The Thessalonians 1 0f 15b (2 Of 2)

You can sense the love and admiration Paul had for these young Christians in this last chapter. Like a spiritual father that is concerned for his children, he has one more important thing he needs to bring to their attention before he closes his letter. In this text we see...

II. HIS DISCIPLINE

It is possible he saved this for the last for at least two reasons.

(1) It could have been because it was one of the more sensitive things he had to deal with so he put it off as long as he could, but now he can put it off no longer.

(2) It could have been because it was so important that he wanted to close with it so it would be fresh in their minds.

The last thing Paul talked to them about was the DISCIPLINARY ACTION they should take toward those who were walking disorderly.

We can learn from this for we have the same problem in churches today. Especially in liberal churches. The liberal churches are like liberal families, they do not exercise discipline.

This means that in some churches a professing child of God may live as evil a life as he pleases and no disciplinary action will be taken against him.

Again, these churches are like liberal parents in the way they raise their children.

Illus: That is, little Johnny can be as disobedient and rotten as he wants to be and all he will ever hear is, “Johnny, I wish you would not do that.”

Many folks have never thought about the importance of DISCIPLINE, but it should be ranked at the top of the list of important matters wherever there are people.

Illus: When a young soldier enters the service, the first things he has to learn is THE IMPORTANCE OF DISCIPLINE. There could be no successful MILITARY, BUSINESS, or MARRIAGE without discipline. And beloved, THERE CAN BE NO SUCCESSFUL CHURCH WITHOUT DISCIPLINE.

Discipline, in this context, is:

a. “Training that develops self-control, character, or orderliness and efficiency.

b. “Treatment that corrects or punishes.”

We must understand that discipline is essential.

Most people understand this. For example, most folks realize that the public schools across this nation can not accomplish what they are set up to accomplish because of a LACK OF DISCIPLINE on the parts of parents, children, and school administrators. Continuing the spending of tax-payer’s money on schools will never solve the problem.

• We have allowed government agencies to dictate that parents are no longer to punish children for their misbehavior and disobedience.

• We have allowed people to be placed on school boards who do not believe in discipline.

• We have teachers who do not believe in discipline, and if they did believe in administering it they would get into trouble if they punished a child.

As a result we have:

• Disrespect for teachers.

• Fights.

• Cursing.

• All kinds of promiscuity.

• Smoking.

• Drugs.

• And all other kinds of rebellion.

The only hope for our children is to restore discipline to our country.

There are a few folks who recognize this. Some school districts have begun to recognize discipline must be restored. These are to be commended. In some cases...

• If a child gets into trouble, he is disciplined.

• If that child gets into trouble again, he is disciplined.

• If he gets into trouble a third time, he is out of school and can not come back to that school.

Liberals think this is terrible. Maybe we should give all those rebellious children to those liberals to raise. That attitude is the reason for the problems we face today that have come from the lack of discipline. Sure, one child will suffer because he is thrown out of school. But we have seen that when that child is allowed to continue to disrupt and cause trouble, the whole school suffers. It is better that the rebellious students pay the price for their rebellion than to cause others to pay for it.

Did you know that most of you probably agree with what I just said, but you may not agree with what I am about to say...

That is, THE THING THAT APPLIES TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ALSO APPLIES TO GOD’S CHURCH.

A church can not function as a unit unless there is discipline. God has told us what to do. When we do not obey, then the whole church suffers. No one should enjoy having to discipline, but listen, it is far better for one, or a few, to be disciplined (or even leave) than to allow them to stay and disrupt the plans of God for the whole church.

Illus: Every now and then a person will enter a church with this attitude:

• “I can say whatever I want to say.”