Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
For they indeed chastened us for a few days as seemed good to them; but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
Know ye not that they that run in a race all run, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run; that ye may attain.
And every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air:
But I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
It is actually reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even among the Gentiles, that one of you hath his father’s wife.
And ye are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you.
For I verily, being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him that hath so wrought this thing,
In the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our Passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ:
Wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Let us have a further word of prayer.
Dear Lord, as we continue to gather in Thy presence, our hearts are deeply touched by Thy everlasting love towards us. How we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast forgiven us all our sins, and Thou hast even forgotten them.
We praise and thank Thee that Thy love towards us never changes. It is because of that love that we are here this morning. We come to Thee and ask Thee to open Thy Word to our hearts, that we may really understand Thy heart and learn to submit ourselves to Thee in a way that will be pleasing to Thee.
We commit this time into Thy hands. We trust Thy Holy Spirit to do the work to the praise of Thy glory. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
You may be wondering what we are going to share this morning. The Lord seems to have put upon my heart a burden to share with you, dear brothers and sisters, on this matter of discipline.
Now, when you hear the word discipline, probably you react against it. We do not like to be disciplined. To us, there is a kind of bad feeling about discipline, as if it is something horrible, terrible—something from which we shrink.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if we really understand what discipline is, I hope our attitude will change. Strangely, when you read the Bible, you find that in the whole Bible there is only one place where this word discipline occurs. I am speaking according to the Hebrew and according to the Greek.
The word that we now know as discipline occurs in one place in the whole Bible: Job 36:10.
He openeth their ear to instruction,
And commandeth that they return from iniquity.
Even in that place, the word discipline in the original Hebrew means chastisement or instruction. In our Chinese translation, we use the word instruction, because this is what the word originally means.
The word that we often find in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, is chastisement, chastening, or chastise. If you read the context, you will find that it means to convict, to reprove, to instruct, and to train.
In other words, whether it is the Hebrew word discipline or the word chastening, they actually mean the same thing. Basically, it is to train. It is a kind of training—child training—with a definite purpose of achieving a particular character and conduct, resulting in moral and mental improvement.
Discipline, or chastening, is to instruct, to educate, and to train, that there may be growth and progress into something that is in view. Even our English word discipline comes from the word disciple. It also means instruction, knowledge, or being a pupil—a disciple.
So, all through, you will find that this is what discipline really means. Discipline is not that terrible word. It is actually a good word, because it is by discipline that we are trained, matured, and brought into something that is pleasing to God.
When you read the Word of God, you find that discipline is necessary for us. Even when God created man and put him in the Garden of Eden, He put him under discipline.
God provided everything for man. God told man that he could eat the fruit of all the trees, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why was it that God provided all these things for man, and yet put man under one limitation?
He put him under discipline because He wanted to train that man, that he might grow into maturity. We all know that when man was created, physically he was fully mature. Yet, as far as the meaning of manhood was concerned, he was still a babe. He needed to grow up.
The only way to grow up is to be put under discipline. If he obeyed God and submitted himself to the authority of God, then he would grow up and become what God purposed man to be.
But unfortunately, he rebelled against God. He rebelled against the discipline that God had put him under. Because of that, man fell into sin.
When man fell into sin, God’s disciplinary hand came upon him. You may think that man was then being punished because he disobeyed God. The wages of sin is death, and death immediately came upon Adam. His spirit was dead towards God, and death began to work in his life until, after more than nine hundred years, he died physically.
Yet, brothers and sisters, even God’s disciplinary hand is for the purpose of restoration and recovery. With the disciplinary measure, God gave man a promise: the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. Man’s salvation would come through the seed of the woman.
If man submitted himself under the mighty hand of God, waiting for the seed of the woman to come and trusting in Him, he would be saved. Not only would his sins be forgiven, but he would receive the life from the tree of life which he missed at the beginning. He would be fully recovered to the purpose of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, discipline is a good thing. Through discipline, we grow and are brought into the full purpose of God.
