Reclaiming Our Christian Heritage: spiritual rebirth

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

The Duty Of Parents To Discipline Their Children

We're examining the sad fact that many children are abused by parents and loved ones. In that connection I want to take another look at what the Bible says about the training and discipline of children. Here are some proverbs to guide us.

Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death. - Prov 19:18 ESV

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. Prov 22:15 ESV

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol. - Pro 23:13-14 ESV

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. ... Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart. - Prov 29:15, 17 ESV

In Deuteronomy Moses writes about discipline (yacar) as the duty of parents. He notes that sometimes parents may try everything they can to get a child to listen and understand in vain. Finally, if he will not listen to them, they may have no recourse other than to bring him to trial before the elders of the city. He continues,

. . . then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear. - Deut 21:19-21 ESV

Solomon urges parents to discipline their son so he is not put to death by the courts. Sad to say, thousands of rebellious sons from those days until now have received the judgment of capitol punishment in spite of their parents' training and guidance. At times this happened because parents failed to discipline and train them. The Proverbs above point out why discipline is so important.

Folly (ivveleth) is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him. - Prov 22:15 ESV

This folly word is found frequently in the Proverbs. For instance,

He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray. - Prov 5:23 ESV

The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down.

A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated.

The crown of the wise is their wealth, but the folly of fools brings folly. - Prov 14:1, 17, 24 ESV

Like it or not, the fact is that children inherit the sin and iniquity, the folly, of their parents. This is what David reflected upon after his own horrific sins of adultery and murder.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. - Psa 51:5 ESV

Our Lord Jesus taught the same about our sinful human flesh.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. - John 3:6 ESV

The Lord was speaking, of course, about the rebirth that comes from the creative work of the Holy Spirit. It is critical that parents bring their children to be baptized and taught the Good News of Jesus. Through these means the Spirit gives also our children a second birth. That is the promise. And happy is the home where Jesus and the Spirit dwell in love and forgiveness.

But parents face another task. They must help their children to face up to their sin, the rebelliousness that remains in the hearts of us all. The battle to overcome this inherited old Adam or old Eve, the sin passed on from generation to generation, remains throughout life. It is for this reason that the proverbs says: "Folly (ivveleth) is bound up in the heart of a child . . ." The critical question then is how to deal with this fact. How do parents discipline and teach their children to confront their sins, admit them, ask for and receive forgiveness and recommit themselves to following Jesus' path of love? This is what the proverbs are all about, even when they speak about the rod of discipline.

In my next post I will say more about methodology, about the how of training children and point you to some resources.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

No Such Thing As Deciding To Follow Jesus!

American economist Alan Greenspan is purported to have said, "I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I've said." As you read the Gospel of John, you often feel that Jesus uses the same approach. It seems he uses words that send us in one direction, but he really wants us to go in another. And, as the familiar saying says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.” That's what was going on in the conversation he had with the respected judge Nicodemus who came to talk with him one night. When Nicodemus called Jesus Rabbi and one sent from God, Jesus said,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." - Jhn 3:3 ESV

And Nicodemus completely misunderstood what Jesus said. Its that little word again that threw him off. In the Greek language the word is anohthen, a complex word with a couple meanings. The first part of the word, anoh, is used three times in John's Gospel, always referring to up, above or to the brim. So we read

Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. - Jhn 2:7 ESV

He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. - Jhn 8:23 ESV

So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. - Jhn 11:41 ESV

The second part of the word, the suffix then, generally means things are moving, as in . . .

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." - Jhn 3:8 ESV

Put the two parts together and you literally have a complex word that means from up or from above. This is always always what the adverb anohthen means in other contexts. For instance, when Jesus spoke to Pontius Pilate about his authority as Roman Prefect he said,

"You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin." - Jhn 19:11 ESV

Ah, but Nicodemus misunderstood. He grabbed hold of a secondary meaning of the word. He felt that Jesus was saying you must be born again. We have a similar expression. We say, "OK, lets take it from the top." That means, "Lets do it again." And this is what Nicodemus heard, ". . . born again." And in so hearing he revealed his natural inclination to believe that in spiritual matters it all starts with ME! That's
why he wondered how anyone could pull that off. Notice his focus on himself as he asks,

Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" - Jhn 3:4 ESV

We still do the same thing to this very day as we use the very familiar expression born again Christians. Behind that expression is the assumption that in order for rebirth to happen you must make some kind of decision, as in the familiar hymn from India by S. Sundar Singh,

I have decided to follow Jesus;