It is God who determines whether discipline is necessary. The penitent may rest assured that if, despite his change of heart, discipline follows, the chastisement will work for his good (see Heb. 12:5-11).

 In view of the great and terrible day of the Lord now soon to burst upon a doomed world, Joel’s call to repentance has not diminished its force (see GC 311; 6T 408, 409). The call has a twofold application: for the worldling it is an appeal to forsake folly and sin and to accept the Lord Jesus Christ, the only means of salvation offered to men (Acts 4:12); for the lukewarm professor of religion (Rev. 3:16) it is an appeal to awake from spiritual lethargy and to make certain of salvation. See further on v. 1.