PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Disciplining Our Children According To God's Nature

The way in which we discipline our children is as varied as the number of parents. Many Christian parents are troubled by the seeming emphasis on physical discipline described in Proverbs. For example: "He that spares his rod hates his son; but he that loves him is diligent to discipline him" (Proverbs 13:24). Even stronger is the word in chapter 23, verses 13 and 14: "Withhold not correction from the child, for if you beat him with the rod, he shall not die. You shall beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell." These admonitions to parents fly straight in the face of today's generally accepted philosophy of child rearing popular among the educators and child psychologists.

There is, of course, reason for concern about the violence that is loosed upon children in the name of discipline. We have all been disturbed by the terrible things perpetrated upon children that have been reported in our daily newspapers. The Bible certainly does not advocate violence toward children. However, the use of a good switch which stings but neither breaks bones nor leaves ugly bruises is not equal to the maiming and killing acts which have been inflicted on children by the unbelieving and psychologically damaged parents.

Although we agree with the exhortations in the Bible which call for physical consequences to children who are at fault in unacceptable behavior, we are not offering here a way nor a philosophy for disciplining children. Rather, we are presenting a principle of discipline, disciplining our children according to God.

Brother Witness Lee wrote, "We may discipline our children without God, only according to our likes or dislikes. When we hear this fellowship, we may think that God does not want us to discipline our children. This is also wrong. We are not saying that God does not want us to discipline our children. What we need to see is that God wants us to discipline our children with Him. This is a difficult lesson for all of us to learn."

We need to cooperate with the Lord in His renewing process in us. We have been regenerated with the life of God. In this divine life there is a renewing capacity to make us one with God.

The New Testament says that God chose us before the foundation of the world and marked us out (Ephesians 1:4-5). He desires to make His chosen ones the new creation. His way to do this is first to put Himself into us, to regenerate us. We are reborn, regenerated, to become God's children. This is wonderful, but the New Testament reveals that regeneration alone is not adequate. After regenerating us, God has to renew us, sanctify us, transform us, conform us to His image, and glorify us. Transformation needs sanctification and also renewing. Transformation is a metabolic change. When we are transformed, a new element is added to us metabolically to replace the old element. The new element is God Himself. God is "new" (as a noun). There is no oldness with God.

After we have been regenerated, we have God, but we do not have much of God. This is why Colossians 2:19 says that we need to grow with the growth of God, or increase with the increase of God. This means that we grow by the increase of God within us. If we have little increase of God, we grow little. If we have much increase of God, we grow much. When we have God in us to the fullest, we will have the full growth. God has to be increased within us. When God is increasing within us, His new element is being added into us. When the divine element comes into us, it renews us regardless of whether we are slow or quick in our natural disposition. As we are contacting God, God infuses Himself as the divine element into our being. This new element is added into our existing element. When this new element is added into us, something is worked out within us.

God desires to add Himself into our being, but He does not increase in us when we do not contact Him. We may go through a period of time in which we do not contact God or pray to Him. Instead, we are doing everything by ourselves and in ourselves. During this time, God is not added into our being, and we are not increasing with the increase of God. This is why we encourage all the saints to have morning watch. Our morning watch with the Lord is not just for us to exercise our mind to read the letter of the Bible, but it is for us to exercise our spirit. This is why we have to say, "O Lord Jesus." Our calling on the Lord is our spiritual breathing. We have to contact God by praying to Him and calling on Him. Then He adds Himself into us. When we contact Him, He is adding more and more of the divine element into our being. As the new element of God is being added into our being, this new element metabolically renews us. I may be a quick person naturally, but because God's element comes into my being, this element renews my natural habit. I may be slow in my natural disposition, but God renews me with His element to discharge my old element.

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