34 The Discipline of God (12:4-11)
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the LORD loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the perfect fruit of righteousness. (12:4-11)
All the Jews to whom the book of Hebrews was written were undergoing persecution because of their break with Judaism. It was coming from their Jewish friends and relatives, who resented their turning their backs on the religious customs and traditions in which they had been born and raised. The readers had been reminded about “the former days, when, after being enlightenened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated (10:32-33). Even the unbelieving Jews who were involved with the church must have suffered because of their association with Christians.
The affliction had largely been in the form of social and economic pressure, though some of them had been imprisoned (10:34). We can imagine the arguments they heard for rejecting the new faith. “Look at what you have gotten yourselves into. You have become Christians and all you have had are problems, criticism, hardship, and suffering. You have lost your friends, your families, your synagogues, your traditions, your heritage—everything.”
As we have seen, those who had made mere professions of faith were, under this pressure, in danger of reverting to Judaism, of apostatizing. The true believers were in danger of having their faith seriously weakened by adopting again the rituals and ceremonies of the Old Covenant.
Some believers perhaps were wondering why, if their God was a God of power and of peace, they were suffering so much. “Why are we not winning out over our enemies, instead of our enemies seeming always to have the upper hand? Where is the God who is supposed to supply all our needs and give us the answers to our questions, and fulfillment to our lives? Why, when we turned to a God of love, did everyone start hating us?”
The last section of chapter 11 begins to answer questions like these and also provides a foundation for the exhortations of 12:4-11. Suffering for God’s sake was nothing new. The saints of the Old Covenant had known what it was to suffer for their faith. They faced warfare, weakness, torture, beatings, imprisonment, stonings, destitution, and every sort of affliction—all because of their trust in the Lord (11:34-38). And despite all this, they did not receive the fullness of blessing promised to believers under the New Covenant, such as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of sins completely forgiven, and peaceful consciences. These heroes of the past “did not receive what was promised,” yet they endured valiantly and “gained approval through their faith” (v. 39). They faced afflictions in the right attitude, which is what the readers of Hebrews are counseled to do—to run the race of faith as their forefathers had done (12:1).
More importantly than this, they were to fix their eyes on Jesus, who had given up more and suffered far more than any other. One of the reasons He “endured such hostility by sinners against Himself,” was that His followers might “not grow weary and lose heart” (12:3). They could look to His example for strength.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. (12:4)
None of the suffering Hebrews to whom this letter was written had endured what Jesus had endured. None had given his life for the gospel. Nor had any of them lived an absolutely sinless life as Jesus had done, living in perfect obedience to the Father, and thus deserving no punishment at all. On the contrary, some of their suffering was deserved and was intended for their spiritual discipline and growth.
The key word of 12:4-11 is discipline, used both as a noun and a verb. It is from the Greek paideia, which, in turn, comes from pais (“child”) and denotes the training of a child. The word is a broad term, signifying whatever parents and teachers do to train, correct, cultivate, and educate children in order to help them develop and mature as they ought. It is used nine times in these eight verses.
The figure changes from that of a race to that of a family. Christian living involves running, working, fighting, and enduring. It also involves relationships, especially our relationship to God and to other believers. The emphasis of this passage is on the heavenly Father’s use of discipline in the lives of His children.
PURPOSES OF DISCIPLINE
God uses hardship and affliction as a means of discipline, a means of training His children, of helping them mature in their spiritual lives. He has three specific purposes for His discipline: retribution, prevention, and education.
We must realize that there is a great difference between God’s discipline and His judgmental punishment. As Christians we often have to suffer painful consequences for our sins, but we will never experience God’s judgment for them. This punishment Christ took completely on Himself in the crucifixion, and God does not exact double payment for any sin. Though we deserve God’s wrathful punishment because of our sin, we will never have to face it, because Jesus endured it for us. Neither God’s love nor His justice would allow Him to require payment for what His Son has already paid in full. In discipline, God is not a judge but a Father (cf. Rom 8:1).
PUNISHMENT
We experience some of God’s discipline as the direct result of our sin, but the punishment is corrective, not judgmental. It is punishment, to be sure, but not of the sort that unbelievers receive.
Because of his lust for Bathsheba and the resulting adultery and murder, God severely punished David. Most other kings of that day did this sort of thing, and worse, as a matter of course. It was considered to be a king’s prerogative. But, no matter what any culture tolerates, none of God’s people has a prerogative to sin, not even His own anointed king who was a “man after God’s own heart.” In fact, those who are especially blessed and enlightened by God have less justification for sinning. Consequently, God disciplined David, not out of wrath but out of love. David’s sin did not cost him his salvation, but it cost him dearly in the loss of an infant son by Bathsheba and in countless heartaches from several of his other sons. He went through years of anguish that otherwise he never would have experienced. Through the prophet Nathan, God told David that because of this sin (really a series of sins), “Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife” (2 Sam. 12:10). It may be that even his being forbidden to build the Temple was at least an indirect result of this sin, since it was because of his warfare that God denied him the privilege (1 Chron. 22:8).
