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The Bible and the Rod
THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL
St. Paul took a gloomier view of human nature. But he never favored "beating the sin out of
kids". The chastisers of children were sinful themselves.
"Whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth and scourgeth. The Lord dealeth with you as with
sons. If ye be without chastisement, ye are bastards and not sons ......"
"The Lord chastiseth us for our profit, that we may partake of His Righteousness".
But human fathers, he warned, "Chastise us after their own pleasure" (Hebrews 12:5-10).
Certain elders, over the centuries, have misread this Epistle. Modestly, they have set
themselves in the Lord's place and proceeded to chastise and scourge youth "for their own
good". They failed to heed the warning of Jesus: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For what
measures ye mete out, so shall be meted out to you" (Matthew 7:1,2).
Paul's Epistle shows great psychological insight. The punishing father (or teacher, master,
guardian) may derive unwholesome pleasure out of chastising a culprit. The flogger gets
enjoyment from his flogging, though he pretends it is a painful duty. This can be as sinful as
the punished sin.
Paul had only contempt for the human floggers who wielded their rods unjustly and for
selfish reasons. He suffered from them, too. In Macedonia, Paul and a companion, Silas,
were severely beaten, put in stocks and jailed, after being falsely accused of stirring up
violence. Paul had freed a troubled girl from possession by an evil spirit that gave her
psychic powers. The girl's master, who had made a lot of money from her fortune-telling,
caused the whippings of Paul and Silas to get even (Acts 16:16-23).
Sinful humans were not fit to chastise justly. Only divine punishments were righteous.
Chastisements should be left to God.
Again, Paul asks, "Which shall it be? Shall I come to you with the rod? Or with love and the
spirit of meekness?" (I Corinthians 4:21).
There is no hypocrisy here, as in the Proverbs, about beating somebody because you love
him. The rod or love. It must be one or the other. It cannot be both. Paul does not doubt that
love and meekness are the way of Christ.
And Paul wrote:
Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians, 6:4).
Ye Fathers, provoke not your children to anger....(Colossians, 3:21).
We now know well that corporal punishments do provoke youth to anger, though the effects
may be delayed. Many of such youths tend to be more violent and aggressive, more inclined
to juvenile delinquencies, vandalism and adult crime. They also have lower achievements in
learning and education. This has been confirmed many times by scientific studies.
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