After we believe in the Lord Jesus, our sins are forgiven, we are given eternal life, and we become children of God. As God’s children, we need discipline, because it is only through discipline that we grow into maturity in our spiritual life.
I hope our concept of discipline, and our reaction towards it, will be changed. Instead of being fearful of discipline, if we are good children of God, we shall welcome His discipline. We know that only through discipline are we able to grow into full maturity.
In the Word of God, so far as I can see, there are three directions of discipline:
The book of Hebrews, when you reach Hebrews 12, shows us that we as God’s children are in a race course. We are running, but we are running against the current of the world. We are running upward, heavenward, towards God and towards our Lord Jesus. We are to gain Him and all His fullness.
As pilgrims upon this earth, remember that we are running against the current of the world. Because we are running against that current, we cannot escape all kinds of contradictions, tribulations, sufferings, pains, opposition, and hostility—things that seemingly are against us.
The world is trying to pull us down, deep down into the earth, to conform us to the fashion of this world. Yet the life within us urges us to press on towards the goal, the heavenly goal.
As we live daily in these circumstances, it is easy to faint, easy to grow weary, and easy to give up. But the writer of Hebrews exhorts us not to faint or grow weary when we are under this kind of struggle and battle. Think of our Lord Jesus.
Look away from everything and look unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Think of our Lord Jesus—how He battled against sin even unto death, even unto blood. We have not yet come to that point.
Never allow what has happened to you in this life to pull you down. In the middle of the battle, look up unto Jesus, and you will find that His grace is sufficient for us.
This is what is apparent—what can be seen. But behind everything that seems to oppose and trouble us, remember that there is our heavenly Father. Because He loves us as His sons, He chastens us. He uses all kinds of opposing forces to train us, that we may grow in our spiritual life.
Oftentimes, when our eyes are only upon our circumstances, we faint and grow weary. But we need to know that behind everything there is our heavenly Father. He knows everything. He knows what is going on.
In a sense, our circumstances are arranged by our heavenly Father. Sometimes we call this the discipline of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit arranges and orders our circumstances. There is nothing that happens to us that is outside the knowledge of our heavenly Father.
Our Lord Jesus told us that even the hairs of our head are numbered. Our heavenly Father loves us so much. Even our earthly parents, though they love us very much, have not numbered our hairs and cannot number them. It is beyond them.
But think of our heavenly Father. His love is so delicate; His love is so deep. He knows not merely how many hairs you have on your head, but He numbers every one of them. Every morning when I comb my hair, I remember that perhaps one or two hairs have fallen, and the Father knows what numbers they are.
To us as children of God, there is nothing that comes by chance. The family you are in, the brothers and sisters you are with, the co-workers in your office, the fellow students and classmates in your classes—all are ordered by the Spirit of God with love.
It is the love of the heavenly Father that orders everything. He trains us. He instructs us. He is bringing us up, that we may be fully grown.
Therefore, the exhortation is this: when you are under the discipline of the Father, do not despise His discipline.
What does it mean not to despise the chastening of the heavenly Father? When your Father is chastening you, when He is training you, do not neglect it. Do not reject it. Take it to heart. Bring it to Him. Have dealings with your heavenly Father as your heavenly Father is dealing with you.
Our heavenly Father is training us every day, every moment of the day. There is not a day that goes by without His discipline. Are you afraid of discipline? You cannot escape His discipline, because you are His children and He loves you.
Unfortunately, we despise it. We do not see His hand; we only see the problems, the trouble, the people, and the events that happen to us. We do not see our Father’s hand. Because of this, we do not learn the lesson. We murmur, rebel, and become angry.
Our focus is on men, things, and events. As we do that, we despise the chastening of our heavenly Father; that is to say, we do not learn. If we do not learn, because He loves us so much, He will arrange another similar circumstance and put us under the same thing all over again.
If you still do not learn, you have to go over it again. Brothers and sisters, do you wonder why these things happen to you so often? It is because you despise the chastening of your heavenly Father.
