Truth, Choice and Chastisement

The Lord teaches man, line upon line and precept upon precept.  Here a little and there a little.  Why is that?  I think it may be two fold.  One reason is that man can only internalize the changes required by eternal truth in phases.  Otherwise he may not know how to act before God (and be accoutable to a higher law) as the lifestyle change required by the new perspective is so vastly different from the way the world operates and the natural man tends to settle.  Secondly, truth hurts.  We tend to define ourselves and mold our desires according to what we believe to be right, or according to what we think will bring us happiness.  Chances are, we are wrong.  And if wrong, to return to God, to be truly happy, we must accept the truth and change.  That kind of change, if we are not humble to it, can be a very painful revelation.

I believe many people tend to form their perspectives (chosen reality) around avoiding as much of this painful transformation as possible.  When confronted with evidence refuting our chosen, "unyielding" perspective we can simply agree to disagree and move on (for to rebel against God's perspective one must only harden their heart).

So what becomes the buzz word, the new word synonymous with "our" eternal truth (or so we tell our souls)?  Tolerance.  I tolerate you and you tolerate me and we will never have to accept painful change.  We can float through life oblivious to moral obligations.  This is grievous and heinous in the sight of God.  This mocks the very plan that brought us here and would bring us home.  This, I believe, may be part of what is referred to as "being acted upon".  As we tolerate, we accept, as we accept, we believe, as we believe, we become.

Tolerance and love are not the same thing.  The Lord would have us love our neighbor and respect their freedom of choice.  He does not however, condone the perspective that "if it feels good/right" or whatever doesn't hurt / affect another is okay.  Eternal truths need to be taught and respected.

Those whom the Lord loves, he chastens.  Is chastisement punishment?  It is but it is far more than that.  Chastisement is punishment intended to correct.  The Lord loves us so He wishes to correct our actions and put us on a course to eternal truth and there on to live in His presence.  Why is chastisement required?  To ensure we are sufficiently humble to receive the correction.  Truth revealed often requires us to redefine what we thought to be true.  That redefinition may even be a change in some aspect of our life that we considered to be character defining, a piece of ourselves that without which, we would (in some way) be less than what we were before.  That change, again, hurts.  So we must be humble.  If we are not humble we may (and in all likelihood will) reject the revealed truth and therefore find ourselves under condemnation thus thwarting the Lord's plan and intention from the beginning.

Therefore, whom the Lord loves, he chastens and He gives unto us line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little according the the heed and diligence that we show unto Him and His promptings.  For with the chastisement the Lord prepares a way that that we may be delivered in all things out of temptation.

The difficulty then lies in identifing our circumstance as loving chastisement and responding apporopriately.