Hebrews 12:5–11

They no longer counted it one of the special blessings of the better covenant they stood in that God disciplines His people in grace. He does so because of the family relationship that now binds them to Himself in Christ. They had forgotten the exhortation which spoke to them as children. Inwardly they had in practice left the familiar nearness of adoption. As a natural result, they misread the way God was dealing with them. Through lack of faith they had fallen into the serious error of judging God by how His dealings looked rather than by His words.

It is one thing to enjoy by faith your blessed and sure portion and relationship as "children of God," in the sense of John 1:12-13. The true rendering there is "children," not "sons." It is quite another thing to remember and heed the "exhortation, which speaks to you as sons."

"Chastening," however, carries the general thought of discipline and training. It includes punishment, but that is only a part of it, and possibly a small part of it.

The scourging may be more God's governmental dealing with us, rebuking and correcting us for actual failure. The chastening need not be because of any sin. Its purpose is to develop in us what agrees with the nature of God, so that we may share His holiness.

We can despise the chastening of the Lord — we may think it a trifle, and throw it off. A man may say, I don't care for people's opinion — that is nothing to me: he may brave it out, in his own strength. He is "despising" the chastening of the Lord. He does not have to go to God about it. It cannot be a severe chastening that does not bring us to God. On the other hand, some "faint" when He rebukes them. They are overwhelmed, their hands hang down, and they lose heart.

It will not be without a cause in me; it will never be without love in God. So I am not to despise it, because there is a cause in me that makes the holy God of love act this way. And I am not to faint, because it is His love that does it. It is correcting a son in whom his Father delights.

We do not like the term "punishment" as applied to the dealings of our loving Father. There is nothing penal, in the strict sense of the word, even in His wise and faithful correction. Christ our blessed Substitute exhausted on our behalf all that was penal. God chastens His children to make them partakers of His holiness, as we learn in Hebrews 12.

The Father's discipline may or may not be corrective, but its aim is always to purify us. To chasten is to purify. This has always been God's way with His children, as Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3:11-12. Solomon, like the writer here, sees discipline as both purifying and corrective.

Notice this: God is not dealing with us as sinners again, but as sons. … Now study this whole subject of fatherly chastening. Is not this chastening really perfect in its place, and applied to every son? I thank my Father for all the chastening I have known, for these forty years.

The Lord chastens those He loves. … The word draws two conclusions from this truth. … It will not be without a cause in me; it will never be without love in God. So I am not to despise it, because there is a cause in me that makes the holy God of love act this way; and I am not to faint, because it is His love that does it. It is a Father correcting a son He delights in.

This passage uses three words: chastening, rebuking, scourging. The last does of course mean a whipping, and the second means a reproof. But the first, though it may sometimes mean a beating, mainly means discipline in the sense of child-training. And note this: each of the other two words appears only once in these verses, while this one appears eight times. This is the main thought of the passage. We ARE children of God, and so we come under His training.

The Apostle speaks of chastening and scourging. The scourging may be more God's governmental dealing in rebuking and correcting for actual failure. The chastening is not necessarily for any sin, but rather to develop in us what is according to the nature of God, so that we may share in His holiness.

In the light of the New Testament, chastening may be sent as repayment, as we see in 1 Corinthians 11:30. But it may not be. In Paul's case — 2 Corinthians 12:7 — the thorn in the flesh was preventive, in case he should be puffed up and fall. Or again, it may be neither repayment nor prevention but education, as Hebrews 12 shows. The Father trains and disciplines His children, and even scourges them. But it is all in pursuit of His goal — "that we may share His holiness."

Does "scourging" look like "receiving"? Or "chastening" like "loving"? Certainly not in any other relationship, but it is exactly what marks a father's love for his son. First, it is true, came the Father's kisses of welcome. Then the BEST robe, then the ring and the sandals. Then the fattened calf, and the music and dancing. And afterwards — the rod. The rod does not taste like the kiss, but the same love that gave the kiss wields the rod.

