Discipline: An Example of Calling What is Good Evil
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Thoroughly Equipped Season 3 Episode 2
An interesting spat occurred on X about a month ago over a post by Samuel Sey who stated that he had to discipline his 4 month old son. The majority of responses accused Mr. Sey of mistreatment of his son.
This made me wonder about what Christians have been taught over the last couple of decades about what discipline is. And so I thought I would talk about it.
For an in depth study on a biblical worldview of discipline and the work of our Father's hand in chastising his children I strongly suggest you listen to Jim Osman's exegetical preaching on Hebrews 12.
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- 00:00
- Are we raising soft kids in this day and age? What I didn't have at the time was the knowledge on how to discipline a toddler or how to deal with these specific situations.
- 00:10
- What was I supposed to do when my toddler was being defiant? I could only yell so many times. I could only say no so many times.
- 00:17
- But what if I told you that I believe punishment doesn't work? It's not the punishment that actually teaches them what to do.
- 00:23
- It's that discussion that you may have after you've done whatever you've done to punish them. It's that conversation and asking them, what could you have done differently?
- 00:31
- Or showing them the correct way to handle whatever situation that they were faced with. So what is the phrase that parents are saying all the time, which is going to actually increase the likelihood of their baby and toddler engaging in undesirable behaviors?
- 00:42
- It is when they say, no, stop, or don't do something. So in your day -to -day life, that might look like stop throwing the food off the table, don't throw your toys, no hitting mommy, plus lots of other different varieties of the same thing.
- 00:56
- Parents are very uneasy with disciplining their children, partly because they believe that if you give a child infinite freedom, that's best for them, and that constraints are inappropriate, which is really just, well,
- 01:05
- I don't know what to say about that, except it's so untrue that it's very difficult to think of anything that's more untrue than that.
- 01:11
- But also the thing is, is if you let your children take advantage of you, if you have an ounce of spine and an ounce of aggression, which you do, especially if you don't admit it, then you will take revenge on your children.
- 01:21
- And so part of the trick with kids is that if your child is doing something that makes you dislike them, that you have to figure out how to stop them from doing that and teach them how to do it properly.
- 01:30
- You have to talk to your wife to make sure that you're not being too much of a monster, you know, and the same with her. But that discipline is partly what enables you to continue to like your child while you love them.
- 01:40
- And even more than that, you know, parents talk about fostering self -esteem and fostering creativity and all of that in their kids, and I think that's misbegotten.
- 01:48
- It's shallow for a variety of reasons. First, it's not that easy to foster creativity because it's rare, and self -esteem is a very badly defined concept, and mostly it's been used for harm, not good.
- 01:56
- What your job is as a parent is to help your child learn from between two years old and say four years old how to act in the world so that when people encounter them, people smile and are happy they're around.
- 02:08
- Somebody asked me once, how as a father did I discipline my children? Well, I'll be honest with you. When my kids were little, my girls, pretty easy.
- 02:15
- I mean, literally I could just tell them I was disappointed or give them a stern look, and that was enough. Now, my son, on the other hand, well, raising a young boy is a lot like raising a puppy at that age.
- 02:23
- In fact, the commands are almost exact. Get that out of your mouth. Stop chewing on that. Get off the table. Don't pee there. The only difference is is your wife gets real upset when you try to crate train him.
- 02:35
- You love and discipline go together. Like Romeo and Juliet, Joanie and Chachi, peanut butter and chocolate, love and discipline go together.
- 02:44
- They are inseparable. You can't have one without the other. If you have one, you always have the other.
- 02:49
- Discipline is the issues from love and these two things, and they're inseparable. Revelation chapter three, those whom
- 02:55
- I love, I reprove and discipline, therefore be zealous and repent. You see it here in this passage, those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines.
- 03:01
- It's in Proverbs chapter three. Love and discipline go together. One is the evidence of the other, and the other is the evidence of the one, and they cannot be separated.
- 03:10
- They are compatible. Parents understand this, that love and discipline are compatible. Let me correct that.
