Spanking 101 - Intro - God's Way

You will never wonder if you are raising your kids right if you are a believer and follow God's instructions that He's provided in the Bible. That has been a huge relief for me in this world where parents are attacked from all sides by worldly views of The Right Way and The Wrong Way.

The Right Way is God's way, and His way of raising children is spelled out clearly in scripture.

The focus of this series is obviously spanking. I'm starting with this because that's the stage I'm in and I need the truth and I want to share the truth. The goal here is to build you up by encouraging you in the challenges of living in this world and not being of this world.

One thing we must remember before we even look at scripture is the context of all scripture. God has given us a perfect book, with no mistakes, no contradictions, and no lies. As we look at verses about spanking, we will also look at verses that seemingly have nothing to do with spanking - but are actually clear guidelines for how to do it.

Let's take a look at some verses.

Prov 23:13-14

13 Do not withhold discipline from a child;

if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.

14 Punish them with the rod

and save them from death.

This verse presents 2 important truths that we must fight to cling to in the midst of this world:

1) God commands us to "punish them (our own children) with the rod". We are also told to "not withhold discipline from a child" - again, God is telling us how to raise our children.

Some Christians will claim that "the rod" is not an object used for spanking/hitting. However, we learn by looking at the Greek/Hebrew bible here in these verses what the "rod" is:

The meaning of the Hebrew word is 1) rod, staff, branch, offshoot, club, scepter, tribe, shaft (of spear, dart), club (of shepherd's implement), truncheon, sceptre (mark of authority), clan (1).

2) God is considerate of our thought process and emotions when he gives us instructions. He says "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die." There's no reason for God to encourage us with the phrase "they will not die" if it's not worrying us. If you are still not convinced that the rod is an object used for spanking, please consider how many times you have thought that your child might die from the punishment they are receiving. When you put your child in time out or take away a toy, it has probably never crossed your mind that he might die from that. However, if you are spanking your child, this thought would be feasible.

*Note: nowhere in scripture does it say to give or not give time outs, whether or not you should take away a toy, etc. The focus here is that it does say we are to spank our children. If you are neglecting to do that, consider the possibility that you are disobeying God.

I recommend this article for further reading:

Eight Misconceptions about Spanking

http://www.learnthebible.org/eight-misconceptions-about-spanking.html

(1)http://net.bible.org