Whenever anything happens, take it to heart. Bring it to the Lord. Pray about it. Seek the Lord. Ask, “Why is this? Is there any lesson that my heavenly Father is trying to teach me?” Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
It is only in this way, brothers and sisters, that we grow in our spiritual life. There is no other way. Real spiritual growth is not an increase of head knowledge; it is an increase of heart knowledge. You have to learn it by heart.
Do not despise the chastening of your heavenly Father, nor faint under His disciplinary hand. Sometimes we think that it is too much and we cannot stand it any more. We fail because we see only the pressure.
We do not see that pressure should enlarge us. We do not see that when we come to the end of our strength, then His strength begins. His grace is sufficient for us. If we only look to Him, there is nothing too hard and nothing too heavy.
It is not your heavenly Father’s will that you should be pressed and crushed. It is His will that you should be enlarged and expanded. So, dear brothers and sisters, we thank our heavenly Father.
When you really see this, I hope your whole attitude towards discipline will be changed. Instead of murmuring, rebelling, and asking why, you will submit yourself humbly under His mighty hand, that you may learn the lessons He wants you to learn.
Even our earthly parents love us and discipline us according to what they think will be helpful to us. They discipline us only for a time. But when our heavenly Father disciplines us, it is for eternity, according to His knowledge and wisdom. He can never be wrong.
When we are under His discipline at the time, it is not a matter of joy. It would be false if we said that we rejoice and are happy when we are under His discipline. No. At the time of discipline, it is not a matter of joy, but of grief. We feel pain.
But afterwards, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are exercised by it. In other words, you need to be exercised. If you despise the chastening of the Lord, or if you faint under it, you are not exercised by it and do not yield fruit.
That is the first level of discipline, and thank God none can escape it. If you could escape it, you would not be a son, but an illegitimate child. I believe we are not. Thank God for that.
In conjunction with God’s discipline, there is self-discipline. In Galatians 5:23, the last fruit of the Spirit mentioned is self-control. If it is self-control, how can you say that it is the fruit of the Spirit?
This shows the relationship between self-control and Spirit-control. Self-control is a co-operation on our part. We co-operate with the Spirit in His control. He is controlling us, and when He tries to control us, we respond and co-operate with Him. That is called self-control.
In 1 Timothy 4, the Apostle Paul says that bodily exercise is profitable for a little while, but we are to exercise ourselves unto godliness. Exercise yourself unto likeness to God. This spiritual exercise is profitable not only in this age, but also in the age to come.
We need physical exercise. Physical exercise helps us to grow up—not only eating, drinking, and sleeping. If we do not exercise, we cannot grow. That is why children are so lively: they are growing up.
If you put a child in bondage with no exercise, only feeding him and feeding him, he will die. He needs exercise. As you grow up, you realise the need of exercising. If I do not exercise for one or two days, somehow my legs become weak. I have to exercise. It is good, but it is temporary.
Spiritual exercise—exercise unto godliness—is profitable not only for this age, but even in the age to come. What do we mean by spiritual exercise? Do we exercise spiritually every day? Does our spirit co-operate with the Holy Spirit in such exercise unto godliness?
When the Holy Spirit touches the conscience of our heart, how do we respond? Is our spirit so exercised that it responds to the voice of the Spirit in our conscience? Then we listen and obey.
Our conscience either accuses or excuses. Sometimes our conscience accuses us: we are guilty of something we have done. Very rarely, our conscience excuses us and says, “You are right.” As you grow in the Lord, your conscience will excuse you more than accuse you. That is a sign of growth.
When the Holy Spirit touches our conscience, and when our conscience is working, it either accuses or excuses. Do you exercise yourself to listen to the voice of the Spirit? If you do, you walk in the way of righteousness.
This is the only way we can walk righteously. How can we walk righteously before God in our daily life? How do we know this is right or that is wrong? Not by human standards, and not by custom, but by the Holy Spirit, Who touches our conscience.
As we follow the voice of our conscience, we walk in the way of righteousness. In other words, we are right before God. Our conscience will be at peace and will not accuse us. How we need the blood of our Lord Jesus every day, every moment.
