Discipline

Readings:
Job 18
I Corinthians 11:17-34

Focus:
I Corinthians 11:32: "When, however, we do fall under the Lord's judgment, he is disciplining us to save us from being condemned with the rest of the world."

Good parents don't let their children do whatever they want to do, and in addition, when their children do things that are wrong, good parents provide consequences for their children, so that the children learn that their wrong actions lead to bad consequences.

It is like that with us and God. God allows us to suffer the consequences of our wrong actions. This is discipline for us, so that we can learn what are wrong actions. (He also warns us ahead of time what is wrong; we can read this in the Bible! This is a good way of avoiding the consequences.)

Many people think that we shouldn't have to suffer consequences at all. They think it's unfair of God to let bad things happen. And some bad things do happen to innocent people. That's a whole different subject and is quite complex. But many bad consequences are things that we simply deserve. And actually God is quite merciful; often he works things out so that the consequences are less than they might have been. Or he shows us amazing love and gives us strength as we encounter the consequences. And as we go through them, we grow and learn. It turns into a good thing.