I got quite a few responses on the journal entry on sovereignty versus suffering (Will the Real God Please Stand Up?), mostly centered around the idea of discipline. It's a very good point. I had to think about that for a while, because it's definitely biblical:
Deuteronomy 8:5 - Know then in your heart that as a parent disciplines a child so the Lord disciplines you. (
Job 5:17 - How happy is the one whom God reproves/therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. (Conviction and discipline are paralleled)
Psalm 94:12 - Happy are those whom you discipline, O Lord,/and whom you teach out of your law. (Discipline and teaching are paralleled)
Ephesians 6:4 - And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. (Provocation and discipline are contrasted to one another)
Hebrews 12:5 - My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,/or lose heart when you are punished by him;/for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,/and chastises every child whom he accepts.’/Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? (Discipline and chastisement are the same Greek word. Though punishment and discipline seem to be paralleled, note that the specific "punishment" are "trials". The Greek word there means "persecution". God is not punishing; this is probably referring to the rash of persecution that ocurred in the years after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD)
We could go on citing scripture, but this partial list includes passages from most of the major genre. It's a dependable cross-section, in other words.
First, let's look at the word "discipline". Good bible students always move from exegesis (what the text originally meant) to hermeneutic (how to apply it now) and not the other way 'round. So how is that word typically used, both in the bible and in Koine period literature? First, there are several Greek verbs used, and each has a different nuance. The one most commonly used is padeuo, which means "to discipline”. Another verb used is elegksu, which is used to mean “to reprove”, but most commonly means, “to bring to light or expose”. The last verb is mastigoo, which means “to whip” or “to scourge” most commonly. It’s the word used for the beating given those who were condemned to death (implying that death was too quick). “To discipline” is used far more than the others by a ratio of nearly 10:1. Also note that the other words are used in parallel with “to discipline”; they are amplifying the meaning of “discipline” in a poetic sense, and not necessarily to for the sake of accuracy. Furthermore, note the other words used in parallel: "to train" for one, "to teach" and also the imperative, “do not provoke”. A comprehensive reading of word usage and context would lead us to the conclusion that “to discipline” is the word carrying the force of God’s primary intention.
Staying with the verb “to discipline”, padeuo is used thirteen times in the New Testament; ten instances out of those thirteen mean specifically “to bring up”, “to instruct”, “to train”, “to correct” or something like that. Two times in means “to punish” and once it means, “to beat”. Padeuo almost always means “to discipline” in common Greek usage outside the bible during that period as well. When it was used to mean “to punish” in a physical sense, the subjects were human parents. The passages in the bible, the apocrypha and in Koine literature that use the word padeuo to mean "to punish" where God is the subject (the "punisher", so to speak) can be understood equally well (and I think better) by substituting the verb "to discipline". In other words, padeuo does not typically mean "to punish" when God is the one doing it.
Assuming that, let’s move on to the application. Consider what “discipline” means to us. First, discipline is a very different thing that punishment isn’t it? Discipline is intended to correct destructive behavior. Properly implemented, discipline should move a person from a negative place to a positive place. Discipline comes from a place of love, which always cares about the overall, long-term welfare of the beloved or else it isn't love, and it probably isn't good either. When used in the context of “Church discipline”, the goal is always reconciliation even when Paul uses it in the NT. Punishment can be a component of discipline, but isn't always. Actually, a parent who has to punish a child all the time is not a very good parent is he (assuming that the child isn’t suffering from a physical or behavioral disorder)? Why not? Because it's not very effective when it’s executed that way. The child quickly connects the punishment to the person meting it out rather than to the behavior that lead up to it. We never use punishment with adult sons and daughters do we? Why not? Because it’s humiliating, degrading and dehumanizing; it’s utterly counterproductive. If the adult child doesn’t trust the parent by that time, then no amount of punishment will convince him/her to alter the undesirable behavior.
The goal of parenting is to move beyond the punishment stage to the more productive kind of discipline, which involves allowing the older child to simply experience in a real way the full impact of his/her choices. When your 23-year-old son or daughter gets fired from a job because he/she couldn’t be bothered to be up on time you don’t call his/her boss and beg for the job back do you? Of course you don’t. You let them experience scraping by without any money for a while. Why? So that they’ll remember it the next time the alarm goes off and they're tempted to stay in bed. That’s what the Greek word for repentance (metanoia) means: “to think after”. The idea is that one experiences the consequences of one’s actions, then remembers those consequences when the opportunity to repeat the behavior arises. Then the second Greek word for “repentance” (epistrepho), which means “to turn around”, takes on a whole new meaning, doesn’t it? You think about what happened the last time, then turn around and walk in a different direction.
The bottom line is, I can’t say that God never punishes. His goal is the same as ours: to raise healthy, responsible, loving children. I suppose if we leave him with no other alternative, then he’ll do what he needs to do to get our attention. I would strongly assert that this is the exception and not the rule though. I think that scripture teaches this: if everything is occurring normally, God treats us like adult sons and daughters. He gives us freedom so that we can love him meaningfully, and then lets us experience fully everything that entails. God does not enable us in the way that we enable each other. He allows us to experience the real consequences of our behavior. Nothing in any of this implies that God kills our children, causes natural disasters, creates diseases or wills violence or anything like it in order to teach anyone "a lesson". That's not discipline. That's abuse, and abuse never changes or improves its object.
Many of us grew up with parents who were inappropriate to say the least, and some of them were abusive, violent and neglectful. When we say "punish", they hear "abuse". As a result, their experience of God is, "I'm not safe", and they never stick around long enough to get a more well-balanced perspective. We who have that understanding need to be loving toward the many who don't. We have a very unbalanced understanding of what appropriate punishment is in our culture, and I think it has partially to do with the framework with think we're exporting from the bible. God is not leaning over us waiting to lash out in punishment at the first available opportunity. He is correcting, instructing and training us. He is bringing us up like any loving father would.
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