Discipline or Punishment?

Reflections for this date are based on the following scripture passages:
Hebrews 12	Hebrews 13	Exodus 15	Exodus 16	Psalms 28	Proverbs 9

We are admonished in scripture to endure trials as in James 1:2ff, "Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." James speaks of them as a testing of our faith. The writer of Hebrews refers to trials or suffering as discipline from the Lord. Quoting from Proverbs 3:11-12 he says, "My son, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly, or faint when you are reproved by Him; for the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and punishes every son whom He receives." Discipline, says the writer of Hebrews, is an indication that we are children of God, for if "you are without discipline--which all receive," he says, "then you are illegitimate children and not sons."

Warren Wiersbe contrasts discipline to punishment saying, "Punishment is the work of a judge; chastening is the work of a father. Punishment is handed out to uphold the law; chastening is given out as a proof of love, for the bettering of the child." Furthermore, Wiersbe says, "Too often we rebel at God’s loving hand of chastening; instead, we ought to submit and grow. Satan tells us that our trials are proof that God does not love us; but God’s Word says that sufferings are the best proof that He does love us!"

This distinction between punishment to uphold the law and discipline to better the child is important. If we understand salvation to be an act of grace and not of works and that our salvation is not a result of our own efforts, then it is discipline and not punishment that is the outcome of our failures and misdeeds. What is the difference, then, between punishment and discipline? The aim of punishment is retribution while the aim of discipline is betterment. One is negative while the other is positive.

How can we tell if a trial or suffering we are experiencing is punishment or discipline. We don't based on the experience itself. Our understanding of our experiences comes from God's perspective through the Holy Spirit and God's word. The Holy Spirit nudges us about an experience and helps give us a Godly perspective while God's word clearly tells us that if we are God's child we will be disciplined and our faith tested. One who is not a child of God does not even have these thoughts or is aware of this perspective.

As a child of God who understands trials and suffering to be learning experiences from God, our concern is not to figure out why we are suffering for we already know that. It is that we might be strengthened and might learn. Focus on the "why" of our experiences detracts us from their purpose. Since we know that as a child of God suffering is to teach us and test us, then our focus when we suffer should be on the lesson God has for us.