and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
Bind them upon your heart always;
tie them around your neck.
When you walk, they will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you awake, they will talk with you.
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,” NRSV
God’s timing is simply amazing!
I subscribe to David Wilkerson’s World Challenge Pulpit Series. Pastor Wilkerson is unlike any other contemporary preacher I have met or read. His words cut to the heart and are filled with Holy Spirit wisdom.
In the sermon I read this morning (“The Healing Power of Afflictions,” 3/31/08), Pastor Wilkerson writes:
“As painful as afflictions are, God uses them to achieve his purposes in our lives. . . . Many believers who face affliction immediately think they’re under unsanctioned satanic attack. . . . Yet, the fact is, Satan can’t lift a finger against any child of God unless the Lord allows it.”
Solomon said something very similar here: “the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.”
Reproofs of discipline. A reproof is a reprimand, an expression of sharp disapproval. In other words, it’s God’s signpost that we are heading in the wrong direction. And it can be as sharp, as strong, as compelling as needed to get us to head back in the right direction.
Reproofs can be emotionally and even physically painful.
I struggle with my weight. I will admit that it’s even to the point where food is an addiction for me. And so, in the last few days, I’ve been journaling what I eat. It not only has kept me on track, but it has shown me how much I focus on, think about food. And while there are physical reasons for my problems with my weight, I also haven’t been willing to discipline my body to the point of “reproofs.”
Reproofs of discipline are the way of life.
God’s Word can be such a comfort. He’s the One I run to when I’m in distress, when I’m confused, when life is out of order. But God never intended for His Word to solely be Charlie Brown’s “warm blanket.” His Word is also intended to be that reproof of discipline which turns us away from that sin we’ve embraced and back into His holy presence. The problem is, we like His Word as a comfort, but we don’t really want to be reproved. We want to be loved, but not disciplined. We want to be embraced, but not corrected.
But the reproofs of discipline are the way of life!
Most of us had our childhood inoculations and gave them to our children as well. Regardless of the current controversy regarding them, the fact is, inoculations were developed to ward off greater threats of serious illness: polio, TB, the herpes virus. In other words, we permitted—even embraced—the temporary pain of the injection in order to turn our bodies away from the path of illness and toward the path of health, of life.
Reproofs can be heavenly inoculations. There are sins in our lives, hidden deep, seemingly small and innocuous, that lurk just below the service. In many cases, we have fed these sins, cultivated them, embraced them until they are comfortable, familiar, even welcomed. And yet each and every sin, regardless of how innocent it may appear, is part of Satan’s plan to destroy us and to win victory in our lives over the Holy Spirit. Father God will not permit it! Rather, He allows the “reproofs of discipline,” regardless of how painful they are, to turn us toward Him and to confront our sin brutally and aggressively. Every sin must be weeded out and destroyed. Righteousness and sin cannot live together.
As difficult as the task is, we must embrace His Word with both its comforts and its reproofs. As Solomon says, this is the way of life.
© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).
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