The Spirit of God is the anointing Who dwells in our spirit. In 1 John 2, we find that He teaches us concerning all things. Whatever He teaches is right, true, and not false. The Word says, “Listen. Obey the teaching of the anointing.” Then you abide in Christ.
How do we walk in the way of holiness, in the way of being separated? It is by the inward intuition. We intuitively know what is the will of God because He teaches us in our spirit. It is not teaching collected from outside information; it is direct teaching from the Holy Spirit within us.
When He teaches us, it is true. As we obey the anointing, we walk in the way of holiness. That is exercising self-discipline.
The glory of God is manifested to us, and His presence is with us. As we commune with Him, His glory is reflected in our lives. We are changed from glory to glory and transformed into the image of Christ. That is the way we grow into His character.
But if we neglect our conscience and what it is speaking to us, we continue in sin and darkness. If we do not listen to the teaching of the anointing, we will be conformed to the world instead of being sanctified. If we neglect to keep communing with God, we will not be transformed from glory to glory.
So we need to exercise. Is our spirit merely dormant, or is our spirit in active communion with God? Do we see His glory day by day? Do we hear His voice and His teaching? This kind of discipline and exercise must go on within our spirit.
According to Ephesians 3, the Holy Spirit will strengthen our inner man, Christ will dwell in our heart, and we will be rooted and grounded in love. Only when, in our spirit, we are in practical union with God’s Spirit will self-discipline continue in our soul.
Deny thyself, and take up thy cross, and follow Me.
If our spirit is not exercised, we do not know how to deny ourselves. We will not even be able to recognise what the self is. But when you are truly living in communion with God, in co-operation with the Spirit of God, you will find that even in your daily life your soul is dealt with.
Your affections will be dealt with. Your mind will be dealt with. Your volition, your will, and your opinions will be dealt with. Denying ourselves, taking up the cross, and following the Lord delivers us from sin, from the world, from death, from ourselves, from our flesh, and from our enemy.
This exercise even goes on to the body. Paul says, “I buffet my body.” The word buffet is a strong word. He says, “I beat my body black and blue.” Why? Because our physical body, with its lusts and passions, tries to control us and inhibit us from following the Lord and doing the will of God.
Paul says, “I put it under me. I will not allow my body to be my master. The body is my slave, not my master.” Have we such self-discipline? In the morning, when do you get up? Do you rise early so that you can commune with God, or do you love your bed and your body more than the Lord?
Discipline is needed when we come to the meeting. Brothers and sisters, if the meeting starts at ten o’clock, do not come at ten-thirty. We need discipline. We need to be punctual. That is part of self-discipline.
Unfortunately, we do not know self-discipline. A Christian life is a disciplined life. If we do not discipline ourselves under the Holy Spirit, in co-operation with the Holy Spirit, we are not walking as Christians.
Consider how Paul disciplined himself, and how we neglect self-discipline. Discipline is so important. Do not think that the Christian life is merely an easy-going life. It cannot be, because the world will not allow you.
A Christian life is a disciplined life. We are under the discipline of God, and we discipline ourselves in response to God our Father. Self-discipline is necessary to our spiritual growth.
Thirdly, there is body discipline. Not only God’s discipline and self-discipline, but discipline in the body.
We who believe in the Lord Jesus are not merely individuals. Our individuality never disappears. Through eternity, we will still have our individuality. Peter is still Peter, and John is still John. Even in the heavenly Jerusalem, the twelve foundations are twelve different precious stones.
Our individuality never disappears, but our individualism needs to be dealt with. After we are saved, we are put into the body of Christ. We are members one of another.
You are not alone. You are not a body; you are only a member. You cannot stand alone. You have to be with the other members of the body. In the body, brothers and sisters, there is discipline going on.
All the members of my physical body are under discipline. If any member becomes independent, sickness comes; death will come. Discipline is necessary for the body to grow.
The law of the body is love. Because there is love, there is discipline. Do not look at discipline merely in its outward appearance. Look beyond it and see the love behind it.
