Limiting discipline to behavioral modification by a system of rewards and punishments may be effective in the short term, but may well lead to rebellion in the end. Children are not laboratory rats that can be conditioned by stimuli to behave in a certain way – they are precious and unique creatures of God, who has vested them with personal worth and dignity. If we respect and embrace this larger relational context, we stand a much better chance of reaping a relationship with our child that continues far beyond the childhood and growing-up years.

Andreas Kostenberger (b. 1957), Theologe, Neutestamentler und Buchautor

Topics: Relationships & Family, Growth & Character, Ethical Questions

Occasions: For Reflection

Andreas Kostenberger

Andreas Köstenberger ist ein aus Österreich stammender evangelikaler Theologe und Neutestamentler, der seit den 1990er-Jahren an verschiedenen US-amerikanischen Ausbildungsstätten forscht und lehrt. Er steht für eine konservative Bibelexegese und ist besonders für seine Arbeiten zu den johanneischen Schriften, hermeneutische Lehrbücher sowie die theologische Verteidigung komplementaristischer Geschlechterrollen bekannt. Heutigen Bibellesern bietet er methodisch detaillierte Zugänge zum Neuen Testament, wobei seine traditionellen Positionen zu Ehe und kirchlicher Leitung anhaltend diskutiert werden.

All quotes by Andreas Kostenberger (5)

More on this topic

It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on the marriage that sustains your love.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When you see a child, you catch God in the act.

Martin Luther

We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish; but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.

C.S. Lewis

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

C.S. Lewis

To love is to be vulnerable.

C.S. Lewis

Our sexuality is not our soul, marriage is not heaven, and singleness is not hell.

Jackie Hill Perry

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King Jr.

All quotes · lumen.bible

lumen.bible