My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Proverbs 3:11-12
When wrongs are committed against them, men often pursue justice through the courts. There, an honest judge will administer justice by afflicting the evil doer according to the law. While civil magistrates and judges do serve in the place of the Judge of all the Earth, the policy observed in this world’s courts is not the mindset that God has when correcting His children.
The earthly judge metes out punishment to satisfy the broken law. While God will pursue a penal policy in His great and final judgment of the lost, His correction in this life should not be looked upon in penal terms. It is written: ‘He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities’ (Psalm 103:10). If God were to punish us according to what we deserve, ‘we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah’ (Isaiah 1:9).
Rather than punish them to the full measure of justice, God corrects and chastens those to whom mercy still pleads. The stark difference between penal policy and corrective chastening is important to understand. The former is legal and intended to satisfy the needs of the law, while the latter is a rescue mission intended to restore the sinner to eternal security.
The father who loves his son does not use the rod for personal revenge. He does not discipline his son out of outrage for the injustice of his child’s actions. Being a sinner himself and worthy of greater punishment, the human father would not be justified in so doing. Rather, a loving father employs corporal discipline and reprimand because ‘the rod and reproof give wisdom’ (Proverbs 29:15). Such chastening must be grievous to be effectual, but it is conducted with the benevolent intent of driving out foolishness, and displacing it with wisdom. Above all, the Christian father chastens his son in order to ‘deliver his soul from hell’ (Proverbs 23:14)
Of course, ‘no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous’ (Hebrews 12:11). But just as it is for our children, adversity is often necessary in order to arrest us in our foolish course. Yet amidst the chastening of the Lord, we must ever bear in mind that through trial, God intends to save us from our errors and sins. Trusting in the love of our Heavenly Father, we ought to ‘despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction’. Far from being tokens of God’s loathing, the trials we face should be taken as evidence of His tender regard, ‘for whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth’.
Christopher Sparks