We tend to be suspicious by nature when we get the idea that someone is telling us what our opinion should be. Sometimes we adopt the frame of mind of the scientist, where we insist that we will observe only the factual data. “Just the facts, ma’am.” We will see the evidence for ourselves, thank you very much. As seemingly noble and objective as this sounds, the observation of objective facts can and does grow tiresome. Sometimes we feel more like drawing conclusions from the objective facts once they have been established. After all, that’s what the facts are for! Reasoning to conclusions from the data is the “SO WHAT?” factor. Collecting specimens and samples and measurements is all well and good if there’s a point. Otherwise it starts to feel like busy work. The observation of data and reasoning about the data are two different but related thought processes, and thinking people often believe that this is all there is to life. I will observe and/or reason for myself, and that is that.

Not so fast: Enter marketing, rhetoric, political grandstanding, etc. If we are really independent observers and reasoners, then why do businesses spend so much money in advertising? Why does the industry of persuasion work? Why do political slogans capture the imaginations of the electorate? Why can a good rhetorician convince his audience of his position regardless of his topic or the position he takes? It’s simple. We were made with the capacity to believe. When you cannot observe the data for yourself due to lack of necessary expertise or equipment, you have to take someone’s word for it—or not. But the reasoning process gets laborious as well. When you cannot process the data because it is beyond your mental grasp, you have to take someone’s word for it—or not. We are constantly bombarded with “someone’s word for it” regarding pretty much every aspect of life. We even pay for it.

Yes we pay people to tell us what to think. We pay fashion designers big bucks to tell us what looks good. Since the inception of mass radio and television, we have been bombarded with a two-step process of being told what to think. The television program tells you what to think about the topic at hand, and the commercial break tells you what to think about the product being advertised. The free exchange of ideas is full of this kind of persuasive content-sharing. With thinking people, the really successful persuasion happens when the objective data are presented and the conclusions are suggested—all for the receiver to evaluate for himself. But even this approach to rhetoric involves selecting which data to present and emphasize. The element of faith is still present, at least in part, because the receiver has to believe that the presentation is telling the whole story.

All this is to say that so many of us tend to think we are objective and logical when we are actually just taking what someone else says on faith. We all do it. Those who rail against religious faith the most stridently are expressing their faith positions and pleading for others to adopt their same conclusions. That’s a great deal of what pastors do on Sunday morning. So why should we listen to the anti-religious zealot or the pastor? You should not unless he is telling you the truth. On what basis is he making his claim? What exactly is the object of his faith, and is that object worthy of your faith as well?

One intriguing aspect of the Bible and biblical Christian faith is that God actually tells us what to think. The caricature of Christianity or “religion” is that the zealot tells you what to do. In truth, the Bible has plenty of instructions that address our personal behavior. But unlike the behavioral psychology theorists, the Bible paints a picture of man that includes much more than the stimulus-response feedback loop of external behavior. The Bible does not only say “Thou shalt not murder,” but also, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart.” The Bible commands love throughout its pages, for example, and biblical love is a system of thinking that produces behavior and usually an emotional response.

Recently I was asked about a very helpful command in Scripture, and I thought I would share it with you. It is a specific piece of instruction that tells us how we should think about suffering in this life as believers. In this little introductory discussion, I have tried to set the stage for understanding God’s prescription for our thinking in times of correction or intensive training. I am captivated by the Bible’s ability to address the whole human being for his whole life. By God’s design we are observers and reasoners, but we must use faith where our observation and reasoning fall short. As the Word of our Creator, the Bible gives us that sufficient object for our faith, and if we learn to think as God prescribes, we will be pleased with the outcome of our behavior in time and our experience of reward in eternity.

The Command: Hebrews 12:4–5 (NASB95)

⁴You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;

⁵and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;

In the next few entries, I will delve into the exegesis of this passage (Hebrews 12:4-11), its theological ramifications in the Christian’s walk, and the Biblical view of child training.