LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Discipline
When we really understand what discipline of God is, we will not react against it.
Stephen Kaung
Reading: Hebrews 12: 7-11, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 & 5:1-8
Now when you hear the word discipline, you will probably react against it. We do not like to be disciplined. We have a kind of bad feeling towards discipline. As if it was something horrible, terrible; something that we will shrink back from. But dear brothers and sisters, if we really understand what discipline is I hope we will change our attitude. Strangely, when you read the bible, you find in the whole bible, there is only one place where this word discipline appears. Now I am speaking according to the Hebrew and Greek.
The word that we now know as discipline only appears in one place in the whole bible and that is in Job 36:10, "He that is our Lord will open our ears to discipline and commandeth that we return from iniquity." That is the only place in the whole bible where the word discipline in Hebrew and Greek occurs. And even in that place, the word discipline, in the original Hebrew means chastisement or instruction. But the word that we often find, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament is the word chastisement or chastening or chastise. If you read the context, you will find that that word means to convict, to reprove, to instruct, to train.
So in other words, whether it is the Hebrew word discipline or it is the word chastening, they actually mean the same. Basically it is to train; it is a kind of child training. It is training with a definite purpose of achieving some special character or behavior that will be a moral and mental improvement. In other words, discipline or chastening is to instruct, to educate and to train; that there may be a growth, a progress into something that is…
Now even our English word discipline comes from the word disciple and this word discipline also means instruction, knowledge or a pupil of; that is, a disciple. So all in all, you will find that that is what the word discipline really means. Discipline is not that terrible a word, it is actually a good word because it is by discipline that we are being trained, matured, and we are arriving into something that is pleasing to God.
When you read the Word of God, you find that discipline is something necessary for us. Even when God created man and put him in the Garden of Eden, he has put him under discipline. Because God provided everything for man, and told him that he could eat all the fruit from all the trees, except one; and that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now why is it that God provides all these things for man, and yet God put man under one limitation? He put him under discipline because he wants to train that man so that he might grow up into maturity.
For we all know that when man was created, physically he was fully matured and yet so far as the meaning of manhood is concerned, he is still a babe. He needs to grow up, and the only way to grow up is to be put under discipline. Now if he obeys God, submits himself under the authority of God, then he will grow up and be what God has purposed man to be. But unfortunately, he rebelled against God; he rebelled against the discipline that God had put him under and because of that, we realize that man fell into sin. But when man fell into sin, God's disciplinary hand came upon him.
Now outwardly, you would think that man is now being punished by God; the wages of sin is death, and death immediately came upon Adam. His spirit was dead towards God, and that death began to work in his life, until some 900 years later when he died physically. He was under God's disciplinary hand. To us we may think that it is a kind of punishment, but brothers and sisters, even God's disciplinary hand is for the purpose of restoration and recovery. For with the disciplinary measure, God gave man a promise: the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. In other words, man's salvation will be in the seed of the woman. If man would submit himself under the mighty hand of God, waiting for the seed of the woman to come, and to trust that seed of the woman, he will be saved.
Not only his sins would be forgiven, but he will even receive the life from the tree of life that he missed at the beginning. He will be fully recovered to the purpose of God. So dear brothers and sisters, you will see that discipline is a good thing, because it is through discipline that we grow into the full purpose of God.
Now, thank God, after we believe in the Lord Jesus, we have our sins forgiven, we are given eternal life, we become children of God, then brothers and sisters, as God's children we need discipline because it is only through discipline that we grow into maturity in our Spiritual life. So I hope our reaction to discipline will be changed; instead of being fearful of discipline, I think, if we are good children of God we should welcome His discipline.
Now in the word of God, there are three levels or directions of discipline: first God's discipline; a discipline from our Heavenly Father, then secondly, a self- discipline; a discipline that we must perform upon ourselves, and thirdly church discipline; there is discipline in the body of Christ.