- 03:16
- Wise parents understand this, that love and discipline are compatible. Not every parent understands it.
- 03:21
- A wise parent understands it. Children do not understand it. Children do not understand that love and discipline are compatible, because when children receive discipline, they think it is an expression of a lack of love by their parents, right?
- 03:34
- You have been there. You were a child once. Everybody who were here was not a child, was one at one time. When you receive discipline, you think that discipline is an expression of a lack of love by my parents.
- 03:44
- And so when my parents' love increases, the discipline goes away. When my parents don't love me as much, the discipline increases because the love is waning.
- 03:52
- We think as children, that these two things are on a balance and to have a lot of the one is to have little of the other. You know why children think that way?
- 03:59
- Because they're foolish. That's why. Now, if you're a child, you're saying, did Pastor Jim just call me a fool?
- 04:06
- No, the Bible calls you a fool. Proverbs 22, 15 says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.
- 04:16
- And the rod of discipline drives it far from them. It is bound up in the heart of a child. You were born a fool.
- 04:24
- You're not alone. Look around the room. Everybody here is born as a fool. So children are foolish and foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.
- 04:32
- The rod of discipline must drive it far from them. It is foolish then to think that discipline is incompatible with love.
- 04:40
- And that to have one, a lot of one is to have little of the other, or to have a lot of the other is to have a little bit of the one.
- 04:46
- That is a foolish way of thinking. It is also foolish for a parent to think, because I love my child, I will not discipline my child.
- 04:53
- If I love my child, I'm just gonna let them express themselves in the middle of the aisle at Walmart, because I won't buy them
- 04:59
- Fruity Pebbles. I'm just gonna let them express their anxiety, their angst, their anger, their frustration, their hatred, their selfishness.
- 05:08
- They just need to vent this in the middle of Walmart. I'm not going to say no to them. I'm not gonna squash their free expression.
- 05:15
- I'm not gonna correct their behavior. I'm not gonna discipline them. That is not an expression of love. That is an expression of evil folly and wickedness.
- 05:23
- I know people who will never say no to their children. That is foolishness. That is utter foolishness.
- 05:29
- And it's the evidence that somebody does not love their child. God is the perfect parent. And our job as parents is to model how he parents us.
- 05:36
- So we are to model his wisdom, his insight, his creativity, his love, his grace, and yes, his discipline.
- 05:43
- And we are to pursue disciplining our children in the same way that God disciplines us, because the connections between disciplining children in the physical realm, in the natural realm, between parents and children here in this world, and the parallels between that and God disciplining us, they are strong parallels and they are obvious parallels.
- 05:59
- So let's go a step further. Not only is love and discipline compatible with one another, let's go a step further.
- 06:08
- Love, sorry, discipline springs from divine love. Discipline is the expression of love.
- 06:17
- And if there is no discipline, there is no love. And if there is love, then there most certainly will be some form of discipline.
- 06:25
- Welcome to the Thirdly Equipped podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry, books, conferences,
- 06:33
- Bible studies, et cetera, to scripture. Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 to 17, that all scripture is
- 06:41
- God -breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
- 06:52
- I'm your host, Melba Toast. May this episode bless you and bring glory to God.
- 07:03
- Hey ladies, welcome to Thoroughly Equipped. If you are new, welcome. So today's episode is brought on by, of course,
- 07:13
- Twitter, and every once in a while, like last semester, I did a sort of response to another tweet, back then it was
- 07:26
- Twitter, that was talking about modesty, and it kind of blew up and got a lot of attention in the
- 07:39
- Twittersphere. This one is about discipline, and I thought, okay, it's an interesting topic to kind of get into.
- 07:50
- I was interested in the way people responded, the backlash that came with this post, and at first glance, there's kind of visceral reaction, but I noticed something that was going on here, and just kind of wanted to point it out, and thought, okay, maybe doing an episode on this might help parents, or specifically women, in having kind of a biblical worldview regarding discipline.
