Fearing God (Part 3)

Continuing again from the previous post:

So I last wrote about discipline, and its necessity as a believer in Christ. Discipline, commanded by God, is a means for believers to overcome sin (repentance) and seek the Lord (fearing Him, growing in wisdom etc.). The bible likens God’s discipline to that of a father’s discipline towards his son (Deut 8:56). So I think this makes it pretty clear what spiritual discipline is. Obviously it’s not getting spankings and getting grounded, but it is other means by which a believer can repent and grow in their walk with the Lord. It could be getting counseling from a godly leader you know, being accountable to a friend and holding them accountable, or making a heartfelt promise with God to do something (eg. read a chapter of the bible every night, or never to get drunk again). In my opinion, the latter two are essential for having good spiritual discipline. The first one mentioned would be necessary if the latter two aren’t working and you’re falling by the wayside in your sins. Of course, having to get counseling would be a difficult thing not only to take, but to pursue, but again the temporary pain leads to righteousness (Hebrews 12:11), and you will be blessed by God for it (Psalm 94:12).

If you are a believer, and you have fallen by the wayside, you need to seek discipline – it is absolutely necessary. Your salvation could be at stake! In Psalm 50:16-18, the Lord says to those who hate discipline that they have no right to even speak His word! In Hebrews 12:7-10 it says that if we’re not disciplined, then we’re illegitimate children of God.

To those of us who see a friend falling by the wayside in their sins, we ought to help them out (disciplining them in a sense). We are told to restore them in a spirit of gentleness (Galatians 6:1). This is not just for his/her good, but for the good of the entire body of Christ, because 1 Corinthians 12:26 says that if one member suffers, we all (as the body of Christ) suffer together.

In fact, one should seek (or give) all the discipline that is necessary for one to repent of his/her sins. Sometimes this means severe discipline (ie. taking desperate measures, along with ongoing counseling etc.), so that you can repent, and avoid being given over to death (Psalm 118:18). Yup, that’s right, death (spiritual, eternal death) can be the result of lack of discipline, if you’re engulfed in sin (Proverbs 5:22,23).

These last two verses bring me to some of my last points about fearing God. To fear God you need to understand God’s nature, and I mean all of his nature (at least all that he has revealed to us). God is a God of mercy, love, compassion, grace. But he is also a God of wrath. God hates sin. He is just, righteous, and all sovereign in being wrathful and hating sin (which we all have by nature). If you don’t understand this you’ll never fear the Lord! In fact, you’ll never even come to understand the depths of his mercy and love! You might not even understand properly why you needed salvation from Him.