God's discipline
Let us first address God's discipline; that comes from our heavenly Father. In the book of Hebrews, when you read chapter 12 you will find that as God's children, we are on a racecourse; we are running, but we are running against the current of the world. We are running upward, we are running heavenward, towards God, towards our Lord Jesus and we are to gain Him and all His fullness. As we are running as pilgrims upon this earth, remember that we are running against the current of this earth, and because of this, we cannot escape all kinds of contradictions, sufferings, tribulations, pains, oppositions, hostilities.
There are things that are seemingly against us, trying to pull us down, deep into the earth, to be conformed to the fashion of this world. That is what the world is trying to do upon us. Yet the life within us, urges us to press on towards the goal; the heavenly goal. So brothers, we will find that while we are daily in this kind of circumstances it is easy to faint; it is easy to get weary and to give up. So the writer of Hebrews exhorts us not to faint or to get weary. When we are under that kind of struggle or battle think of our Lord Jesus. Think off from everything and look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Think of our Lord Jesus; how he battled against sin even unto death, even unto blood, and we haven't come to that point yet, and by that we are encouraged to go on. Never allow what has happened to us in this life to pull us down, but in the middle of the battle, look up unto Jesus, and you will find His grace is sufficient for us. This is what is apparent; what can be seen. This is what we find ourselves in. But brothers, behind the seen, everything that seems to be opposing us, troubling us, remember there is our Heavenly Father, and because He loves us so much; He loves us as His sons, therefore He chastens us. He is using all kinds of these opposing forces to train us that we may grow in our spiritual life.
Brothers and sisters, we need to see this. Oftentimes, when our eyes are only upon our circumstances, we will faint and be weary, but if we know that behind everything there is our Heavenly Father, He knows everything, He knows what's going on, and in a sense, it is arranged by our Heavenly Father. Sometimes we call this the discipline of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit orders and arranges our circumstances. There is nothing that happens to us that is not with the knowledge of our Heavenly Father. Our Lord Jesus told us repeatedly, that our hair has been numbered.
I think there is no one, not even our earthly parents who love us very much but have not numbered our hairs; they cannot, it is beyond them. But think of our Heavenly Father, His love is so delicate, His love is so deep that He knows how many hairs you have on the top of your head. Not only does he know how many there are, but He has numbered each one. Every morning when I comb my hair, I always remember, well one or two hairs have fallen, and the Father knows what numbers they are. He loves us so much. To us, the children of God there is nothing that comes to us by chance; the family you are in, the brothers and sisters you are with, co-workers you are in office with, fellow students or classmates are all ordered by the Spirit of God with love. It is the love of the Heavenly Father that orders everything. He trains us, He instructs us that we may be fully grown.
Therefore the exhortation is that when you are under the discipline of the Father, do not despise His discipline. What do we mean by not despising the discipline of the heavenly Father? It means that when your Father is chastening you and training you, do not regret it, do not reject it. Take it to heart, bring it to Him and have dealings with your Heavenly Father as he is dealing with you. Do not just reject it. Brothers, our Heavenly Father is training us in every moment of every day. There is not a day that goes by without it. Are you afraid of His discipline? You cannot escape it because you are His children; He loves you. So, every moment of your days, His discipline is upon you, but unfortunately we despise it.
We do not see His hand, we only see the problem, the trouble, people, events that happen to us. We do not see our Father's hand and because of this, we do not learn the lesson; we murmur, we rebel, we are angry. Our focus is on man, on things and on events and as we do that, we despise the chastening of our Father. That is to say that we do not learn. If we do that, He loves us so much that He will arrange another similar circumstance to put you through the same thing all over again, and if you still do not learn, you will have to go over it again.
Brothers and sisters, do you wonder why these things happen to you so often? It's because you despise the chastening of your Heavenly Father. Dear brothers and sisters, whatever happens, take it to heart, bring it to the Lord, pray about it, seek the Lord. Is there any lesson which your heavenly Father is trying to teach you? Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. It is only in this way, brothers and sisters, that we grow in our spiritual life. There is no other way. Real spiritual growth is not the increase of head knowledge, it is increase of heart knowledge and that is to say that you have to learn it by heart.
