6 Ways God Disciplines Christians | Clip from Final Warning

He gives a list of things that God uses to reprove us or to correct us. So, Chuck, you want to run us through those and then we can kind of talk about which ones we feel are most helpful, most difficult, and maybe which ones we hadn't thought of before.

So, page 354 and 355, he gives six things.

Yeah, I'm not sure I counted the same six you did, but I'll give you what I got.

Yeah, you go ahead. I'll tell you if I have a different six.

First, he talks about how it is the duty of all of God's people to deal faithfully with each other. So, one another. We reprove one another. Then the duty of parents toward their children, reproving. Then he mentions how God uses providence to reprove sinners.

And then in that same paragraph, he talks about being admonished by His Word. So I counted that as a separate one.

The Word as the Gentlest Reproof

Okay, so you're going to have seven.

Okay. Ministers reprove us. We're reproved by the Holy Spirit. And then he talks about how we are sometimes reproved by the conviction and conversion of someone else.

Yeah.

Seeing the change that occurs in them.

Yeah, so of the six, which one...

Seven.

Sorry, yeah, of the seven, of the seven, which one do you find God uses. Probably, that you notice that He uses most often in your life?

Most often. I would, I think probably His Word, either through reading the Bible or another book about the Bible, or a sermon, but still kind of under the category of His Word.

Yeah, yeah, I would say the same. Oftentimes I feel that that's not the most painful.

Yeah.

I think that, you know, I kind of feel like that's the most gentle. Because, you know, you're meeting with Him in His Word. And because you're a Christian, even when there's sin, and perhaps you're blind to it, or kind of stuck your fingers in your ears the last time He pointed it out, the Bible is a joy to us.

So I find that to be, you know, the gentlest. So it would be wisest for us to respond immediately to that, wholeheartedly, so that the others don't have to come.

Providence and Hard Reproofs

Right.

Which one do you find most difficult?

Well, difficult in two ways. One, I think providence is often hard to discern. You know, there are hard things that happen that you're meant to plow through. And, you know, you don't quit because it was hard.

But there are providences that are reproofs. So determining which is which sometimes, maybe, not so easy.

Yeah, yeah.

But then the other, there are some people that it's harder to receive reproof from than others.

Are you looking at me?

Well, I am, but not because of other reasons. But like you just said, Clyde paid a price to reprove you, and so you heard it in a way, perhaps, that you wouldn't, if someone were just getting it off their chest.

Right.

And so there are some reproofs that come, and, you know, maybe it is me more than it is them.

It's me, not you, you know.

But some people I receive reproof from more readily than others.

Receiving Reproof from Those Closest to Us

Yeah, and I think there's a danger there. I mean, I have felt it on both sides of the issue. I mean, being pastors, sometimes we do have to have hard talks, and I really hate that. I mean, it's my least favorite part of the job.

But love does require that, and I wish that I did it more like Christ. But I think that, you know, sometimes you talk to people, and you look back on it later, and maybe you do see ways that you didn't do it perfectly, especially as a parent, you know.

I mean, because we're probably not as careful. With our kids, we're probably more quick to just shoot off rebukes.

They come more often.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't have time to wait. I don't have enough time. So, but I have seen people basically have this attitude, if you don't correct me in a perfect way, which I deserve, then I don't have to listen to any of it.

And I think that's a really dangerous response. And I have had that attitude at times, like, well, they didn't say it right. I do remember in the early days of the church, one of the elders, Lanny Autry, who is now with the Lord, who is a good friend to both of us, and a good deal older than both of us, probably about 20 years older than us, I think Lanny was, a little bit more, about.

And Lanny really was slow to rebuke. But I remember one time that he pulled me aside. And Lanny, you know, was usually very complimentary, probably more than he should have been. But this time he rebuked me.

And the thing he pointed out, I wasn't doing. But it was right next to another thing, kind of in my mind, that there was an attitude that was wrong there. And even though he was kind of shooting a little left of the mark, I remember thinking while he was talking, I'm not doing that.

You're mistaken. But then immediately, you know, as from the Lord, yes, but you know what you are. And he's just not saying it perfectly, but he's pointing to the same attitude. So, yeah, I think we have to be careful when people are difficult to listen to.

I think I would say rebukes from people that you really care about most, so spouse, kids, coworkers that you really do respect, people that, you know, in a sense, rightly or wrongly, we would like for them to look at us and say, at the end of our life, they were a good witness, you know, they were helpful.

You know, in a sense, you kind of would like for them to have admired you. And I think that's a dangerous desire, but it creeps up often. So when people that you care what they think of you have a rebuke, I think we tend to hear it like ten times louder, especially from your spouse because that's probably the one that, you know, is closest and dearest to us.

So if your spouse says, you know, what you've been doing is really harmful to our family and you think you hear it like it's in a megaphone, and then they may find it difficult to understand why you react.

So, you know, and so I think we have to be careful there not to hear it wrongly. And if you're rebuking someone that really loves you, not to say it in a way that might be overstated. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to The Whole Council on your favorite podcast app.

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