True Love RevealedSample

True Love Revealed through Discipline

I imagine that parents of every generation have asked their children some form of the question, "Do you want a spanking?!" I can remember being asked that question during some act of disobedience as a child, and I am quite sure my children would remember it too. It is, of course, a rhetorical question, as no child ever wants a spanking. No adult does either. We don't like it when we are disciplined. We have a different word that we use for what is often discipline. We call it punishment. Although punishment is punitive and can be an attempt to exact a "payment" from someone, it is better understood as discipline. The difference between the two is primarily in the intent of the action. Discipline is not based on a desire to be punitive but for correction or training. It is not a response of anger but a response of love.

A loving parent will train a child not to touch a hot stove or run out in the street to retrieve a runaway ball. A hand may be swatted, or a "time out" may be enforced in the process, but the intent is not punitive, but rather loving correction, to train the child. It is for the benefit of the child. At that moment, the child does not experience the discipline as loving or desirable, but they will grow to understand that it was done out of love.

God is a far better parent than we are, and He is always going to discipline us, for correction and training in righteousness. Even though it may seem painful to us at the time, God disciplines us for our good. This is true for even the extreme judgments of God. The plagues of Egypt were not to get the Hebrews out of Egypt. God made it clear that the purpose of the plagues was to let all of Egypt know that He was the one, true, God.

These acts of judgment were designed to help an entire nation of people enslaved to the worship of idols see that He is the only God. He not only wanted to liberate the Hebrews from their slavery in Egypt, but He also wanted to deliver the Egyptians from their slavery to their idols! God's discipline, even when in the form of painful judgment, is always for good. It is true love, severely revealed.