- 08:29
- So this firestorm broke out on X because of a post by Samuel Say about disciplining his four -month -old son, and from this backlash,
- 08:43
- Mr. Say wrote a response on his blog, Slow to Write, which gives the context of the
- 08:49
- X post, and this is what he writes.
- 08:59
- So his response is on Slow to Write, and he explains, quote,
- 09:07
- I recently published a vague post on X or Twitter this week. The tweet said,
- 09:13
- I had to disciple my son tonight. It's not the first time, but I'm heartbroken. It's necessary, but I hate it so much.
- 09:20
- It's especially difficult since he's such a good boy. He's such an easy boy to parent, but he's still a sinner, and since I love him,
- 09:28
- I must discipline him. Thousands of atheists and progressive Christians on social media are accusing me of hurting and abusing my nearly five -month -old son.
- 09:39
- Some believers have also resorted to all kinds of assumptions and accusations. I'm deeply disappointed with these people.
- 09:47
- I should have known I was too vague. I should have known better. I've explained my foolish tweet to a few sincere people who've reached out to me in love, but I think it's good for me to write this article to explain what my tweet was about.
- 09:59
- When I said I had to discipline my son, I meant I had to do sleep training.
- 10:05
- It's really as simple as that. I wish I had used the word sleep training instead of discipline, but I couldn't remember the word.
- 10:13
- Even when I was trying to explain what I really meant in my tweet to some people, I said sleeping habits and disciplining him in terms of bedtimes.
- 10:25
- Since I wasn't familiar with the term until recently, I couldn't remember it when I was writing my tweet, so I used the word disciplined.
- 10:33
- That is generally synonymous with the word training. So what I should have said was
- 10:38
- I had to sleep train my son tonight. It's not the first time, but I'm heartbroken. It's necessary, but I hate it so much.
- 10:45
- It's especially difficult since he's such a good boy. He's such an easy boy to parent, but he's still a sinner, and since I love him,
- 10:52
- I must sleep train him. He goes on to explain, on that night, my son was unusually difficult.
- 10:59
- He was sleepy, but he was fully taken care of, clean diaper, full belly, just wouldn't stop crying no matter how he held him.
- 11:09
- So I figured I should place him in his crib, decided to let him cry in his crib momentarily, which was very hard for him, for Samuel, that is.
- 11:18
- He was heartbroken, and he wanted to pick him up, but it was necessary. And moments later, he fell asleep and stayed asleep until the morning.
- 11:26
- If you're a parent, you know about sleep training. For most of us, there are some who start at certain ages.
- 11:36
- There's discussion going on about when to do it, if to do it, people still sometimes co -sleep at maybe even around four months.
- 11:45
- I mean, it's really a parent's prerogative. But I think what lighted the firestorm, or what the real discussion was, his use of the term discipline, it really set off this whole discussion.
- 12:07
- But here, I wholeheartedly sympathize with Mr. Say. I mean, I too was greatly disappointed with the believers, or the whole responses, who resorted to assumptions and accusations.
- 12:21
- I mean, so I was looking at some of these responses, and some were really just downright disgusting, and some were just really saddening and disheartening, like you said, as a
- 12:40
- Christian. So some of the responses were, I'm sorry, but what could a four -month -old do that needs discipline?
- 12:49
- Response to that was legit. Well, a four -month -old could understand that they did something wrong, and understand what this thing that the parent is doing.
- 12:59
- Another one was, I hate this mentality theology. It's like we are born sinners because babies cry, even when
- 13:06
- I don't see anything wrong, therefore they are maliciously lying, or babies steal property from their siblings.
- 13:13
- Criminal, when they were just born, and have no concept of any of that. Another response, which
- 13:21
- I thought was kind of interesting, I had to discipline my son when he was a couple months old.
- 13:28
- I was nursing, and he chomped down. Ouch, I let out a bit of a shout as the sharp pain was shocked and sudden.
- 13:38
- That's all it took. He stopped chomping. I relate to this, though.
- 13:44
- Sharp and sudden yelling of ouch was not enough to discipline my son, and learning not to bite.
