Tough love

No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. – Hebrews 12:11

In our city’s largest public school district, any student who gets caught with a weapon or drugs on campus faces mandatory expulsion. The director of discipline can expel a student immediately. But he also frequently takes the offender through an intense 90-minute session designed to force the student to come to grips with his destructive behavior. Many young adults, looking back, have said that without the director’s confrontation they would have ended up in jail.

Discipline! No one likes it, but we all need it. And because God loves us as His children, He never skimps on our spiritual training. Instead of a quick slap on the wrist, our correction may include the agonizing experience of being confronted with who we are and why we behave the way we do. Hebrews 12 summarizes the process with refreshing honesty: "No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (v.11).

We are told not to despise the Lord’s chastening and not to be discouraged when He rebukes us, because it all flows from His love (vv.5-6). Without God’s tough love, where would we be today? – David C. McCasland

Because our Father’s heart is grieved

Each time we go astray,

He lifts His chastening hand in love

To help us choose His way. – Dennis De Haan

READ: Hebrews 12:1-11

God is never cruel in his correction.

The Bible in one year:

• 1 Samuel 30-31

• Luke 13:23-35