Despise not the chastening of your Heavenly Father, nor be faint under his safe disciplinary hand. Sometimes we faint, when it's too much and we can't stand it any more, but brothers and sisters we faint because we only see the pressure - we don't see that the pressure should enlarge us. We do not see that when we come to the end of our strength, then his strength begins in us. His grace is sufficient for us; if we only look to Him.
There is nothing too hard; there is nothing too heavy. It is not your Heavenly Father's will that you be pressed and crushed, it is His will that you will be enlarged and exspent. So dear brothers and sisters, we thank our Heavenly Father. Now when you really see this, your whole attitude towards discipline will be changed - you will be thankful instead of murmuring, rebelling and asking why. You will submit yourself humbly under His mighty hand so that you may learn the lessons that He's wanting you to learn.
So brothers and sisters, first of all when you think of discipline, you have to think of the discipline of your Heavenly Father. Even our earthly parents, they love us, they discipline us and they discipline us only according to what they think will be helpful for us. They discipline us only for a time, but when our Heavenly Father disciplines us, it's for eternity and it's according to His knowledge and wisdom - He can never be wrong. When we are under His discipline, at the time it's not a matter of joy.
It would be false if we said we rejoiced and were really happy under His discipline. No, at the time of discipline, it is not a matter of joy but of grief - we feel pain, but afterwards it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are exercised by it. Now if you aren't exercised by it, that is to say if you despise the chastening of the Lord, or if you faint under it, then you will not yield fruit. So that is the first level of discipline. None will escape it, if you are able to escape it, you are not a son, you are a bastard, and I believe we're not - thank God for that.
Self-discipline
In conjunction with God's discipline, there is this self-discipline. In Galatians chapter 5 verse 23, regarding the fruit of the spirit, the last one to be mentioned is self-control. Now if it is self-control, how can you say it is the fruit of the Spirit? So it shows here the relationship between self-control and Spirit-control. As a matter of fact, self-control is a cooperation from our part - we cooperate with the Spirit in His control. He is controlling us and when He tries to control us, we respond, we cooperate with Him and that is called self-control.
Brothers and sisters, in 1Timothy chapter 4, the apostle Paul says, "Physical exercise is profitable for a time, but exercise yourselves unto godliness". This spiritual exercise is profitable, not only in this age, but even in the age to come. Now we need physical exercise because it's important to health - we grow up not only by eating, drinking, and sleeping but also through physical exercise. That's the reason why you find children are so lively, it's because they're growing up. If you took a child and bound him up, not giving him any exercise but only continually feeding him, he would die. He needs exercise and when you're growing up, you realize the need for exercise. If you don't exercise, what happens? I realized that when I didn't exercise for two days, my legs become weak. I have to exercise - it's good but it is temporary.
However spiritual exercise, exercise unto godliness is not only profitable for this age but also the age to come. Now what do we mean by spiritual exercise? Brothers and sisters, do we exercise spiritually every day? Does our spirit cooperate with the Holy Spirit in such exercise unto godliness? When the Holy Spirit touches upon the conscience of our heart, how do we respond? Is our spirit so exercised that it responds to the voice of the Spirit in our conscience, so that we listen and obey? Our conscience either accuses or excuses.
Sometimes our conscience accuses us - we are guilty of something we've done. Very rarely our conscience excuses us and says that we're alright. As we grow in the Lord, our conscience will excuse us more than it accuses us. That is a sign of growth. When the Holy Spirit touches our conscience and our conscience is working, it either accuses or excuses us. Now when it does, do you exercise yourself? Listen to the voice of the spirit and if you do exercise yourself, you'll walk in the way of righteousness.
Brothers and sisters, this is the only way we can walk righteously. How can we walk righteously before God in our daily life? How do we know this is right or this is wrong? Not by human standard, not by custom but by the Holy Spirit who touches our conscience. If we follow the voice of our conscience, we walk in the way of righteousness. In other words we are right before God. Our conscience will be at peace and not accusing us. How we need the blood of our Lord Jesus every day and every moment.
