To Spank or Not to Spank - Part 2

My last installment on this issue (long ago) simply listed some scripture verses. I'm still not directly addressing the spanking issue, but I want to look at how God has interacted with the church after Christ.

The Bible teaches that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). For those in Christ, God's justice has been satisfied in Christ Jesus. Nevertheless, the New Testament still offers plenty of instruction regarding how to live our lives. God still cares about our deeds, and He disciplines those he loves. Thus, we have what might appear to be a dilemma.

In Romans 5 and 6, Pauls talks about grace at work in our lives and is careful to clarify that this grace is not a license to sin. In Acts 5, we learn about Ananias and Saphira, whom God struck dead for lying to the Holy Spirit. As a result, "Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events" (Acts 5:11).

Also, the Corinthian church was taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner, and consequently were eating and drinking judgment upon themselves (1 Cor. 11:27-29). "That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world" (1 Cor. 11:30-32). God judged believers within the Corinthian church and physically disciplined them.

Further, to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, God says over and over, "I know your deeds." They're pretty much told to shape up or their "lampstand" will be removed. There again is God's discipline.

How do we reconcile these facts: we have no condemnation in Christ, Jesus has paid for our sin, God cares about our deeds, God disciplines us, and God's discipline is sometimes physical? While believers don't experience condemnation and won't go to hell for our sin, God still cares what we do, and we experience his discipline in our lives for our disobedience. This discipline is sometimes physically painful and can even cause our death. I think that we mistakenly call all physical discipline "punishment," but I don't think that's biblical. God's discipline in the lives of believers seems to manifest itself in different ways--some physical and some not. Therefore, I think that our definition of discipline is sometimes too narrow. Perhaps we need to delve deeper into our definitions of punishment and discipline and look to see examples of each from the Bible.

I'm still trying to work out what I believe on this subject, but this is what I've been thinking about lately. I don't claim to have this all figured out, and I have not exhaustively covered this subject here. More coming sometime soon.