Yet David was a better man because of God’s discipline. God had a purpose in the discipline—to draw His servant closer to Himself, to convince him not to sin again, and to help him grow and mature.
The church at Corinth was particularly immature and carnal. Among other things, many believers were abusing the Lord’s Table. They were using it as an excuse for partying, with some even getting drunk (1 Cor. 11:20-22). Paul rebuked them strongly and told them plainly that they were suffering weakness, sickness, and even death because of this sinfulness (v. 30). They were being “disciplined by the Lord in order that [they would] not be condemned along with the world” (v. 32).
When we discipline our children, even for something serious, we do not put them out of the family. We discipline them to correct their behavior, not to disown them. Neither does God put us out of His family when He disciplines us, His children. He wants to draw us deeper into the fellowship of His family.
It is often as hard for us to see the good in God’s chastening us as it is for our children to see the good in our chastening them. But we know that, because He is our loving heavenly Father, He will not do anything to harm us. His discipline may hurt, but it will not harm. It is the best thing the Lord can do for us when we sin. It restrains us from repeating the sin.
God says that when His children “forsake My law, and do not walk in My judgments, if they violate My statutes, and do not keep My commandments, then I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes” (Ps. 89:30-32). But the other side of the promise of punishment is the promise of faithfulness to His covenant. “But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips” (v. 33-34). When God chastises, He is not rejecting but correcting.
PREVENTION
Sometimes God disciplines in order to prevent sin. Just as we put restrictions and limits, and sometimes literal fences, around our children to protect them from harm, so God does with us. We do not allow our small children to play in busy streets, or play with matches, or splash in the swimming pool without someone to watch them. God also puts fences around His children to protect them. What seems to us a terrible inconvenience or hardship may be God’s loving hand of protection.
If the apostle Paul was anything he was self-disciplined. He was also genuinely humble, always careful to give the Lord credit for anything good or miraculous that he did. Yet Paul tells us that God gave him a “thorn in the flesh” for the specific purpose of keeping him from exalting himself (2 Cor. 12:7). God allowed this “messenger of Satan” to “buffet” Paul not because His beloved and faithful apostle was proud but to keep him from becoming proud. The thorn in the flesh was sent to protect his spiritual well-being. Paul did not enjoy the thorn, and pleaded earnestly with the Lord on three occasions to remove it. But when God assured him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness,” Paul gladly accepted the thorn, in fact boasted in it (vv. 8-9). He learned that not only this thorn but also many other hardships and afflictions were being used by God to make him better. “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10). Because the Lord’s discipline made him better, Paul thanked the Lord for it. It is one of God’s blessings, though not as attractive as some of the others.
Our sickness, lack of business success, or other problems may be God’s way of keeping us from something much worse. If God’s children accepted His preventive discipline more willingly and gratefully, He would have much less need for administering His corrective discipline.
EDUCATION
Besides punishing and preventing, God’s discipline also educates us for better service and better living. It will teach us, if we will listen to what He is saying through it.
First of all, discipline can help us better know God’s power and sufficiency. Sometimes God can get our attention better through affliction than through blessing. Prosperity has a way of making us feel self-satisfied and independent, while problems often make us more aware of our need for the Lord. We need Him every bit as much when things are going well as when they are not, but often we do not feel our need for Him until we face our own helplessness.
By God’s own declaration, Job was “blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil” (Job 1:1). Yet God allowed him to suffer pain, loss, grief, sickness, and ridicule that make Paul’s thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, seem insignificant by comparison. Just as Paul’s thorn, Job’s afflictions were messengers of Satan and came upon him with God’s approval (1:12; 2:6). Job went through his horrible sufferings and “did not sin with his lips” (2:10).
Job’s discipline was clearly not punishment; nor was it prevention. It was sent to educate Job further in the ways and character of the Lord. It was a slow process. Job did not sin through all his suffering, but he was hard put to explain it. He kept trying to figure out on his own why he was having such a hard time. He knew it was not because of sin, and he knew that God was not wicked or capricious. But he was not willing to accept his suffering. Job endured it, but he did not accept it, until, after two long lectures directly by God, he acknowledged he did not need to know the reason behind everything that happened to him. God is sovereign and omniscient and omnipotent. What Job learned through his trials was not the reason for them but that God is supremely great and marvelous. He learned “things too wonderful for me, which I did not know,” and confessed to his Lord, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees Thee; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes” (42:3, 5-6).
