Discipline that Saves

When there is an element of pain, grief, or sorrow in discipline, the sorrow will teach a lesson.

Parents are instructed to not fail in disciplining their children. Scripture says that God loves to discipline His children because He loves them.

A loving, caring, and providing father will take intentional efforts to discipline his children, to help them, to correct them, even in a harsh manner, so that their path, their future, their ambitions can all be secured and headed in the right direction.

Verse 14, says, physical discipline may hurt, but striking with the rod can actually save him from death. It is not actually the pain, but the lesson learnt from that pain that can save you from death.

Scripture records many people who faced pain, but that pain didn’t save them from death, and eternal damnation. Pain alone didn’t teach them about God, but it is the lessons that you learn and take to heart that has the capacity to save from death.

Though an untimely physical death could be the result of an undisciplined child, the Bible talks of eternal death with no come back- an eternal, spiritual death. If there is no spiritual discipline coming out of learning from painful situations in your life, you are in danger of eternal damnation.

We must ask God to correct us. It is not about asking for pain, it is about asking the Lord to correct us to help us.

If a child receives the teaching without pain, there is no need for punishment. It is only when the child is unwilling to learn and is neglecting the lesson, that a painful situation is necessary. The same is true for all believers. When we yield to His correction, His rebuke, His help, we don’t need to go through the painful situation.

Pain is not the answer, it is the lesson we learn from the Lord.