It is very interesting to notice the character of these chastisements. They are persecution, scorn, hatred, the reproach of man. You say, if God would only lay me on a bed of sickness, I could bear it. If it were God who had done these things — but it is just the wretched malice of man. I cannot see Him in it. Well, faith sees God in it. … We bear these things. However much they seem to come from spite, envy, or hatred, we know they also come from a Father's heart, who permits them for our blessing.

Worldly prosperity and celebration, even when it is the fruit of God's care behind the scenes, is not always a sign of His approval. And affliction is not a sign of His disapproval. Job's case shows this even more clearly.

The sense is: not for harm but for good, for chastening you endure. It is the sure lot and mark of God's family here on earth. So the challenge follows: what son is there whom a father does not discipline? To be without such dealing, which all have shared in, would point instead to being false sons, not true ones.

Notice one special thing here, as this unfolds God's ways with His children. He takes up "the contradiction of sinners" — the opposition and persecution we may meet in the path of faith — and uses them as needed chastisement. This Scripture does not speak of the direct dealing of God's hand. It speaks of the trials and difficulties that come with a believer's path through this world. God still uses them as instruments for our needed chastisement and blessing.

Why did they suffer? Because they were God's sons. Men, the instruments of their sufferings, might seem to be dealing with them as they chose. It was not so. God indeed allowed it. He had His own purposes in it all for the rich blessing of His saints. Behind the hand that struck them was the Father, permitting it in His love to them and for their profit.

As a loving father who loves his children, He chastised them. They were not to forget this — that He speaks to them not as to sinners, but as to sons... God, as Father, permits trials and tribulations to come to believers for their own good. Such experiences are not evidence of divine displeasure, but evidences of sonship.

Enduring here is therefore neither despising nor rebelling, but taking it as from the hand of God. Only in this spirit can we enjoy the privileges that belong to us as sons of our God and Father. Only then do we gain the benefit of His dealings with us... But if someone found no testing of faith after claiming to be a believer, it would show he was not a son of God at all.

Walking down the street one day, a bishop saw two boys quarrelling. As he watched, he saw that one of the two was mostly to blame. Then a man came running out of a house, seized the boy who was least to blame, and began to punish him. The bishop stepped in and said, "Why do you beat that boy? It is the other who deserves it most." "That may be," the man replied, "but this is my son." So it is; God chastises His children.

God puts us in the place of children, and we must look at what His thoughts about us are... My will may have to be broken. Tendencies I never knew about may have to be uncovered in me, to humble me... He hates the evil and loves the good, and is breaking us down, subduing the evil, wearing it out. He is bringing us nearer to Himself. God is educating us as children.

The sense is this: you endure it as chastening — not for harm, but for good. It is the unfailing portion and token of God's family here below. Therefore the challenge follows, What son is there whom a father does not chasten? To be without such dealing, which all have shared in, would instead be reason to conclude that you are false sons, not true ones.

They had received a family token: they had come to know the rod of discipline. None were exempt from this except those who wrongfully claimed the title of children. For it is in the nature of a Father to control His children for their good. Because He loves them, He is not indifferent to their ways.

According to Hebrews 12:8, a bastard is not a "son." The relationship is abnormal and illegitimate. Such a "child" can only say "father" because he is tolerated.

Bishop Fuller has illustrated this truth by an incident. Walking down the street one day, he saw two boys quarrelling, and watching them he saw that one of the two was mostly to blame. Then a man came running out of a house, and grabbing the lad who was least to blame, he began to punish him. The bishop stepped in and said, "Why do you beat that boy? It is the other who deserves it most." "That may be," replied the man, "but this is my son." So it is. God chastises His children… Asaph did not understand this truth, and so says, "I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind." But of himself he says, "All the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning."

God never chastens or scourges us unless there is something in us that needs it. With this truth in our minds, we shall not complain about our sorrows or trials. Instead we shall at once seek, in the presence of God, to find out what secret sin or evil habit we have let pass unjudged. That is what has made it necessary for God to come in with His rod.

