“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”
God delights in us and His desire is that we delight in Him and are equally delightful.
Sin challenges ‘being delighted in’ and because He loves us God disciplines us to maintain our being true to what He can delight in.
His discipline is never pay back or vindictive.
The principle is quick action fixes quickly and the account is short.
Happiness and delight is restored quickly with honesty and without the hurt element that we all have the capacity for.
Where we culturally have been over tolerant it fails. Misunderstanding of unrighteousness has pervaded and got deeper and more intrenched and harder to tackle.
Intervention requires a conversation and to love well. If we leave someone to their own devices and destruction we actually have not loved them well.
God loves us well.
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Short accounts are far easier to manage. First the correction that exposes the wrong. Second the rebuke that points out it’s error. Third the encouragement to modify and put to rights. Fourth the patience to assist and give time. Finally the careful instructions advise for correction.
No shying away from responsibility to heal and strengthen relationships ultimately in trust and truth.
All discipline seems painful but it yields fruit. As God disciplines the ones He loves so must we.
It is not a measure of rejection but of affection.
The pain of quick fix is less than the slow left to be fixed later. Long accounts lead to more trauma in the end than quick and dealt with and moving forward
“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hands you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.”
There are aspects and dimensions of God’s love that can only be modelled by seeing and knowing His discipline.
There is such value in the conversation and dialogue and getting used to accepting being corrected rather than the hopeless question of why did no one say?
We have to model and demonstrate the God we serve. It is modelling Justice.
The illustration shows us speaking out discipline in love to keep others to short account and on the path that emanates light that pushes back the darkness.
Three Scriptures that come to mind:
“preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” 2 Timothy 4:2 ESV
“For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:11 ESV
“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.” Matthew 5:25 ESV
The song The Answer. Chris Tomlin
Lessisgreater 