For Discipline We Endure

“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 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.’

“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:3-11 ESV)

When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in him, and we die with him to sin so that we can now live to him and to his righteousness, it is also that we might now live for the Lord and no longer for ourselves and for what we want. And involved in this death to sin and to self, and this longing now to live for our Lord and for his glory, is accepting the reality that we will now be hated and persecuted for our walks of faith in Jesus Christ, and that we will suffer discipline at the hands of God in order that we might share in his holiness and bear the fruit of righteousness.

For denying self and dying to sin and walking in obedience to our Lord will not make us popular and well accepted. For this means that we will not join in with the world in the things that they are doing, and we will live holy lives which are separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ. And we will believe God’s word and we will not compromise the truth to be acceptable to other humans. We will stand on what is right, and we will speak the truth of the gospel, in love, and we will refute the lies of the enemy, by God’s grace.

For this is the goal of our salvation, that we should live holy lives, pleasing to God, in his service, that we should no longer walk in sin, but that we should now walk in moral purity, uprightness, honesty, faithfulness, and in obedience to our Lord and to his commands under the New Covenant. It is that we should no longer live for self but for God/Christ who gave himself up for us to deliver us from slavery to sin and to empower us to live godly lives. And it is that we should love other humans as God loves us and that we should share the truth of the gospel and expose the deeds of darkness.

And this is why he disciplines us, to make us holy, and to humble us, and so that we will forsake our sins and follow him in obedience to his commands. And it is so that he can use us to minister his love and grace to the people of the world, and to the body of Christ, and so that we will be those who are spreading the truth of the gospel and who are refuting the lies. For the lies are huge, and they are being so widely accepted, and so we need honest people who love Jesus who will dare to tell people the truth, even if it means that they get hated and mistreated in return.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24] 

VOICE OF TRUTH 

By Mark Hall & Steven Curtis Chapman

II Corinthians 12:7-10/I Corinthians 1:20-24

Oh what I would do to have

The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant

With just a sling and a stone

Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors

Shaking in their armor

Wishing they’d have had the strength to stand

But the giant’s calling out my name and he laughs at me

Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed

The giant keeps on telling me

Time and time again, “Boy you’ll never win!”

“You’ll never win!”

But the voice of truth tells me a different story

The voice of truth says, “Do not be afraid!”

And the voice of truth says, “This is for My glory”

Out of all the voices calling out to me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CsiBjc0UIA

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