- 13:57
- Somebody, so as far as the extreme that I saw was, if you discipline your kids, literally, quote, discipline your kids, though misspelled, you are a sick, explicitive.
- 14:11
- There was calls for CPS to be brought in.
- 14:17
- Someone posted that Marion County CPS had been alerted. Another quote, this just becomes more horrific the more
- 14:25
- I see it. Only an evil person could discipline a four -month -old.
- 14:32
- Somebody posts tragic. Says, that's not a Christian, or he'd know
- 14:38
- Jesus said, be careful what you do to the little ones, for in heaven they shall all see the face of my father.
- 14:49
- So, and then this one I thought was interesting. It's a really weird statement, but Samuel is very solid guy and clearly a loving father.
- 14:58
- I think we should be charitable here, and chalk this one up to a far too broad definition of discipline and sin.
- 15:06
- I hope he gives a clarification of what he meant. I actually think it's different. I don't think it's a broad definition.
- 15:12
- I think it's a too narrow definition, but we're gonna get into that. So this type of reaction is expected from atheists, progressive individuals and the whole world in general, but one who calls themselves
- 15:26
- Christians, yeah, it's a very deep disappointment. So why is this a deep disappointment?
- 15:33
- Well, because Christians should be biblical. They should understand the sin nature, righteousness and understand the truth about discipline.
- 15:42
- But instead many Christians do not even have a biblical understanding of discipline. They've adopted the world's ideas of it and immediately presume something along the lines of a harsh hand or a form of punishment.
- 15:55
- And if that were true, they would have a case of abuse on their hands. But the problem is that that is not discipline, that's abuse, two different words.
- 16:06
- Discipline is different, but our world repudiates any form of discipline.
- 16:12
- Now it's even seen as evil, as you've heard some of the people quoting saying that even disciplining a four month old is evil.
- 16:24
- Why do so many people, even Christians, take offense to Samuel's say stating that he had to discipline his four month old son?
- 16:34
- So let's do kind of like a thought experiment. What does your mind immediately go to when you hear the word discipline?
- 16:42
- Does it think of spanking or timeouts or restrictions, et cetera?
- 16:48
- Does it immediately go to a harsh punishment of some kind? I mean, why has discipline become this kind of bad word?
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- Well, our world hates discipline. It hates authority, obedience and submission.
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- And because headship, authority and discipline are a staple to the
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- Christian family, it's become this hegemonic power that's to be dismantled.
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- Discipline relays authority and power and since authority and power suppress people, it needs to be done away with.
- 17:26
- And don't think this hasn't affected our understanding of the family. Critical theory, humanism, feminism and other such ideologies have been repeatedly presented to us in this society.
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- And this is then therefore reflected in our parenting as a nation. Another thing is psychology.
- 17:49
- Psychology has taught us that our job as parents is to allow our children to form their own identity and path.
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- For a person to actually self -actualize, to achieve their highest potential, we have to let them be free to find and express themselves.
- 18:07
- Discipline then hinders that. It's a conforming to my will. And conforming to my will as us as sinners, there's a kind of backlash against that.
- 18:23
- I believe the world kind of pushes against discipline because we in our sinful nature have a tendency to co -opt discipline for ourselves as our sinful nature likes to take what is a blessing from God and use it to our own advantage, producing unbiblical discipline in our homes.
- 18:44
- So what is unbiblical discipline then? Well, unbiblical discipline is the training up of children the way that we would have them go.
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- Sinful parents discipline because the child's actions or behaviors affect us in a way we don't like.
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- They don't pick up after themselves, so therefore they make my work harder. Their inappropriate behavior reflects on me as a parent.
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- Their talking back hurts my feelings. They should obey because this is my house and they are under my authority.
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- When we come to discipline as a training of obeying me, then usually results in punishment for bad behavior instead of actually training of good behavior.
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- That's because our reason for training is self -focused. As sinners, we don't always exercise right judgment when offense to ourselves is involved.
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- The typical evangelical church has not done a good job of getting at the heart of discipline and actually exercising it.
