This past Sunday we continued in week-43 of our series, The Gospel. If you missed Sunday’s service, you can catch up on Facebook now.
On Sunday as we saw Jesus proclaiming woes over the Pharisees and Scribes, we saw a very important Biblical premise unfolding: God corrects those whom He loves. In Revelation 3:19, Jesus makes this incredible statement: Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Imagine with me for a moment that I was out at the playground and I saw a random kid kicking, screaming, and yelling at other kids and finally their mom. I might think to myself: “thank God that isn’t my child.” But what I won’t do is correct the kid or discipline them. Why? Because they aren’t mine. Sure, I will protect others from a kid throwing a tantrum, but I don’t know this kid, their background, any medical or physiological conditions they might have, or their history. They don’t belong to me so it isn’t my place to correct them.
Now, imagine that I’m on the same playground and I saw one of my five children kicking, screaming, and yelling at other kids or their mom. You don’t have to have any biological children of your own to see how this is going to play out. I will immediately head into whatever moment my child is involved in and I will quickly start to correct them and discipline them. Why? Because I do know them. They do belong to me. I do know them intimately and I care enough to correct them and help them learn.
As we walked through Luke 11:37-54, we saw a very tense moment in the Scriptures. After being invited to a public meal by a Pharisee, Jesus begins to lovingly correct the religious leaders with a series of woes. These prophetic pronouncements, ones that evoked thoughts of God speaking to Israel through the Prophets, quickly brought out some hard truths these men had to face. God loved these men enough to correct them, yet they ignored His reproof and dismissed His correction. They felt insulted, but never stopped to consider how what Jesus said applied to them.
I wonder… when is the last time you felt corrected (reproved) and disciplined by the Lord? If you belong to Christ, it isn’t a matter of if He corrects and disciplines you, but when. Why is that? Its pretty simple: we all need it and He loves us enough to do it.
When we belong to Christ, out of His great love for us, He corrects us when we step out of line or sin and He disciplines us so we will learn not to keep doing what we’ve been doing. If you aren’t being corrected and disciplined by Jesus, there are really only three things that could be happening:
- You are perfect and don’t sin anymore. In this case, you are either dead or about to get raptured out of here at any moment.
- You don’t belong to Christ.
- You are ignoring, rejecting, or struggling against His correction and discipline.
Since all of us have to face the fact that we aren’t perfect, the first scenario couldn’t possibly be true (see 1 John 1:8). You and I are left to wrestle with the other two realities. If we take a few moments to honestly and humbly reflect, each of us will realize that we need Christ’s correction, He has promised to give it to us, but we must have a heart that is willing to respond and repent.
Today I want to challenge you to stop and prayerfully seek God’s loving correction. Humbly ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any area of your life that the Lord wants to move in. Confess any sin and deal with any unforgiveness (see 1 John 1:9). Then, ask God for the grace not to struggle against His discipline but to instead participate in it. This process is called sanctification and it is the stage of life every living saint is in.
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6 ESV)
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