If You Are Going to Obey God, Expect Him to Punish You

A few weeks ago, a young man (I will call him “Martin”) told me he went to church on Sunday morning. Martin hadn’t initially planned to do so. In the age of lockdown and pandemic panic, it has become easy to “attend” church online. This individual was young, strong, healthy, and did not have much fear of Covid-19. But he did have an inclination to stay in his room and in his pajamas all morning. So Martin “went” online to watch the service at the church in another state—a church in which he had been raised.

As it happened that particular Sunday, the sermon was focused on the importance and blessing of local Christian community and worship. That message affected Martin so that he got dressed, left his room, and went to his local church service.

Where he was tormented by a bad sermon.

Whether Martin was right or wrong about the sermon is something that I will leave aside. The way he described it, I tended to agree with him. Maybe you would not. Or maybe his description was inaccurate. But assume for the moment that Martin was correct: What should I tell him? What do you tell someone who obeys God and, because of that obedient deed, has a horrible experience?

The words came out of my mouth before I could think to stop myself:

“Martin, God often punishes us for obeying him.”

Blurting out words before considering them is something Proverbs warns against, and I spend pages in my book on Proverbs, Solomon Says (Athanasius), explaining that it is folly to do so. But in this case the words were an outburst from some thoughts I have been having as the result of further study in Proverbs (see here and here).

My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Proverbs 3:11-12 ESV

I pointed out in my book that the discipline and reproof in this passage is not a warning about being chastised when we sin. Even though Hebrews 12:3-11 uses the analogy of a father punishing a son, that analogy is applied to Jesus in 12:3 who is declared the True Son from the first chapter on, and to Christians who are suffering for being loyal to Jesus.

But denying that the passage is about being punished for sins still falls short.

The Christians addressed in the book of Hebrews were being punished for their obedience. Their persecutors were not being punished for their disobedience. God wasn’t interested in them.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Hebrews 12:7–8 ESV

What I am saying may sound insane to you. Obviously, I am articulating a claim rather provocatively. But I think it may help us appreciate how God is working with us, in us, on us.

In preaching on Proverbs, I have pointed out that a world in which God punished disobedience immediately would be a world of stunted characters. Imagine a world where every time you lied or cussed you bit your tongue. What if every spouse who had an affair got a painful rash on his or her forehead that spelled out the name of the adulterous partner? What if all bullets fired with murderous intent and true aim flipped around and went towards the shooter without losing velocity?

It would be a world where there would be no real adults, only overgrown moral toddlers.

We all know that immediate praises for good behavior and punishments for bad behavior are appropriate only for very young children. If we are older we are supposed to navigate the world without immediate feedback.

So when we fall into thinking that God’s goodness should lead him to reward us for doing some good deed, we are forgetting what kind of insane world it would be if God was in the habit of acting that way.

Let’s list a few concerns God might have.

• Have we forgotten that we are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:7-10)? We are supposed to do good deeds! We don’t earn extra credit for them.
• Are we imagining God should be more happy with a new obedience we begin displaying than he was unhappy with the negligence of that obedience for all the time before? Yes, God is gracious. He receives the obedience of Christians without reproach. But when we are disappointed that God doesn’t immediately make our lives better for doing a good deed, we are probably forgetting that we need God to be gracious. We are probably thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We might do better to thank God for not losing patience with us and bringing us to see our fault and amend our ways, rather than accusing him of not rewarding us.
• Do we know if we are sincere? The key to real commitment is diligence. Eating your favorite flavor of ice cream every time it is put in front of you doesn’t require diligence, because the action is immediately rewarded each time. While God likes to see us enjoying his gifts, he loves to see us develop the kind of integrity that makes us dependable and useful to Him and to others. If we start obeying him the question remains if we will keep obeying him. We should not want to be in doubt as to the answer to that question.

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.

Proverbs 17:3 ESV

If you make efforts to obey God, don’t expect immediate rewards. Expect to endure in it despite afflictions for awhile.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9 ESV

He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.

Proverbs 10:5 ESV