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Verse By Verse Devotional On 2 Corinthians By Pastor Jack #40

May 18, 2016 | by: Jack Lash | 0 comments

Posted in: 2 Corinthians

Chastising Out of Love

2:3 "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you."

Here again Paul breaks human expectations. He wrote a sharp and severe letter to the Corinthians, but he did it in love. In fact, he says his sharpness proves his love.

This verse shows that though ordinarily God wants us to be gentle, there is also a time to be severe. Our severity must be born of love, and we must be loving in our severity, but we must not withhold severity when it’s needed or we are depriving others of something they very much need.

"Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed." (Prov.27:5)

"Those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives." (Heb.12:6) It is not hate that moves God to discipline, but love! And love must constrain US in the same way.

This loving-enough-to-intervene is a common failure of parents. Firm but loving discipline is so rare that many assume that if there is spanking there is child abuse. There are parents who discipline in anger and there are parents who don’t discipline at all. But there are very few that discipline Biblically and lovingly. And the children are the ones suffering because of it.

"He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently." (Prov.13:24)

Our culture pressures us against this, relentlessly. But our culture is not our guide, God’s word is!

When he was about seven my son Josiah stepped on a toothpick in bare feet. The toothpick lodged about an inch and a half in his foot and broke off, leaving only about a quarter of an inch exposed. Unable to pull it out with my fingers, I got a pair of pliers. He screamed and begged me not to pull it out. I knew it would hurt him more in the short run to remove it than to leave it in. But I also knew that the toothpick could not be left in his foot. That would be far more painful (and dangerous) in the long run. I pulled it out and of course now he’s glad I did. (Maybe I should have taken him to the emergency room, but the same truth applies.) This is very similar to discipline and rebuking. It is more painful in the short run, but much less painful in the long run. The fact is that man has been pierced to the heart with the folly of sin. And discipline is needed to remove it, though it is painful:

“Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it far from him.” (Proverbs 22:15)

Sometimes love requires caring and careful use of severity. This is what God’s word says -- over and over again (e.g. Prov. 6:23; 19:18; 20:30; 23:13–14; 29:15, 17, 19).

Father in heaven, thank You for loving me enough to train me with Your rod. Help me to not regard lightly Your discipline, nor faint when I am reproved by You. And help me to love others in the way You love Your children. Help me stand firm and lovingly confront when it is the right thing to do. Give me the love I need to do what is best for others, instead of what is easiest.

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