Our heavenly Father disciplines us because He loves us so much. Being members of the body, we love one another. Because we love one another, we discipline one another. Discipline never comes from hate; it comes from love.
If you love, you can discipline. If you do not love, dare you discipline? Every member of my body loves the others so much that they try to help one another and care for one another. They instruct one another, convict one another, train one another, and encourage one another. That is body discipline.
If you are in the body, you should expect discipline. It is for your good.
J. N. Darby classified body discipline into three areas. I shall not use his terminology exactly, but I will use his classification:
In Matthew 18, which we shared last Lord’s Day, if your brother sins against you, what do you do? Do you hold a grudge against him? Naturally, you would be inclined to do so. But you are members one of another: you forgive.
When you eat too quickly and your teeth bite your tongue, what does your tongue do? It forgives. They continue working together. Love is behind it.
There is no sin your brother can commit against you greater than the sins you have committed against God. He has forgiven you everything. How can we not forgive our brother or sister?
We owed Him ten thousand talents—millions of dollars—and He forgave us. Our brother may owe us only a few dollars, a hundred denarii, and yet we do not forgive. If we do not forgive, our heavenly Father will not forgive us.
So if a brother sins against you, forgive. But is that all? No. Love goes a second mile. You love your brother so much that you realise he is in darkness. You are in the light, but he is in darkness. Therefore, you try to restore him.
You go to him. You convict him, reprove him, and show him what is destructive. You help him to see. In love, speak the truth in love—not in a revengeful spirit. Hopefully, you gain your brother and restore him to fellowship.
That is discipline. Discipline is unto restoration, not unto destruction. If he does not listen to you, love has further responsibility. Take one or two whom he respects, and go to him again. Plead with him.
This is brotherly discipline. If we, as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, truly exercise brotherly discipline towards one another, most problems in the church would be solved.
The reason we have so many problems in the church is that we fail in our responsibility of love. We do not fulfil our responsibility of love. If you see a brother or sister in darkness, if he sins against you, you must not only forgive him, but also try to restore him.
This responsibility is yours because you are in a position to help. He is not in a position to help himself, for he is in darkness. You are in a position to help, and love urges you to do that.
The church today is not doing this. Because the church is not doing this, problems accumulate, animosity increases, and separation follows. It is the responsibility of every brother and sister.
There is another level. Galatians 6:1 says:
Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
This is fatherly discipline. According to 1 John, in the family of God there are little children, young men, and fathers. There are those who are spiritually more mature—those who know God in a deeper way.
Because you know God in a deeper way, you see things more clearly. You have received more dealings yourself. You have gone through many things, and you have learned your lessons. Therefore, your eyes are open.
When you see a brother or sister falling into some fault, they may not know it. But you have experienced it before. You have gone that way before. You know what it is and how to get out of it. It is your responsibility in love to restore that brother.
You cannot merely stand by and let that brother fall. You have to go to him to restore him, but with a spirit of meekness. Do not go with an arrogant attitude: “I know better. You are at fault. Repent.” Do not act as though you are the judge.
You are no better than he. It is the grace of God. God has not set you up as a judge over your brother. Go with a spirit of meekness. Humble yourself before your brother. Tell him that you have gone the same way and what the Lord has taught you. Try to restore him.
At the same time, be fearful that you also may fall into temptation. Sometimes, when you are dealing with another brother or sister, you try to rescue him and fall into the trap yourself. You become angry, arrogant, or begin to despise your brother or sister. Then you fall too.
Be careful. That is fatherly discipline. How we need, in the house of God, fathers and mothers who are able to care for those who are weaker and younger in the Lord.
If brotherly discipline and fatherly discipline are exercised in the church, the church will almost have no need to exercise church discipline. Everything will be taken care of. That is how it should be.
Church discipline is the last resort. You do not enter into church discipline lightly. Who are we, sinners forgiven by grace, to set ourselves up as judges over our brothers and sisters? May that spirit never enter into our minds.
