Obedience is as different from accommodation in discipleship as mature and juvenile reactions differ when God disciplines inadequate or punishes sinful behavior. (This will be periodically discussed in future blogs.)
First, understand that both discipline and punishment can occur in discipleship, as Jesus said in John 15:1-4: the fruitful branch for more production, the dead branch to severance. Second, since both HURT, we may not instantly determine which we experience. Third, our reaction to the pruning may determine which branch we are. When God accuses us of inadequate faith, be honest enough to know he's RIGHT: we have been slack in service. When he accuses us of sinful behavior, we dare not rummage in our grab bag of excuses to find a justification for it. Nothing more quickly turns mere discipline (pruning) into punishment (severance) than trying to make ourselves acceptable to God by explaining why we sinned. King David and wanted-to-be-king Cain serve as examples. David readily admitted his sin when prophet Nathan recounted in blistering oratory the story of the rich versus the poor man II Samuel 12:7-9. "I have sinned against the LORD" II Samuel 12:13, David admitted: the confession that brought forgiveness without removing the punishment that for David became mere pruning of his character. God gave Cain time enough to THINK about his murder of Abel. It wasn't manslaughter—something happening in the heat of an argument, or by accidently striking an opponent. Cain in malice aforethought invited his brother to a lonely place, to be killed—so none would know. He didn't have enough faith to know GOD SAW IT! Then, given the chance to admit his guilt when asked, "Where is your brother Abel?" Cain first lied: I don't know. Then expressed the killer's rationale: I can't be held responsible for what happened to him. The very response of people stopped by police for an infraction of the law. They may drive at high rates of speed through city streets, or the wrong way on highways, because they don't care about others. They alone matter. Anything that their EGO demands must be satisfied. In summary, David had been thinking about what James would later describe as the path to spiritual pain 1:13-15: desire leading to enticement, leading to sin, leading to death. And his confession brought repentance called pruning. Cain, given the same opportunity, couldn't get himself out of the way. He kept seeing whatever he did—even murder—as his right. We all, more than once, come to those points of no return, those crossroads of choice when confronted by Christ's accusation of inadequacy or sin. We can either refuse correction because it's too hard to accept; or submit to it because it's too obvious not to accept accountability. Our decision will turn every divine clip with the shears into a pruning that helps us grow or a severing that casts us out. In the first, like David, we remain in Christ though a sinner. In the second, like Cain, we prove a dead branch for the burning. Which will we be?
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