The Lord Chastens Those He Loves
In my New Testament class at Brigham Young Universtiy-Idaho we are reading a lot about Paul’s writings and teachings to the peoples of the known world, Jews and Gentiles. This week I learned about how the Lord chastens those He loves. We know that the Lord loves everyone. So, does that mean he chastens everyone? Well yes in a sense. The Lord may love everyone, but not everyone loves the Lord. Those who love the Lord will be able to see and recognize the Lord’s chastisement.
One example of the Lord chastising those He loves is in the picture you first saw at the begining of the reading. Jesus is cleansing the temple. He may love the people, but it was not right for them to be selling things in the House of God. He sternly chased them out of the temple and then let them know that the House of God is not a place of merchandise. Hopfully those who recognized the Savior and loved Him understood this chastisement and stopped their wrond actions.
Another example of the Lord chastising those he loves is with the Apostle Paul. Paul, as known as Saul was a man against the church of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He persecuted believers and was an obsticle for the Apostels at the time. Paul had a strickt chastisment and then was helped on the path of disipleship and eventually Apostleship. The Lord chastises us becuase he loves us and wants us to repent and change. He wants us to become better and to learn truth!
In my own life the Lord has chastised me when I chose to not take care of my body as I know I should. I am still struggling keeping my body strong and healthy. When I am reminded about my shortcoming I try to do better, but end up not doing as well as I hoped. How can I get better at taking care of my body and folowing the Lord’s counsel?
I know the Lord loves us all and as we listen to Him and folow his counsel we will find joy and love in this life and the life to come.