We are as sinful as anybody else. When the church exercises discipline, it is not exercised merely upon a certain brother or sister. At the same time, the whole church is under discipline.
The whole church should be in repentance, sorrow, pain, and a contrite spirit. When one member falls, the whole body suffers. This is the spirit that must prevail.
It is not that one brother is under discipline while you stand there as though you are righteous. No, you are in the same position. Humble yourself before the Lord. This brother’s failure is my failure. The whole church should be in that spirit. Only in that spirit can discipline be exercised.
That is why Paul had to stir up the conscience of the church to discipline the brother who had sinned so grievously in 1 Corinthians 5—something even the world did not tolerate.
The church thought everything was all right. They were broad-minded and tolerant; they did not care. But the whole church needed to come under conviction, recognising that it was their carelessness and their sin. If one brother sins, at least we all have sinned. We all weep before the Lord.
In that spirit, the man who does not repent is excommunicated—cut off from the church. Even that is for restoration, that his spirit might be saved and that he may repent. If he repents, receive him back with love.
That is the whole atmosphere of true discipline.
When we come to church discipline, we find only a few cases in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 5, a brother had committed a hideous sin. It was not merely a matter of a brother sinning against you, where you forgive. It was a sin so terrible that it affected the whole assembly and the testimony of the assembly, and the brother remained unrepentant.
What do you do in such a case? The conscience of the whole church should be aroused. The church should repent and then exercise discipline to put him out. That is an extreme case, because otherwise he will leaven the whole lump.
The church is like a pure flour offering to be offered unto God. If there is any leaven in it, it will leaven the whole lump and affect the whole assembly. Therefore, it has to be dealt with, so that we may keep the feast of unleavened bread with purity and sincerity.
Another case is found in 2 John. There are people who do not believe Jesus is God. Some do not believe in the divinity of Jesus; others do not believe in His humanity. When you come to such heresy, it strikes at the very root of our faith.
There are people who may be in that kind of teaching because they have never known anything better. That is different. But there are people who should know, and yet do not believe in the divinity and humanity of our Lord Jesus. What do you do? You do not even greet them or receive them into your house. In other words, you keep them out.
These are two extreme cases. Apart from these, there are a few other cases. In Romans 16, if anyone causes division and tries to spread division among God’s people, then you should turn away from him.
In 2 Thessalonians 3, if a brother or sister walks disorderly—for example, refusing to work and becoming a busybody—what do you do? The Word says, “If any will not work, neither let him eat.” If he does not listen, do not keep company with that person; yet admonish him as a brother.
In Titus 3, if there is a factious person, this does not refer to grievous heresy such as denying the divinity or humanity of Christ. It refers to someone who holds stubbornly to his own opinion. You admonish him once or twice; if he still holds to that strong opinion, let him go. Let him hold his own opinion.
These are cases you find in the church, but they are not excommunication. Even in 1 Timothy 5, if an elder sins, what do you do? Paul says that he must be rebuked openly. It is a serious case because the sin of an elder affects the whole church.
If he is not repentant, there must be two or three witnesses. It should not be hidden. It should be brought into the open. If it is true, he needs to be rebuked openly. Brothers and sisters, that is what Scripture says. It is very serious and not something to play with.
Church discipline is the last resort. You hesitate to exercise it. You have to be very careful and humble yourself before the Lord. The whole church needs to be humbled before it can be done.
Because the life of the church is love, may the Lord help us.
Let us realise how much we need discipline. We need the Father, our heavenly Father, to discipline us; otherwise, who will discipline us? Will you ask Him to chasten you?
How much we need self-discipline. We are too loose, and because of that we miss growing up. How we need to tremble and be fearful when we come to this matter of church discipline—body discipline. If there is enough love, it can be done.
May the Lord help us. Let us pray.
Lord, we are touching something that is so needed, but something almost beyond us. We humble ourselves before Thee and say, “Lord, show us what discipline really is, that we may put ourselves under Thy discipline.”
May we exercise ourselves unto discipline, and through love learn how to discipline one another. O Lord, help us, we pray, in Thy precious name. Amen.