When God's Spirit, as the anointing who dwells in our Spirit, and as he teaches us in all things, you will find in 1 John 2 that whatever he teaches is right and true. The word says, listen, obey the teaching of the anointing, and then you abide in Christ. Brothers and sisters, how do we walk in the way of holiness; in a way of being separated? It is by way of intuition. We intuitively know what the will of God is, because he teaches us in our Spirit. It is not a teaching that we collect from outside information; it is a direct teaching from the Holy Spirit within us.
If He teaches us, it is true and if we obey the anointing, we walk in the way of holiness. That's self-discipline. The glory of God is manifested to us; His presence is with us and as we commune with Him, then the glory will be reflected in our lives. We will be changed from glory to glory and conformed to the image of Christ. That is the way that we grow into His character. But brothers and sisters, if we neglect our conscience, and what it speaks to us, we will continue in sin and darkness.
If we do not listen to the teaching of the anointing, then we will be conformed to the world instead of being sanctified. If we neglect to keep communion with our God, then we will not be transformed from glory to glory. So we need to exercise. Dear brothers and sisters, is our Spirit just lying dormant? Or is our Spirit in active communion with God, seeing His glory day by day and hearing His voice and teaching?
This kind of exercise and discipline needs to go on in our Spirit and as we are exercising our Spirit, then according to Ephesians 3, the Holy Spirit will strengthen our inner man and Christ will come and dwell in our hearts and we will be rooted and grounded in love. In other words, it's only when in our Spirit we are in union with God's Spirit in a practical sense that self-discipline will continue on in us: deny yourself, take up your cross and follow the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, if our Spirit is not exercised, we will not know how to deny ourselves, we will not even be able to recognize what is of ourselves. But when you are really in a living communion with God and in cooperation with the Spirit of God, then you will find that even in your daily life, your soul will be dealt with, your affection will be dealt with, your mind, your will and your opinion will be dealt with. Denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following the Lord. In other words, that will deliver us from sin, from the world, from death, from ourselves, from our flesh and from our enemy.
When you do that, it will even go on to your body. Paul said, I buffet my body and that is a strong word. That is to say, I beat my body until it is black and blue. Why? Because our physical body; our lusts and passions try to control us, trying to inhibit us from following the Lord. So Paul said, "I put it under me," "I will not allow my body to be my master. The body is my slave, not my master." Do we have such discipline? In the morning do you rise early so that you can commune with God?
Or do you love your bed and your body more than the Lord? Discipline. We need discipline. When we come to the meetings, if it begins at 10 o'clock, do not arrive at 10:30. We need discipline. Be punctual, that is part of self-discipline. Brothers, unfortunately, we do not know self-discipline. Christian life is a disciplined life. If we do not discipline ourselves under the Holy Spirit and in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, then we are not walking as a Christian. How Paul disciplined himself and how we neglect self-discipline!
So brothers and sisters, discipline is so important. Do not think that a Christian life is just an easy going life; it cannot be because the world will not allow you. A Christian life is a disciplined life: we are under the discipline of God and we discipline ourselves in response to our God our Father. Self-discipline is necessary to our spiritual growth.
Body discipline
Thirdly, there is body discipline. Not only God's discipline, and self-discipline, there is also body discipline. In other words, we who believe in the Lord Jesus are not just individuals. We are individuals, and our individuality never goes out; to eternity we still have our individuality and Peter is still Peter, John is still John, even in the heavenly Jerusalem, the twelve foundations are twelve different stones. Our individuality never goes out, but our individualism needs to be dealt with. In other words, we are not just individuals; after we are saved, we are put into the body of Christ, and members one to another.
You are not alone, you are not the body; you are only a member. You cannot stand alone. You have to be with the other members of the body. And being in the body means a discipline is going on. All the members of my body are under discipline. If any member becomes independent, then sickness will come in, death will come in. Discipline is necessary for the body to grow. The law of the body is love and because there is love, there is discipline. Do not look at discipline only in terms of its outward appearance but look beyond it, and see the love behind it. Our Heavenly Father disciplines us because He loves us so much. Being members of the body we love one another, and because we love one another, we discipline one another.
