From Anstey’s Doctrinal Definitions:
Discipline means “to open the understanding through chastening” (Job 36:10). All discipline, if it comes from the hand of God, is good, for He is the source of all good. There are two classes:
• Character-building discipline.
• Corrective discipline.
Under the character-building category, discipline should be viewed as divine training in the school of God. There are at least three kinds of divine training—each beginning with the letter “P:”
1) Preparative Discipline
This has to do with God’s preparation of His servants for a specific work to which He will call them. Just as an athlete is prepared by training, God trains His people for the service to which He calls them. An example of this kind of divine training is seen in what Paul said to the Corinthians: “Blessed be God, even the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies [compassions], and the God of all comfort [encouragement]; who comforteth [encourages] us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort [encourage] them which are in any trouble [tribulation] by the comfort [encouragement] wherewith we ourselves are comforted [encouraged] of God” (2 Cor. 1:3-6). This shows that God places His people in certain difficult situations by which they learn of His compassion and comfort from practical experience. These experiences with the Lord soften our hearts (Job 23:16) and fill us with compassion for others, and we are more inclined to sympathize, comfort, and encourage those who are passing through trials. Thus, the experiences we pass through in life have a way of preparing us for a certain line of service in which the Lord is going to use us.
The Lord Jesus Christ underwent this kind of disciplinary training in His life and it has prepared Him (by the sufferings He experienced) to be our “faithful and merciful High Priest” (Heb. 2:17-18; 4:15; 5:8).
2) Purgative Discipline
This is sometimes called “productive” discipline. It has to do with God’s work of removing character faults and traits in our personalities that are not Christ-like. There are character flaws in every Christian that hinder (more or less) the expression of Christ from being seen in them. These things are not positive sins, but rather are character traits in our personalities that we may not even be conscious of. Even though we may not be aware of these things in our character, God sees them (and our brethren often do too), and He undertakes to remove those flaws through His purgative discipline. He does it by using the trials and tribulations which touch our lives. These disciplines do not form Christ in us—which results from occupation with Him (2 Cor. 3:18)—but they have a way of causing us to see ourselves more clearly, and thus we are led to judge ourselves. As these undesirable qualities are purged out of our personalities, Christ will be seen in us more distinctly.
We see this kind of discipline in Job’s life. He was “perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1). It is clear from this that Job’s problem was not in his actions —he certainly wasn’t doing anything wrong outwardly in his life—it was his attitude that needed adjustment. He had an attitude of self-conceit which the Lord removed through the trials he experienced. The Lord used those trials that afflicted him as a purgative discipline. In the end, Job saw what the Lord was trying to show him, and he abhorred himself, and repented in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). In passing judgment on himself, he was a better person for it. Thus, through this kind of discipline, God made a good man better! We may not think that attitudes are all that important, but God sees otherwise, and He will go to great lengths to correct a wrong spirit in His children, for He is “the Father of spirits” (Heb. 12:9).
Several figures are used in Scripture to denote this process of removing imperfections in our walk and ways. David said, “Thou winnowest my path” (Psa. 139:2-3). Winnowing is the process of removing the chaff from the wheat. Solomon said, “Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer” (Prov. 25:4). Dross is the impurities in precious metals which the silversmith removes through intense heat. Jeremiah said that the vintner removes the sludge from his wine by carefully empting it back and forth from “vessel unto vessel” (Jer. 48:11). The Lord said, “Every one bearing fruit, He (the Father) purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (John 15:1-2). This refers to the pruning process the husbandmen does to produce a greater yield of fruit from his vineyard. The writer of Hebrews, said, “We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Heb. 12:9-10). This refers to the nurturing and admonition (Eph. 6:4) that an earthly father gives to correct his children who have a wrong spirit, which the Lord does similarly with us.
3) Preventative Discipline
This kind of discipline has to do with what we gain from the difficult and trying things through which we pass in our lives that result in our preservation. Expressed dependence in prayer and walking humbly with the Lord are essential to be preserved in the path of faith. When we begin our Christian lives, there is usually not enough of this precious commodity in our lives, and we are liable to fall under an attack from the enemy of our souls. Knowing our state and our spiritual needs far better than we do, God in perfect wisdom allows certain trials and difficulties in our lives to exercise us, and if taken rightly, will work to preserve us in the path (Psa. 18:30; Rom. 8:28). These trials and difficulties have a way of keeping us in constant exercise, and cast on the Lord in humble dependence. The result is that we are preserved from getting careless and independent, which is a formula for falling from our steadfastness (2 Peter 3:18).
Paul mentioned this kind of discipline to the Corinthians. He said, “Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:7-9). This discipline was given to Paul to keep him humble and dependent, so that he wouldn’t get puffed up with pride and carried away with self-importance—which would surely lead to his downfall (Prov. 16:18). Thus, the Lord used this affliction as a preventative discipline to preserve Paul as a useful vessel in His service. If the Apostle Paul needed it, we certainly need it too.
4) Punitive Discipline
The fourth kind of discipline is of the corrective variety. It is discipline that the Lord appoints in a wayward Christian’s life on account of a course of sin that he or she is pursuing. It is sent from Him as a punitive thing and is designed to break the wayward Christian’s will, and thus correct and restore him. Though he was not a Christian, Jonah’s experience with the Lord is an example. This kind of discipline emanates from the heart of God in love (Heb. 12:6). His love is such that He will not allow His wayward children to go on in a willful course of sin indefinitely. Cost what it will, He will bring back the backsliding Christian—but it may not be until his deathbed.
Paul referred to this kind of discipline when he said, “When we are judged, we are chastened [disciplined] of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:32). The judgment and chastening that Paul is referring to here is governmental. Some of the Corinthians had felt God’s hand in this punitive way—they were sick and some had been taken away in death (1 John 5:16). Elihu also reminded Job of this aspect of God’s discipline (Job 36:9-12). This could come upon us via the hand of our brethren in an administrative action on the Lord’s behalf. Paul cast a couple of blasphemers out of the assembly in this way that they might be “taught by discipline not to blaspheme” (1 Tim. 1:20).
When we are chastened in this way, there is a danger of “writing it off” as being some other kind of discipline, and we lose what the Lord is saying to us. J. N. Darby said, “I do not doubt that a large part of the sickness and trials of Christians are chastening sent by God on account of things that are evil in His sight, which the conscience ought to have paid heed to, but which it neglected. God has been forced to produce in us the effect which self-judgment ought to have produced before Him. It would, however, not be true to suppose that all afflictions are such. Though they are so sometimes, they are not always sent because of sin” (Collected Writings, vol. 16, p. 175).