Chastisement Brings Both Sorrow and Safety

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The Christian life isn't an easy life. Acts 14:22 describes the Christian life to be that of much tribulation before the journey is over. The Christian will have the problem of sin. Romans 7:14-25 has Paul describing the very struggle against sin. Even if Christians aren't living like the rest of the world but they're not sinless even if they sin less.

Reading through John 15:1-8 describes Christian growth. Jesus used the word "pruning" to describe what His Father does to the believer. While the worthless branches are certainly false converts but the true branches are the believers. He prunes them because He knows that it's a true branch not a false branch. False branches are thrown aside to the fire while true branches remain. The pruning process is meant to make sure that Christians will be fruitful in their Christian lives. Any good gardener knows the true branches need some pruning every now and then.

Hebrews 12:5-7 is clear that if you're a child of God then expect chastisement. Chastisement is done out of love for the person. It's true that all the pruning and spanking brings great sorrow. Psalm 51 and Ecclesiastes have the sorrow of David and Solomon expressed for their sins. David's sin was with Bathsheba. Solomon's sin was with misusing the wisdom God gave to him. Chastisement happens because a parent loves the child. If you love your children then chastise them when they are wrong. You can't love without chastising while you can chastise without loving.

Sometimes, we need some sorrow to keep us safe. The problem of the flesh is that all good times and no bad times makes it lazy. The flesh just wants to please itself. If Christians are allowed to have only joy without sorrow then they're going to be complacent. Having too many good times makes a person's brain numb. Gold can't be purified without the use of extreme heat. That's why this sorrow must be there to remove the dross of the Christian. God allows bad times to make Christians more and more aware of who's in charge and more fruitful.

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