Does God punish his people when they did wrong ?

[Melissa.T]

Does God punish his people who did wrong? Each of my friend has a different idea on this subject. One of them said God never punishes anyone but let people realize his fault by himself and become to regret. Is it real?

Edited November 25, 2014 by Melissa.T

[Guest]

Check out Proverbs 3 for starters, but just last night I was looking at the book of John, about how Jesus is the Vine and God is the Gardener, and that led me to look at cetain other verses, particularly this one in Hebrews:

 

4You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;

5and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
            “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD,
            NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;

      6FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,
            AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”

7It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

 

We are to endure hardship as discipline. Discipline is not punishment per se. Certainly, we can be punished, but the point of punishment, for Christians, from Gods perspective, is one of discipline.

 

The word for discipline in this passage is paideia:

discipline; training and education of children, hence: instruction; chastisement, correction.

 

A challenge for Christians is to determine whether some hardship in our lives is punishment from God, or from some other source.We can endure hardship for doing good. Christians throughout the Centuries, have suffered persecution, that is not from God.
 

In the book of Job, we see Job suffering tremendously at the hands of Satan, yet Job was the most righteous man alive.

 

God cursed the creation as a result of Adam's sin, and everyone suffers the after effects of that.

 

Sometimes hardship is the result of our own poor decisions, or perhaps we are just a victim of unfortunate events, what we sometimes call being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Point is, that the source of our problems is not alway evident to us. However, in each case, they is likely an opportunity to learn something. Whether of not God actively caused hardship to befall us or not, He did allow it to happen. Our challenger is to learn what we can from it, and to accept that God loves us, and that He also has every right to punish us, or allow what we perceive as bad things to happen to us.

 

Heb 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

 

That is our way to see it, an opportunity to allow God to improve us.

 

We have a calling, something very difficult if not impossible in the flesh, in our human limitations:

 

James 1:2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

God gives us the fruit of the Spirit, so that we can rise above some of those limitations:

 

(Gal 5 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.)

 

We also have this:

 

Phillipians 4:4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

      8Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

 

I am sorry you are going through this time of pain. However, God can use it to better you, if you let Him. The pain is temporary, and hopefully God will redeem much from it on your behalf and to His glory.

 

Romans 8
18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

[kwikphilly]

Blessings Melissa,,,

   I really couldn't agree more with Omega......"God work all things for the good of those that love Him according to the purpose of their call" (Romans 8:28),,,,,,and in ALL things,to God be the Glory!                                      With love-in Christ,Kwik