In one of the university weight rooms where athletes trained, there was a massive poster that always caught my attention. It showed a man straining to lift a heavy barbell, his face twisted in determination, veins bulging, sweat flying. Beneath the image were the words: “There are two kinds of pain: the pain of discipline and the pain of regret.” That line could have come straight from the Book of Proverbs. Solomon often warned his son that living without discipline would end in sorrow. While no amount of personal discipline can earn us a place in heaven—that is a free gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ—discipline still matters in this life. It shapes our choices, strengthens our character, and spares us from regrets that sting longer than sore muscles. Under the sun, a disciplined life pays dividends that the undisciplined rarely enjoy.
Solomon’s most personal advice to his son centered on sexual purity. In Proverbs 5, he pleads with him to stay faithful to his wife and not to squander his strength in immorality. “At the end of your life,” he warns, “you will lament when your physical body has been consumed, and you will say, how I hated discipline, and how my heart despised correction.” It is a sobering message from a man who failed to follow his own advice. Solomon’s many wives and concubines led his heart away from God and left his kingdom divided. We do not have to look far today to see the same story repeated. A Reuters report once noted that in Sweden, where sexual freedom is widely celebrated, only a small percentage of young people remain pure until marriage—and the country also leads the world in suicide rates. It makes you wonder if the pain of discipline is actually far lighter than the pain of regret. Solomon would have agreed. Discipline may bruise our pride, but regret breaks our hearts.
Jesus embodied perfect discipline, yet He did so not to avoid regret for Himself but to spare it for us. The Apostle Paul wrote, “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). His obedience brought our freedom, and His discipline secured our redemption. When Paul later said, “I discipline my body and keep it under control” (1 Corinthians 9:27), he was not talking about legalism but love—living in gratitude for the One who bore our pain. The poster in that weight room had it right: there are two kinds of pain. Jesus endured both so that our regrets could be redeemed, and our discipline could have eternal meaning.