Fighting against sin in an evil world brings suffering, and that suffering is not in itself chastening. But the two may overlap, and sometimes do. In every case we wrong Him who watches over us in love, if we make light of His hand or complain under it. How often He calls us to suffer in order to guard us from what would grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and not because we have sinned! And it is happy for us when it is so.

The word "chastening" has a very broad meaning: discipline. There is discipline in an army, but only a very small part of that discipline is punishment. David was chastened because of sin; Job, so that he might learn what he was; and Paul, so that he might be better fitted for God's service. We are not necessarily chastened for failure. God sees certain tendencies in us, and He disciplines us to keep us from what would lead us astray. … Someone is going on well, and God says, "I will help you to go on better."

The superior dignity of the Father of our spirits over the fathers of our flesh is clear. But no clearer than the unfailing character of His training, and its worthy end. Many an earthly father wavers. Some are clearly unwise and unworthy. None are reliable in everything. Yet we respected them during the "few days" of their authority over us. We did so despite the failures that showed up now and then through weakness. They could not rise above what "seemed good to them," and they were sometimes mistaken. The Father of spirits is not like that. He alone is wise. He is good and does good, acting without error for our advantage, so that we may share His holiness.

Our earthly fathers dealt with the flesh. The Father of spirits deals with us in chastening to form a right spirit within us, so that we may live to Him. To get the full blessing of these dealings we must fully submit to what God allows. By bowing to God in the trial, we keep God between ourselves and the trial. If we rebel and question God's way, the trial will get between us and God. Then our souls are not sustained in life, and we fall into darkness.

He is the "Father of spirits" (Hebrews 12:9). It is a comforting thought that God, in His patient chastening, would refine our spirits from the coarse impulses of the flesh. His purpose in this is "that we might be partakers of His holiness."

He is the Father, not of our flesh, but of our spirits. By an eternal relationship we are the children of His love. Subjection to Him is our life. We came to know we were His sons by the obedience of faith, through the grace of Him who has given us birth. In the same way, our watchful attention to His will stirs the energies of spiritual life into action. To be left alone by Him is to sink into deadly sickness of the spirit. Neglected by the Father, the child soon begins to go wrong.

Discipline is for the body, but it has spiritual prosperity in view for the individual, and as a result he lives — that is the effect of subjection to God's healthy discipline.

As the children of God, we share all the privileges of His house. In fact the discipline of the house is as much a privilege as anything else. God acts in discipline towards us on the ground of the relationship in which He has set us. A father disciplines his children because they are his. If I see a stranger's child doing wrong, I am not called on to correct him. I am not his father. So I know neither the affections nor the responsibilities of that relationship.

There are three different attitudes of heart towards God's chastening: subjection, acceptance and rejoicing. When the will is broken, there is subjection. When we understand the purpose of the chastening, there is calm acceptance. And when our affections are engaged with the Father's heart, there is rejoicing.

Observe here the grace that is appealed to. We have seen how much the Hebrews needed warning — their tendency was to fail in the course of faith. The way to prevent this is not to hold back warning. But we must still bring the soul fully into contact with grace. This alone can give strength and courage through confidence in God.

Many an earthly father wavers. Some are plainly unwise and unworthy. None is reliable in absolutely everything. Yet we used to pay them respect during the "short time" of their authoritative training, whatever failures happened now and then through the weakness of the flesh. For they could not rise above what "seemed best to them." They could be mistaken, and sometimes they were. Not so the Father of spirits. He alone is wise. He is good and does good. He acts without error for our advantage, so that we may share His holiness.

God Himself designed this human relationship as a picture of something much higher and spiritual. Correcting a child is absolutely essential for the child's good. Yet it depends on the father's attitude. Whatever seems suitable to him will govern how he trains the child. But God's training is perfection itself: its object is the pure profit of the child, and no detail of it can be a mistake. How good to be in such a hand! Only in this way do we learn to conform to God's own character of holiness, to honestly love what is good, and to hate evil.