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- They may teach practical tips on raising a family, but headship is left out.
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- They may give tips on rewards and punishments for behavior, but the heart and the gospel are often left out.
- 20:08
- Even church discipline is out the window for most churches. The American evangelical church has given away its authority as it refuses to take sin and false teaching very seriously and discipline.
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- Now, I'm not wanting to promote a subjective feeling -based reading of scripture when
- 20:29
- I ask this question, but when you come across verses like Hebrews 12, six, what feeling do you get when you read that the
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- Lord disciplines those he loves and chastises every son he receives?
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- Do you, like I did, grimace when you read it? Do you in your heart shy away from being disciplined by God our
- 20:53
- Father because to you it immediately makes you think, I did something wrong and so angered the
- 20:58
- Lord that he had to discipline me and correct me? Or do you despise this verse and in your heart secretly rebel against it by ignoring discipline, not taking the time to apply scripture to yourself or to let the
- 21:13
- Holy Spirit address your heart and sins? I wanted to do a little bit of a word study here because one of the first things
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- I think we should recognize when we hear the word discipline we should go to the word disciple.
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- But even I admit, I was studying this topic, I hadn't really thought about it at first.
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- It wasn't until lying in bed for the night, suddenly recalling a vocabulary homeschool moment, thinking, wait a second, disciples, discipline,
- 21:55
- Mal, root words. The root word for both is the
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- Latin word, to seer, meaning to learn. When we read
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- Jesus's instructions to his disciples before his ascension in Matthew 28, 19, to go and make disciples of all the nations, the
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- Greek word is, methodicity, translated literally to our
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- English is make learners or make disciples. Disciplina is the
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- Latin verb meaning to instruct, educate, train. So when we come to the word disciple in old
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- English, disciple, it means one who follows another for the purpose of learning.
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- So biblically, we see personal followers of Jesus Christ during his life, the 12 apostles, chosen or called by him to be his immediate associates.
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- They were to be his disciples. So in essence then, for one to call himself a disciple is to therefore receive discipline.
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- And this means then that discipline is actually a good thing. When you're confronted with the evils of your sin, you are being lovingly disciplined or chastised by our
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- Lord through the Holy Spirit. Now you can either receive the discipline and be earnest and repent,
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- Revelations 3, 19, or you can reject it. Scripture describes discipline for those who love
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- God as a blessing and for those who reject God as punishment or wrath. Whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid,
- 23:41
- Proverbs 12, 1. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be wary of his reproof, for the
- 23:49
- Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights, Proverbs 3, 11 to 12.
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- Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves, therefore despise not the discipline of the
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- Almighty, Job 5, 17. Oh Lord, rebuke me not in your anger nor discipline me in your wrath,
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- Psalm 38, 1. There is severe discipline for him who forsakes the way, whoever hates reproof will die,
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- Proverbs 15, 10. Then I will walk contrary to you in fury and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins,
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- Leviticus 26, 28, among many, many other verses regarding discipline.
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- The more popular verse I think we think about as Christians is Proverbs 22, 6, which states, train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it.
- 24:47
- The original Hebrew word in this verse can help us understand what this particular proverb means and how to put it into practice.
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- So the Hebrew word for train up in this verse is hanak, which comes from a root word, meaning to rub the palate of an infant with chewed up dates or oil in preparation for suckling.
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- It's an action done on the part of the parent that prepares a baby to properly latch while breastfeeding, which is funny that we have this
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- X posts on just that.
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- The idea of training here is to provide experience, an experience that prepares the child to perform the tasks necessary for a physically, spiritually, socially, and emotionally healthy life as an adult.
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- It's also similar to the concept of helping a horse get used to wearing a bed in its mouth, which can be, of course, unpleasant to the horse, but it helps it learn to interpret the commands of its master so that it becomes a submissive and useful horse who fulfills its potential and brings great joy and pleasure to its master.
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- So in the same way, a child needs guidance and instruction in what it means to submit to the
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- Lord and live as God wants us to live. Now this training is to happen whether the child understands it or not.
