Is Spanking Biblical / Spare Not the Rod?

The Biblical View of Discipline

A part of education is discipline. It's kind of a touchy subject. No matter what I say, somebody isn't going to like it. But obviously, some people grew up, all acknowledge this, that in the past, some people were brought up where discipline was over the top.

Discipline was taken so far, it started looking more like abuse than discipline.

That's true.

And because that's true, the pendulum has kind of swung so far in the other direction to where now discipline is, in many homes, non-existent. So what's the biblical viewpoint on discipline? Well, number one, the viewpoint is children need discipline.

Proverbs 13 .24 says, he who spares the rod hates his son. But he who loves him disciplines him promptly. And someone might say, pastor, are you really saying that I should be whacking my child with a stick, with a rod?

I would never say that. But the Bible does.

Don't get mad at me.

Don't shoot the messenger. You say, well, I'm not going to do that. And most people today won't. Incidentally, of the older generation, 60 and up, how many of you were hit with a rod, or a switch, or a wooden spoon when you were young?

The majority. The majority. You guys turned out OK, I think. Again, I'm not saying, this is the parent's responsibility. I don't ever tell parents what to do.

That's your choice.

It's my job, though, to preach what the Bible says. Today, most people won't even consider the rod. They'll ask about spanking. Is spanking biblical? This is really where the debate is, spanking. The Bible doesn't teach spanking.

I'm not against you if you've done it, but I think most of us were spanked, probably, when we were younger. But one pastor said this, and I never forgot it. So agree or disagree, he said the rod is what the Bible teaches, not the hand.

And he said, the children, when they see their mother's hand, when they see their father's hand, they should associate the hand with love. The mother's hand should show love to her children, hugging her children.

The father's hand should give good gifts to the child. The child, when he or she thinks discipline, should associate it with the rod and the corner, not with the hand of the parent. And I always thought that was great advice, and that's probably why the Bible says that.

I mean, some of you can probably think, yeah, you have that wooden spoon hanging there. You have the stick in the corner. And you didn't view your parents as the bad guys. You saw the stick as the bad thing, right?

I think that's the point. And when kids were hit with it, I mean, if parents are doing it right, and you don't want to do it publicly because DSS or whatever they're called now will show up, I'm sure.

But if a parent is doing it right, don't ever strike your children when you're angry. You need to be under control when you give discipline. But if parents are doing it right, if they're consistent, and the children know the boundaries, the point of them getting hit that once is they'll learn, and you won't have to do it again.

So that's some free advice.