Discipline never comes from hate, it comes from love. If you love, then you can discipline, but if you do not love, dare you to discipline? Every member of my body love one another so much that they work together to care for one another. Discipline is caring. Try to instruct, convict, train and encourage one another and that is body discipline. If you are in the body, you should expect discipline. It is for your good.
Church discipline
It was John Darby who put this into three areas. One is brotherly discipline, the other is Fatherly discipline and finally, it is church discipline in "The character and object of discipline in the House of God." In Matthew chapter 18, if your brother sins against you, what should you do? Do you hold a grudge against him? Naturally you will do. But you are members of one to another and you must forgive. When you eat too fast and you bite your tongue, what happens to your tongue? It forgives, time and again, still working together.
Love is behind it. There is no sin that your brother can commit against you that is greater than the ones you committed against your Heavenly Father. He has forgiven you everything so how can we not forgive our brothers and sisters. We owed him ten thousand talents, and he forgave us, but our brother can only owe us a hundred denarii, how can we not forgive? If we do not, our heavenly Father will not forgive us.
So if a brother sins against you, what do you do? You forgive him, but that is not all, because love goes the second mile. You love your brother so much that he is in darkness and you are in light. So you try to restore him. You go to him and convince him, reprove him, show, instruct and help him to see. In love, speak the truth, not in a vengeful spirit, and hopefully you will gain your brother and restore him to fellowship. That's discipline, which is unto restoration, not unto destruction.
If he doesn't listen to you, it is your responsibility of love, and so get one or two that he respects and go to him and plead with him. This is brotherly discipline. If we as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ really exercise this brotherly discipline toward one another, most of the problems in the church disappear. The reason we have so many problems in the church is because we all fail in our love responsibility. We do not fulfill our responsibility of love. If you see any brother or sister in darkness, who sins against you, you must not only forgive him, but also try to restore him.
The responsibility is yours because you are in a position to help. He is not in a position; he is in darkness, but you are in a position to do this, and love urges you to do this. Dear brothers and sisters, the church today is not doing this, and so problems accumulate and you find animosity increases and you find separation. It is our responsibility.
Fatherly discipline
Then there is another level; Galatians 6: 1, "Brethren, if any one of you should fall into some fault, you who are spiritual, restore him in a spirit of meekness lest you too are tempted." This is called Fatherly discipline. According to first John, in the family of God, there are little children, there are young people and there are fatherly. There are those who are spiritually more mature; those who know God in a deeper way.
You see things more clearly, have received more dealings with God himself and have gone through many things, learning your lessons. Therefore your eyes are opened and when you see any brother or sister falling into some fault, they do not know it. But you have experienced it before, you have gone through that way before, and you know what it is and how to get out of it. It is your love responsibility to restore that brother. You cannot just stand by and let that brother fall. You have to go to him to restore him, but with a spirit of meekness. You do not go to him in arrogance, "I know better, you are at fault, repent" as if you are the judge. No, you are no better than he is; it is the grace of God.
God has not set you up as his judge, no, go with a spirit of meekness. Humble yourself before your brother and tell him you too have gone through a similar thing and what the Lord has taught you. Try to restore him, but at the same time be fearful that you too do not fall into temptation. Sometimes when you deal with another brother, you fall into temptation. You are trying to rescue him, but you fall into the trap; you get angry and arrogant, you begin to despise your brother, you too fall. Be careful of it; that is fatherly discipline, and how we need such fathers and mothers in the House of God, who are really able to take care of those who are weak and younger in the Lord.
Now if brotherly and fatherly discipline are exercised in the church, you will find the church has almost no chance to exercise discipline. Everything is taken care of, and that's what it should be. Church discipline is the last resort. You do not go into church discipline lightly. Who are we, sinners forgiven, to set ourselves up to judge our brothers and sisters. May that spirit never enter into our lives. We are as sinful as anybody else, and as a matter of church discipline, when the church exercises discipline it is not only to be exercised upon certain brothers or sisters, because at the same time the whole church is under discipline.
