I remember as a child, when I had done something foolish or disobedient, and my Mom or Dad would discipline me, they would say, “I’m doing this because I love you.” As a child, that was hard to understand, and I wondered, “If you love me, then why the spanking? Can’t I just say ‘I’m sorry’ and move on?” But then I became a parent myself, and their loving correction made more sense. If we love our children, we’ll love them enough not to leave them in their sin and disobedience, but to lovingly discipline them unto obedience.
We see the wisdom of discipline in our parenting, but how often do we struggle when the Lord disciplines us? Our childish thinking often follows us into adulthood, as we wish we could opt out of the discipline of the Lord. David describes what the Lord’s discipline feels like when he kept silent about sin: “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer” (Ps. 32:4).
Do you know the heavy hand of the Lord? Do you feel his discipline right now? Consider these verses and what God’s purposes are in our discipline, and how we should respond.
20 Bible Verses About Discipline
- 1 Corinthians 9:27 ESV
But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. - Proverbs 3:11-12 ESV
My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. - Proverbs 29:15 ESV
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. - Ephesians 6:4 ESV
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. - Proverbs 25:28 ESV
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. - Titus 1:8 ESV
But hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. - Proverbs 6:23 ESV
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, - Hebrews 12:5-11 ESV
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? - Job 5:17 ESV
“Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty. - Deuteronomy 8:5-6 ESV
Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. - 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ESV
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. - Proverbs 16:32 ESV
Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. - 2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. - 1 Corinthians 11:32 ESV
But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. - Psalm 94:12 ESV
Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law, - 2 Timothy 2:3-5 ESV
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. - Proverbs 12:1 ESV
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. - Revelation 3:19 ESV
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. - Proverbs 29:17 ESV
Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart. - Proverbs 22:15 ESV
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
Pain as a megaphone
One of the reasons a wise parent doesn’t withhold the pain of discipline in their child’s life is that pain has a way of getting our attention and lodging in our memories. C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain said, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Does God have your attention in your pain? Has he roused you from your sleep and your sin? Remember that if the Lord is disciplining you, it means you’re a son or daughter, and in that, you can rejoice! (Heb. 12:6). And you can rejoice because while it’s painful right now, it yields good and peaceable fruit later on (v. 11).
Submit to his loving correction and discipline, for he disciplines those he loves.
He loves you,
Cara
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