As we have covered, the church is called to be a family first and then an organization. The cement that holds the living stones together is the love we have for God and for one another. Because “God is love,” everything that God builds is built upon the foundation of love.

          However, God’s love is far greater and higher than human love. There is a basic aspect to God’s love that is often overlooked by those who base their understanding of God’s love on human idealism rather than the Scriptures. This aspect is seen in Hebrews 12:5-8:

          And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

         “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”

           If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

           But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons (NKJV).

         As Paul wrote in Romans11:22, “Behold then the kindness and severity of God.” Many can only see His kindness. Others can only see His severity, but to see God as He is, we must see both His kindness and His severity together. He is both, at the same time, all of the time. His severity is because of His love, not in contrast to it. We cannot really understand the love of God if we do not also understand His judgments.

         Because the Lord loves us He will not let us get away with the things that are harming us. The scariest thing in the world should be if we go on sinning and do not get disciplined for it. According to the text above, this is evidence that we are not His children.

         There are foolish and unbiblical doctrines being promoted today that God no longer judges because His grace has been given through Jesus. Those who believe such foolishness could not yet have read as far as the Book of Revelation. In fact, I don’t think they could have read any of the Gospels, or the rest of the New Testament. As we are repeatedly warned in the New Testament, there will be “doctrines of demons” that will deceive many in these times.

         There is an almost universal assault today on discipline, even disciplining children for wrongdoing. There are schools that no longer give grades because they do not want the children that did not get top grades to feel inferior. If they did inferior work, it should be revealed as such if they are ever going to have the kind of resourcefulness that success in life requires. How would you like to go to the Olympics where everyone who competed got a gold medal because “they are all winners”? This madness is costing many their potential, the fulfilling of their purpose, and raising them to be dysfunctional in the real world. So the state will end up having to take care of them, and many will be taken care of in prisons.

         Love requires discipline, and discipline requires judgment. We must be able to judge the good and the bad, and the level of good and bad, to train anyone for life. If there is no punishment for bad behavior, then the bad behavior will just get worse and worse until there is a break down into complete chaos and destruction.

         Likewise, for there to be a reward for good behavior there must be judgment, which is true evaluation.