The Rod and Reproof: The Loving Discipline of Covenant Children
Rev. Steven Key addresses the biblical mandate for parental discipline within the Protestant Reformed understanding of the covenant, grounding child-rearing in both baptismal vows and the doctrine of covenant grace. The pamphlet argues that faithful family discipline is essential to maintaining covenant life in the church and resisting the worldly influences that threaten Christian households and covenant instruction.
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” Proverbs 29:15 The living God takes very seriously the baptismal vows which parents make and the responsibility He gives all parents when He gives them children. Discipline is the order of God’s government, an order given to us because He knows that we are sinners—indeed, that we are conceived and born in sin. Today, the wickedness of the society in which we live has also permeated the church. And it...