August 23, 2022
Friends,
We talk a lot in church about how God disciplines us. It comes up often, not in the sense of time-outs and groundings and taking away privileges, but more generally in the sense of training and formation. Like pruning the dead stems from a vine and training it to climb the trellis, discipline cuts off what is not good and directs us towards what is good. God tempers us with trials and afflictions. He rebukes and chastens us with the hammer of his Law. He shows us the example of goodness in his Son and urges us to follow it. He forgives us and teaches us to crucify our flesh.
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant” (Hebrews 12:11). That’s a good reason to talk about discipline – so that you’re not surprised when it happens. If you think that the Christian life is the pursuit of comfort and ease, you’ll be shocked and dismayed when God comes along with his garden shears and starts lopping things off.
But Proverbs also teaches us the outcome of discipline. It’s not just avoiding what is bad. “For the moment all discipline is painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).
An unruly tomato plant is awful. Too much green, not enough fruit, toppling its cage and breaking its heavy branches. But a pruned and well-trained tomato plant is beautiful. It’s not just that it doesn’t look like a mess. It’s also this: it produces better, more wholesome fruit.
This is the goal of God’s discipline: not just to keep you out of sin and misery, but to train you in righteousness and prepare you for his Kingdom.
Staying out of sin and misery is important. Heeding discipline keeps you from regret: “And now, O sons, listen to me. . .lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, ‘How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!'” (Proverbs 5:7-12).
But even better than just avoiding evil is actually doing what is good. “Discipline your son, for there is hope” (Proverbs 19:18). God disciplines us because he loves us. “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” (Proverbs 3:11-12). He loves us and he hopes to make us wise unto salvation. He hopes to make us righteous and holy. He’s not a father who’s just hoping to keep his sons out of jail. He’s a father who hopes to train them to be good and merciful like him.
All of this is built into the pattern of the Christian life. We are disciplined by the daily reading of Scripture and prayer, by the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper and by preaching, by the seasons and cycles of the church year. When we abide in God’s Word, he takes our time and attention out of our hands so that he can give them back with blessings. Some try to get to church so they won’t go to hell, but the Christian faith is far more than a get-out-of-jail-free card. Learn to be like your heavenly Father. Grow in wisdom. Receive with joy the discipline of the Lord! He disciplines you because he loves you.
God bless and keep you,
Pr. Buchs
COMING EVENTS:
Elders’/Council Meetings – Thursday, September 9 @ 6 & 7pm
Family Night – Wednesday, September 14 @ 5:30pm
Men’s Bible Study – Wednesday, September 21 @ 8pm
Pork Dinner – Saturday, September 24