What’s your understanding, interpretation, definition of this word? Do you experience ‘punishment’? Is it precarious and capricious… or justified? Regardless, how do you handle these times and what do you do with what you learn? About yourself – your actions, your ownership of what you did or said, your ‘amends’, etc.
The Word tells us that God chastises those He loves (Hebrews 12:6, Proverbs 3:12) but the word is defined as ‘disciplines’. So what’s the difference between disciplining and punishment? As a verb, discipline is defined: “... to train or develop by instruction and exercise especially in self-control“. However, another definition is: “… to punish or penalize for the sake of enforcing obedience and perfecting moral character.” Punish is defined: “… suffering, pain, or loss that serves as retribution.” In my world of words and definitions, punishment is much more negative because it is pain that marks the word. Disciple is marked by training. The last problem is that each define or are synonyms of each other. Therefore, it’s more difficult to separate them.
However, when we consider the word ‘chastisement, we are looking at a somewhat different approach and rationale. Scripture identifies over 36 verses that discuss the Lords chastising. Examples:
“It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:7-10)
“I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men…” (2 Samuel 7:14)
“Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.” (Job 5:17)
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:11)
This perspective makes the case for discipline being the context of chastisement and chastisement is the Lord’s method of training us in order to help us be all that we can be. It need not be considered a negative like punishment. Punishment’s place, and it does have a place, is when we willfully turn away or act opposite of whose we are. Obviously, punishment’s goal is to help us see the mistakes in order to remind us not to repeat… not unlike our other experiences when we act wrongly. But chastisement’s goal is our growth, our maturing.