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- Many of the responses to Mr. Say's posts were said under this belief that to discipline the child, he had to understand why they were being disciplined.
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- While understanding may come in handy when discipling like our older children, it's not necessary for the younger.
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- We all know this, for hopefully a good parent will still train a child even if they don't understand.
- 26:43
- A parent may decide that a toddler can't go playing with a family heirloom. That statue that's been in the family for generations is not a toy, no matter how entertaining it may look.
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- So the parent, to preserve what belongs to the family, may say no when the toddler goes to reach for the heirloom.
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- When the child refuses to obey the instruction and may receive a flick on the hand, it brings discomfort to enforce the instruction.
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- Does the child understand then why they received the flick? Well, no, it at that point only needs to know to obey.
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- Later, they will understand why should the parent explain. So those of us who train our child in this way are sort of like rubbing the palate or putting the bit in the mouth of the horse, so to speak.
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- They're disciplining towards obedience for the protection and future benefit of the child who does not understand the frailty of this world and the dangers in it.
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- The child has to learn to obey the parent first. Discipline, as understood with a biblical framework, is the whole of training, which includes teaching, correction, reproof, and punishment.
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- So while it can include punishment, that's not the bulk of discipline, but really the consequence of rejecting discipline.
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- Leviticus 26, 14 to 39 is a good example of God giving instruction to train his people in righteousness and warning them of the punishment or discipline of their sins should they choose to disobey.
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- Hebrews 12, three to 13 is a great passage. It talks about the discipline of the
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- Lord. And in it, the writer of Hebrews writes to encourage his readers of the great work done in Christ Jesus, that his sacrifice was perfect to reconcile us to God, and therefore we should have full assurance of faith to walk in.
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- In chapter 11, the chapter before, he presented what faith is and those who are our great cloud of witnesses who, though not receiving what was promised, went through many trials, tribulations, and persecutions, and by their walk revealed the faith they had, trusting in the
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- Messiah to come, the founder and perfecter of their faith. Now, this is where our passage picks up.
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- Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint -hearted in your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
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- So here he calls us to the same faith by pointing us to Christ who endured the ultimate form of suffering so that we may be cleansed of sin.
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- Because of Christ, we are called to not grow weary and to continue this fight or battle against sin.
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- And so in not growing weary of struggling against a sin, the author reminds us of how to do this, by bringing our attention to the discipline of a father who loves us.
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- My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the
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- Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
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- So discipline from God is a blessing. It's proof that you are a child.
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- The reproof of our sins, the correction of his word and the training from his discipline sanctifies us and makes us more like our father.
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- It makes us more like Christ. That's the desire of every true Christian to be like their
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- Lord. It's what makes us a disciple. So Hebrews continues. It's for discipline that you have to endure.
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- God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline.
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- If you are left without discipline in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
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- Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respect them.
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- Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live?
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- For they disciplined us for a short time as it seems best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness.
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- For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
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- Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
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- So back to the two reactions to discipline that I presented earlier.
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- The root of fearing discipline is that we do not believe that it is for our good so that we may share in his holiness.
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- It's almost as if we say, I understand you to be a harsh master, so I avoid your discipline and instruction.
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- When the child of God understands the love of his father in discipline, the child then can receive discipline as a grace.
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- For the other reaction, the root of despising discipline is that we do not want righteousness.
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- We do not understand the goodness of righteousness because it goes against our sinful nature. So for these, punishment may come to humble us and cause us to cry out for God's mercy.
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- And see, even this is good for those who love Christ. So when we think about discipline as children of God, we should desire it and receive it as a loving hand of God to bless us as our father, the good, perfect, loving father that he is, the father who loves us so much that he gave his own son as the perfect sacrifice and provided us with the righteousness that meets
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- God's perfect standard so that we may be reconciled to him. Our own discipline should be received with this understanding, and therefore we should also be giving this to our own children.
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- Our father's discipline should be reflected in our discipline. If we understand that discipline from our heavenly father is a grace given out of love for us, we can accept it with a humble heart and use it to guide our own discipline when it comes to our children.