In other words, the whole church is in repentance, in a sorrowful, painful and contrite spirit, because when one member fell, the whole body suffered. That is the kind of spirit. It is not that one member is to be disciplined and you are standing righteous before God. You are in the same position. Humble yourself before the Lord; this brother's failure is my failure. The whole church is in that spirit, and only in that spirit can discipline be exercised. That's the reason why Paul has to stir up the conscience of the church to discipline the brother who has sinned so grievously, even the world does not have such sin, because the church thinks they are alright, they are broadminded and tolerant.
They don't care. The whole church needs to be under conviction, seeing that it is our carelessness, it is our sin, if one brother is in sin, then we are all in sin and we all weep before the Lord. It is in that spirit, that that man who does not repent is cut off from the church. And even that is for restoration that his spirit might be saved, and that he may repent. If he does repent, receive him back, with love. Brothers and sisters, that is the whole atmosphere of church discipline.
So when you come to church discipline, you will find that there are only a few cases in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 5, a brother had committed a hideous sin; it is not just a matter of a brother sinning against you, because if that happens you just forgive him. Instead, it affects the whole assembly, and their testimony, and if that brother remains unrepentant, what do you do in such a case? Then the whole church conscience should be aroused, repent and then exercise discipline to put him out. That's an extreme case, why? Because otherwise he will leaven the whole lump. The whole church is like a pure flour, to be offered as a meal offering unto God, and if there is any leaven in it, it will affect the whole lump; it will affect the whole assembly. Then it has to be dealt with, so that we may celebrate the unleavened bread feast with purity and sincerity.
Now, that is one case. Another case is in 2 John, where you find there are people who do not believe Jesus is God. Some people do not believe in Jesus' divinity and others do not believe in his humanity, and when you come to such heresy which will strike at the very root of our faith. People who propagate such faith, not referring to those who do not know any better, that is different, but there are people who should know, but do not believe in the humanity and divinity of our Lord Jesus - what do you do? You do not even greet them, you do not receive them in your house, in other words, you expel them.
Now these are the two extreme cases. There are however other less severe cases. In Romans 16 you find that if anyone causes division and is trying to spread that division among God's people, then you should turn away from him. In 2 Thessalonians 3, there were brothers and sisters walking unrighteously, at such a time when they refused to work believing the Lord was coming soon. They not only refused to work, they became busybodies and the Word of God said, "Work, if you do not work, you will not eat." But if you do not listen, then what do you do? You try not to keep company with that person. But love him as a brother.
In Titus 3, if any heretical man is there who does not have any grievous heresy, not referring in this case to those who did not believe in the divinity or humanity of Christ, but rather those who have such strong opinions, and you admonish them once or twice and they still hold on to that strong opinion, what do you do? Let him go. That is to say, you cannot help him any more, so you admonish him once or twice and then you just let him hold his own opinions.
Now brothers and sisters, these are the cases that you find in the church. Even in 1 Timothy 5, if an elder sins, what do you do? Paul said to Timothy, it is a serious case, remember, it is sin and affects the whole church because he is a leader, and if he is not repentant, what do you do? You need two or three witnesses to come forth, not hidden but bringing it into the open and then if that is true, he must be rebuked. Brothers and sisters, that is what the Scriptures say, it is something very serious, and not something to be played with. Church discipline is the last resort and you hesitate to exercise it. You have to be very careful; the whole church needs to be humbled before the Lord before it can be done. That is because the life of the church is love.
So may the Lord help us and let us realize how we need discipline. We need our Heavenly Father to discipline us, otherwise we will be bastards. Will you ask him to chastise you? How much we need that self- discipline, if not we will lose out and miss growing up. And how we need to tremble and be fearful when we come to this matter of church discipline, body discipline. If there is enough love, it can be done. May the Lord help us.