Loving Discipline

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” - Proverbs 12:1

Do you love discipline? Few would say they do. Discipline is often painful, difficult, unappealing, and uncomfortable. Do you love knowledge? Many would say they do. Knowledge is a key to living successfully in God’s eyes (Col. 1:9), knowing what to do, making the right decisions. But if you truly love the kind of knowledge that leads you to live a life of honoring God, then you must love discipline.

The Hebrew word used for discipline (musar) can have both positive and negative connotations. Positively, it is “learning by exhortation and example” (New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, vol. 2, 480). At the beginning of Proverbs, it is translated “instruction” (1:2) and said to be the thing fools despise along with wisdom (1:7). This

instruction is so valuable it is to be bought (23:23), chosen over silver and gold (8:10), accepted (19:20), and loved (12:1). Only a wisdom that begins with the fear of the Lord is that valuable. Negatively, the word means discipline or punishment that comes as the consequence for not learning from the instruction of the wise. The discipline can be severe for the one who “forsakes the way” (15:10). However negative the experience of these consequences may be, the goal of discipline in the hand of a loving caretaker is restorative. Discipline is well-known in a household led by loving parents: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Prov. 13:24).

We all need wisdom. And we gain wisdom through true instruction and discipline. This is because we all are inadequate in our possession of knowledge that honors the Lord. We begin our lives as fools. “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline (musar) drives it far from him” (22:15). So Solomon urges his son to accept his instruction (1:8) and turn at the reproof that wisdom gives (1:20). We begin in folly, but when wisdom’s instruction and reproof is sought, accepted, and even loved, then we gain knowledge that honors the Lord.

Anytime you learn, your bear witness to the fact that you did not know something. You lacked knowledge or know-how. God never learns because he has no lack; he needs no improvements in his knowledge. Since none of us are God, we need to learn. The foolish and proud will be convinced they already know all there is to be known. Their pride reveals their folly. This is the man who is never wrong in his own eyes. Any problem surrounding him is always due to someone else’s failure, not his own. He may be willing to concede minor failings, but they are always minor compared to others and always carry with them a legitimate surrounding excuse. He never accepts correction and does not lay reproof to heart. For this man, he already knows all that he will know because there is nothing anyone can teach him. He lives in an impoverished heart where he feeds himself the same diet of ignorance and arrogance. The Lord speaks to this kind of wicked man, “You hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you” (Ps. 50:17).

For the believer, the existence of discipline in your life proves, first, that you do not know everything about living, and second, that there is a heavenly Father who loves you. “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’” (Heb. 12:5-6). Approach your life with humility, eager to receive correction and instruction. None of us know all there is to know about living. But if you are willing to accept it, there is a loving Father in heaven who is set on seeing you grow. It is accepting correction, instruction, and discipline, rather than thinking you are above those things, that leads to true knowledge. Do you love knowledge of God and living in a way that pleases him? Then you need to acknowledge you have not arrived at perfection and you must submit your life to his instruction and discipline that leads you to true knowledge.