An earthly parent is often ruled by instinctive fondness instead of sound love. Even when he means well, his own inherent selfishness frustrates him and blocks his work in a thousand ways. God is not like this. He chastens us for our profit. This is His immediate and undivided object.

He delights in us, and He delights in conforming us to Himself. So grace comes in wonderfully and makes us share His nature. It is of what He is that He would have us partakers — not merely partakers of holiness, but of His holiness. He does not say, You must be holy; it does not come out in that form: He communicates the holiness — His own nature. See the contrast between grace and law. Does not God require holiness in His presence? That is true, but that is law. Grace means that He delights to give it.

We need to distinguish between the words used for holiness and sanctification in the New Testament. One word, hagiōsynē, is the thing itself, the habit. Once — in Hebrews 12:10 — it is hagiotēs, the holiness of God Himself.

Like vines, our poor hearts send out tendrils in every direction. They wind themselves around this object and that. Then the Father allows trials or persecutions, or maybe sickness, to come in and snap these ties to objects other than Christ. In these chastenings of His hand He shows us Himself and His love to us. So He seeks to wean us from everything that might hinder our progress, and to draw us more fully to Himself.

There is almost no limit to the discipline God may use to exercise His children's souls. Physical death may, in His hands, be a way of rescue from something worse. The Lord may chasten this way to save His people from the condemnation of the world (1 Cor. 11:32). But in every case His object is their profit. He will make them partakers of His holiness.

When a father chastises his child, it is not to kill it, but to form it according to his own character. This is how God deals with us too, "that we may share His holiness" (Heb. 12:10). This is a comforting thought. God acknowledges us as His children when He chastens us. He chastens us precisely because we are His children.

The writer goes on to say that "for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant." Do you know what we all wish for? A kind of discipline that does not hurt — one that might even be a pleasure to go through. But that would be no discipline at all. It has to be painful, or it is not discipline.

Restlessness, or indifference, or despair are all alike sin. Sorrow is not. God expects Christians to call bitter things bitter. Suppose they do. Suppose by faith they see whose hand is giving the grief, and accept the trial as a sign from the Father. Then trouble will produce patience. Patience draws them into deeper dealings with God, and that gives them a fuller experience of Him and of His way.

The great thing is to be exercised by our troubles. Discipline means trouble. The verse itself says no discipline seems pleasant at the time. And exercise means we turn our troubles into a spiritual gymnasium. The Greek word used here is the one our English word "gymnasium" comes from. Gymnastics for the body have some profit, as 1 Timothy 4:8 tells us. Gymnastics for our spirits bring great spiritual profit. They lead to both holiness and righteousness.

God wants us to feel the discipline. He wants to produce in us self-judgment and humbling before Him. That is why the blessed result comes only to those the discipline exercises. If His hand upon us produces no exercise of soul, there will be no blessing.

The clearest proof that discipline has done good is that the sufferer is conscious of more peace. But where God's dealings are not recognised by faith, this cannot happen. Endurance on its own, with no stirring of the spirit, only hardens the sufferer and drags him down.

God does not expect us to enjoy these exercises of soul at the time. If they were pleasant, they would not do their work. But afterwards, once the will is broken, they produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Pride comes down when a man has to submit to what he never wanted. God also takes a larger and ever more precious place in his thoughts and in his life.

If we work through His dealings with us before the Father, hardship will not sour us or make us bitter. It will soften us and mellow us. In the end the character of Christ shows in us, and we bear fruit.

Wise people look ahead to the afterward — the result of the trial. This result does not hang in the balance, the way the outcome of some great battle may hang for hours and days. God guarantees it. We only stand to gain if we are exercised by the trial.

What God brings on the believer is not just the product of divine goodness. It is the deliberate planning of divine love. However severe the trial, however deep the pain, however hard the test, it only convinces us more of that clear, warm love which makes no mistakes. That love cares so much about God's purpose being worked out in us that it will not shrink back from using means that hurt. For the moment they bring a tear to the eye and make the whole body wince and shake.