Through his great and seemingly unending suffering Job had been given a magnificent view of God. He experienced His holy majesty, His deliverance, His care, His power, His counsel, His defense—all through His discipline. Job also learned a great lesson about himself: that his wisdom was not God’s wisdom. He learned to trust God for who He is, not for what he himself could see and comprehend. When we see God better, we see ourselves better.
Discipline can also teach sympathy for others. Again Job’s experience is a perfect illustration. “And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends” (42:10). Through his troubles, Job saw God more clearly, himself more clearly, and others more clearly. He became more sensitive and understanding. He learned a great deal in God’s school of suffering.
When we have troubles, problems, heartaches, we should ask ourselves—better still, ask God to show us—if He is disciplining us as punishment, as prevention, or as education. When we ask, however, we should remember Job and realize that God may not show us the reason as quickly or as clearly as we would like Him to. We can always be sure that His discipline will correct us, protect us, or instruct us. Whatever the reason, it will be for our good, and we should be thankful.
Only faith can bring us to appreciate discipline, whatever the kind. We are able to see behind the scenes in Job’s ordeal because Scripture gives a vivid picture of the workings of both Satan and God. But Job had no knowledge of this. As far as we can tell from the Bible, Job went to his grave not knowing exactly why he had to suffer as he did. When he finally acknowledged God’s sovereign omnipotence and goodness in it all, it was by faith. He came to see God more clearly (42:5) but he was not shown the whys and wherefores of his problems more clearly. When we understand and trust God more deeply, we are content with whatever limited knowledge He gives.
FORGETTING GOD’S WORD
And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD, nor faint when you are reproved by Him.” (12:5)
Forgetfulness causes a lot of unnecessary problems and heartaches. Our greatest need is not for new light from God, but for paying attention to light we already have. When God’s Word is neglected it is forgotten. Sometimes the answer or the help we need is in a truth we learned a long time ago but have let slip away.
Jews in New Testament times had forgotten many things about the Old Testament. They had forgotten that God had never been pleased by anything apart from faith, and they had forgotten that many of His choicest saints had suffered greatly for their faith. Now they are reminded that they had also forgotten the teaching from Proverbs 3:11-12 about God’s discipline.
Suffering for God’s sake was nothing new. Being disciplined by Him was not new. These believers were upset about their afflictions partly because they had forgotten God’s Word. In the Old Testament God not only had spoken to them about suffering and discipline, but He had spoken to them as sons. They had forgotten more than simply divine truths, they had forgotten the exhortation of their heavenly Father. Turning to Scripture is listening to God, for Scripture is His Word. For believers, it is the Word of their Father.
This forgotten exhortation tells us of two perils of discipline—regarding it lightly, and fainting because of it.
PERILS IN DISCIPLINE
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD. (12:5b)
REGARDING IT LIGHTLY
The first thing that can keep God from accomplishing what He wants in our lives is to regard lightly His discipline. If we do not understand our problems as being discipline that the Lord sends for our good, we cannot profit from them as He intends. Our reactions cannot be right if our view of what is happening is not right. The spiritual weakness mentioned in this verse is not that of taking our problems lightly but of taking the Lord’s discipline through them lightly. It is usually because we take our problems too seriously that we take the Lord’s discipline too lightly. Our focus is on the experience rather than on our heavenly Father and on what He wants to do for us through the experience.
We can take God’s discipline lightly in many ways. We can become callous to God and His Word, so that when He is doing something in us or for us, we do not recognize His hand in it. When we are calloused, God’s discipline will harden us instead of soften us. We may also treat God’s discipline lightly by complaining. In this case, we do not forget God; in fact our attention is on Him, but in the wrong way. Instead of showing patient endurance, like the hero saints, we gripe and grumble. We do not accuse God of anything wrong, at least not in so many words. But complaining to God amounts to just that—believing He is doing something not quite right. Fretting comes from nothing but disbelief, lack of trust in God to do everything right, especially for His children.
Arthur Pink comments, “Remind yourself of how much dross there is yet among the gold and view the corruption of your own heart and marvel that God has not smitten you more severely. Form the habit of heeding His taps, and you will be less likely to receive His raps.”
We can prevent God from accomplishing His desired result through discipline by questioning. Like complaining, questioning shows a clear lack of faith. When a child asks his parents, “Why?” he usually is not looking for a reason but is challenging them to justify what they want him to do or not do. In exactly the same way, our questioning God implies that He is not justified in doing what He is doing to us.