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- So biblically, we receive discipline with a grateful heart. And as a parent, our discipline should reflect the same grace and love as our father's.
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- Discipline for the Christian parent should be about God's training, not ours. Our children are not our own.
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- They are a gift from God to actually discipline us as we walk in the spirit, putting to death the deeds of the flesh.
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- It is a parenting, it's a sanctification in laying down our own lives for the lives of the ones we love.
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- We are given, therefore, authority by God over his own creation, these little ones, to steward them by providing for them and training them up in the way they should go.
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- We as Christians have the knowledge of that way. We know how they should go, or at least we should.
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- We have God's very words to instruct them. Discipline can take many forms.
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- It can include graciously providing needs as well as a tough love that remove the hand of a parent.
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- So yes, discipline can involve sleep training as a parent may choose to remove their hand in it so the child may learn to sleep without parental comfort, or a parent may choose not to train a four -month -old to fall asleep in this way.
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- Again, this is a parental prerogative. As long as they are guided by faith in Christ, they will be guided by God's discipline to train up their child, even in sleep.
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- Regardless, the heart of a Christian parent is to hate sin in their own lives and hate sin in their loved one's lives too.
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- Why? Because our own sin and the sin of our loved ones is why God sent his son.
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- It was an eternally precious, costly thing to send his son, and it was an eternally precious and costly thing for our
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- Lord to give his life to wash our sins and gloat thus in his righteousness. So we dare not trample on the
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- Lord's kindness, and we therefore discipline our children to do the same.
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- Finally, good discipline always rewards with the gospel.
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- It's the good news we cling to when we discipline. It's there when we fail as parents to discipline rightly, when we sin against our children, discipline harshly, or even when we have abused our children.
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- Yes, the gospel is good news for the abuser should they trust in it. All of us will one day or another, day by day, need to be disciplined by our
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- Father to be humbled and repent, to trust in Christ's sacrifice for those sins and to rest in his righteousness.
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- If we rely on God's grace to instruct and live in light of this gospel, why wouldn't we discipline and train our children in the same way, albeit imperfectly?
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- Our children will fail to learn from our discipline. They will forget. They will reject, rebel against our instructions and trainings.
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- They will need this gospel. They will need Christ. They will need the reminder of the commandments.
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- They will need to read and hear the word to know it. They will need guidance on how to live in the fear of the
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- Lord. They will need to know how to think about things with a biblical worldview.
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- They will need to be content and thankful for what they have. And yes, they may even need to be trained to self -soothe.
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- All of this and more is discipline. It's training up our kids in the way that they should go.
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- And we pray that God not let them depart from it. Ladies, if you are interested in learning more about God's discipline, his loving hand, providential work in our lives in making us more holy, definitely check out
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- Jim Osmond's sermons on Hebrews 12. And those links are in the show notes.
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- He goes in a very deep dive on discipline and what it means to be disciplined by our heavenly father.
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- This will help guide us. We have this foundation understanding of God's discipline.
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- It can help us therefore then discipline our own children and hopefully train their heart in the same way.
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- So check out those links below. And so a biblical view of discipline is why
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- I pray you are in his word. Ladies, thanks for listening or watching this episode of Thoroughly Equipped.
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- If this episode blessed you, would you give it a rating or a thumbs up? And if you think
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- Thoroughly Equipped is a much needed ministry, consider subscribing. It helps spread the word.
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- If you are interested to know more about Thoroughly Equipped, check out the blog or just find some other great
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- Christian resources, you can go to my website at ttew .org.
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- You can connect with me on Facebook and Instagram. Links in the description below or email me at melbatoste at ttew .org.
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- Thoroughly Equipped is part of Striving for Eternity's Christian Podcast Community, a one -stop resource for solid podcasts that can assist you in your
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- Christian walk. Check that out at christianpodcastcommunity .org. I pray the
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- God of all grace grants you more and more knowledge and understanding of Jesus Christ as the
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- Holy Spirit thoroughly equips you through his written word for every good work.