & 13 Paul says, “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them…But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light.” This describes both the negative and positive aspects of the holiness of God and how we are to implement it into our lives. We are not to participate in the deeds of darkness but how do we do this? We let our light shine to expose the darkness of these evil practices. How are we going to overcome the temptations that plague us? By the power of the Spirit of God we are to practice what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous and praiseworthy. As we let our light shine this dispels the darkness.
The purpose of God’s discipline is so that we would be holy. The purpose of God’s discipline is to make us like the God who saved us. He didn’t save us just to make us His children and bring us to heaven but to glorify Himself by making us live like His children. This is holiness. This is the purpose of discipline.
So the question we need to ask ourselves is, “Am I allowing God’s discipline in my life to make me more like Him or is it causing me to turn selfishly inward and merely seek my relief. If we do not have the right attitude as we pass through God’s discipline we will not learn the lesson God has for us in order to grow in holiness by grace.
V. The Process of God’s Discipline (v. 11)
The fifth item the author discusses in looking at discipline is the process of God’s discipline. He describes this process in verse 11. “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” The author lays out three aspects to the process of God’s discipline.
A. It starts with pain
The first aspect we notice in the process of God’s discipline is it starts with pain. Verse 11 starts, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful.” Now we have to understand that any kind of discipline God uses to correct us will cause us pain. There is necessary pain in discipline even if the changes God is seeking to instill in us are minor in nature. We can see this truth in the physical realm. When the Zakariasens, our missionaries we support in South Africa, adopted their son Luke he had some major physical handicaps. His legs had to be straightened with braces to correct their shape and allow them to be functional. That was painful. He also had to have surgeries in the process. This was more pain.
Now his parents had two options. They could have said, “We don’t want to cause undue pain to Luke, so we won’t put him through any of this corrective nonsense.” But what would have been the result? Luke would have been without the use of his legs for his entire life. His parents knew that the best solution was for him to endure the necessary pain to allow his legs to work.
God could forego causing us any necessary pain. But what would be the result? It would cause us to remain as we are, without being beneficial to the work of God.
What do we need to understand from this? First, it is not always the right thing to relieve someone from the consequences of their own sin lest they fail to comprehend the work of God in their life. Of course this is most difficult to determine, especially for those who have the gift of mercy. Their heart is tuned to help those in need. But it calls for wisdom on our part. And personally, when we suffer pain in our own lives, running away from the pain may not be the answer either. But isn’t this the first thing we do, in our lives, by instinct because of our self-preservation? We seek relief before we seek the Lord. Before we have even sought any spiritual direction from Him we are popping pills to remove the discomfort or angst. The attitude of don’t let me feel bad whatever the cost pervades not just society today but also the Christian church.
The first thing we should do is seek God’s direction. Now I am not saying that if you accidentally cut your jugular, you sit down and spend the next 45 minutes in prayer. But usually the difficulties that cause us pain are not normally this extreme. Again it goes back to having the right mindset about the reality of God’s discipline. It will be painful. It will not seem joyous for the moment.
In all of this, though, we must remember that self-inflicted pain is not God’s discipline and Colossians makes it clear that it is not profitable for spiritual growth. There are certain monastic individuals who think it is for their benefit to mutilate themselves. But Paul calls these attempts at discipline “self-made religion” with only an “appearance of wisdom.”
B. It continues in practice
The next aspect we notice in the process of discipline is that it continues in practice. The author says in the middle of verse 11, “yet to all who have been trained by it.” There is a training that takes place in God’s discipline. I hope you realize you cannot learn to play the guitar or do anything else in one easy lesson. It takes many lessons and much practice. So is the case with holiness. God neither teaches us everything we need to be holy in one lesson nor does the practice we receive in such a lesson bring us to maturity in a day. Many do not want the discipline it takes to be a mature Christian. They want patience and they want it now! They see their path to holiness in the 5-minute a day devotional cookbooks put out by Reader’s Digest in condensed format. It will not happen this way. The practice that produces holiness comes over a period of years in responding correctly to God’s discipline. There is a well known but wrong understanding of practice. You have all heard it but it’s not correct. “Practice makes perfect.” That’s not true. If you practice something incorrectly you will learn to do it wrong. You can practice for hours a day and still do it wrong because you have not been practicing correctly. Right practice makes perfect.
Why are their people who go on in their Christian life seeking to learn the same lessons over and over again? Why, when they should be teachers, do they find themselves having need of one teaching them again? It is because in their practice they continue to do it wrong. They don’t pick up the lessons they hear, and continue to follow the very same patterns each time God brings discipline into their lives. They may get much practice in the same lesson but they refuse to follow through in the discipline God’s way. Therefore, they practice the same things over and over but they never learn the lesson because they continue to practice in a wrong manner. The author alluded to this at the end of chapter 5 in describing his readers. He said, “For though by this time you ought to be teacher, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” These believers were still on lesson 1 because they did not progress in maturity. And he closes chapter 5 by saying, “Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern both good and evil.”
A world class professional (athlete, businessman, technician) never stops learning. They think about what they do and how they could do it better. We need to be world class Christians. As God brings discipline into our lives we need to receive the lesson with diligence so we might develop holiness. World class Christians aren’t just learners to become knowledgeable about Christianity. World class Christians are learners so they will share in God’s holiness. They are world class learners so that might reflect the character of God and be filled to all His fullness.
What are some of the key areas of discipline that God wants us to be trained in? God knows that if you are to grow in your Christian life and be effective for Him these areas are ones in which you need training. In other words these are essentials that if you don’t get down you are still in lesson 1. First, you need to be established in the Word of God and prayer. Daily and regular contact with God through His Word and prayer are key aspects to your life as a believer. And God may send you discipline until you realize this need. Second, you need the consistent fellowship of other believers. You need to seek the company of other believers in which you encourage them in the faith and seek to be encouraged by them. These are not gossip sessions, in which busybodies who have nothing better to do heartily participate to their own peril, but this is time that we spend together and speak about the Word and the Lord. “What has the Lord been teaching you in His Word?” is a wonderful question for such times? A third subject that God wants us to view as essential is the ministry of the Word. Every believer needs to be involved in the ministry of the Word in their local church. Does this mean we all teach Sunday school classes? No but it means we actively seek to impart knowledge of the Word into the lives of others. For if you don’t seek to share the Word with others you become stagnant in your own spiritual life. If you have no outlet for what you take in then you will wither.
We need to put into practice the training we receive from the Lord or we will not grow spiritually and we will falter in our Christian life. When the Lord is teaching you something through His discipline, act on it. Let us be willing to be trained by it.
C. It ends in produce
The third aspect we notice in the process of discipline is that it ends in produce (or fruit). The end of verse 11 says, “Afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” What is the outcome of discipline embraced? What is the outcome of discipline practiced? Produce. Fruit! When the farmer tills the ground and works hard in patience to weed and water and care for his crop it afterwards yields fruit. The discipline we experience now will bring forth in us the righteous fruit of Christ. It will bring out in us the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that only the Holy Spirit can work into our lives. God works this discipline in us to make us more like Christ. We will not see how unlike Christ we are without the difficulty and hardship of discipline. We will not see how much we need the grace of God without these trials.
These severe mercies of God bring us to humble ourselves before His mighty hand. And as they come into our lives our carnal reactions to them should make it clear to us that God should not reduce the pressure just yet. Our failure to trust God in the midst of them should show us that truly this is just what the doctor ordered. And it should cause us to reflect upon the fact that when the trial is complete the sweet fragrance of the aroma of Christ will be more evident and bring praise and honor to God. After all this was the apostle Paul’s prayer for the Philippians. In chapter 1 verse 11 of his letter he said, “having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
God’s discipline in our life is for the purpose that we would bear fruit to result in God’s glory.
The end result of this is to change people into reflections of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fruit of righteousness means we reflect the character of God. The pruning of the vinedresser is not comfortable but it nips off those unproductive parts of the branch so the branch can bear more fruit.
Are you in the midst of God’s disciplining hand now? Trust Him in the midst of the trial and receive the peace that passes understanding by thanking Him for it. It is not a joyful process but it results in the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
Have you passed through some discipline? Have you learned the lesson God has taught you? Are you putting into practice what God showed you in the midst of it? Don’t leave off the lesson you learned.
Are you without any discipline even though you are willfully practicing sin? If this is the case then it should cause you to reflect on the genuine nature of your conversion. Perhaps you have not received Christ as your Savior and you need to do so today. Don’t delay to receive the eternal life God has promised to all who will repent and trust in Christ’s work on the cross.
If you recognize a trial as the disciplining hand of the Lord then cling to Him in the midst of the discipline. Don’t think lightly of the discipline of the Lord and do not faint when you are reproved by Him. For when the discipline has done its work, afterwards it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Look forward to the result and learn from the kind but firm hand of the Lord’s discipline.