Even when we recognize His discipline as discipline, we may question whether it is of the right kind, of the right severity, of the right length, or has come at the right time. If we spank our child, he may think that going without supper would have been a better punishment. Or if we ground him for two days, he may think that withholding his allowance for a week would have been more appropriate. A parent’s discipline, of course, is never perfect, but it is much more likely to be appropriate than what the child deems right. We need to recognize that God’s discipline is always the right discipline, the perfect discipline—exactly what we need.
Perhaps the greatest danger in regarding God’s discipline lightly is carelessness. When we do not care about what purpose God has in the discipline or about how we can profit from it, His discipline cannot be effective. It becomes like a blessing that we misuse. He gives it for our benefit and His glory, but we do not use it for either. We thwart its purpose by spiritual indifference.
FAINTING
Nor faint when you are reproved by Him. (12:5c)
Some people become so overcome by their problems that they give up; they become despondent, depressed, faint. They become spiritually inert, unresponsive to what God is doing or why. They are not callous, complaining, questioning, or careless. They are simply immobilized. They give up and collapse. The psalmist had this experience, and cries out to himself, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?” He knew his problem, and he also knew the cure, for he continues, “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God” (Ps. 42:11). The cure for hopelessness is hope in God. The child of God has no need to faint because of God’s discipline. God gives it to strengthen us, not to weaken us, to encourage us, not to discourage us, to build us up, not to tear us down.
When, by our taking it lightly or by our becoming despondent, God’s discipline is not allowed to accomplish His purpose in us, Satan is the victor. God’s purpose is lost, and our blessing is lost.
PROOFS IN DISCIPLINE
“For those whom the LORD loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (12:6-8)
To the Christian who is responsive to the Lord’s discipline, it proves two things: His love and our sonship.
PROVES GOD’S LOVE
The first thing we should think of when we are suffering is our Father’s love, for those whom the LORD loves He disciplines. We cannot prove this to anyone, or even to ourselves, except by faith. Even less can we prove, by reason or human understanding, that we are being disciplined because of God’s love. But faith proves it. Faith’s logic is simple: “We are God’s children. God loves His children and is bound by His own nature and His own covenant to do them only good. Therefore, whatever we receive from God’s hand, including discipline, is from God’s love.” More than any earthly father, the heavenly Father wants his children to be righteous, mature, obedient, competent, responsible, capable, and trusting. We benefit in all these ways, and many more, when we accept His discipline.
Paul tells us to be “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3:17), that is, to have a settled assurance that God cannot do anything apart from or contrary to His love for us. God continually loves, whether we are aware of His love or not. When we are aware of it, however, it can accomplish immeasurably more good in us and for us. Instead of looking at our troubles, we look at our Father’s love, and thank Him that even the troubles are proof of His love.
A man who was asked why he was looking over a wall replied, “Because I can’t see through it.” When Christians cannot see through the wall of pain, confusion, hardship, or despair, they need only look over the wall into the face of their loving heavenly Father.
Just as God’s love has predestined us (Eph. 1:4-5) and redeemed us (John 3:16), it also disciplines us.
Children have long wondered why parents insist on saying, “This spanking hurts me more than it does you.” The idea is hard for a child to accept, until he himself becomes a parent. A loving parent does hurt when he has to discipline his child. The parent gets no joy or satisfaction out of the discipline itself, but out of the eventual benefit it will be to the child.
God is more loving than any human parent, and He suffers when He has to discipline His children. “For the Lord will not reject forever, for if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness. For He does not afflict willingly, or grieve the sons of men” (Lam. 3:31-33). The Lord is tender and careful in His discipline. Nothing is more sensitive than love. Because God loves with infinite love, He is infinitely sensitive to the needs and feelings of His children. He hurts when we hurt. He takes no more pleasure in the painful discipline of His children than in the death of unbelievers (Ezek. 18:32). Nor will He discipline us beyond what we need or can bear, any more than He will allow us to be tempted beyond what we can endure (1 Cor. 10:13). He does not discipline to grieve us but to improve us.
God suffers whenever we suffer, whatever the reason for it. “In all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isa. 63:9). Everything Israel went through, the Lord went through with her. Everything she suffered, including punishment for her sins, He suffered with her. God does not understand us simply because He made us, but also because He identifies with us as our Father. We can be sure that our discipline hurts Him more than it hurts us. If He Himself is willing to endure suffering for our good, how can we not be willing to endure it gladly and thankfully?
PROVES OUR SONSHIP
And He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (12:6b-8)
The second thing that discipline proves is closely related to the first. It proves our sonship. All men are subject to God’s punishment, but only His children receive His discipline.
At times we have all wanted to discipline someone else’s children when they disturb or irritate us. When we see an unruly child throwing a tantrum in a store, we think to ourselves, “If I could have him for just about a week.” But we have no continuing desire to discipline children that are not our own, because we do not love them as we love our own. The relationship is not the same and therefore the concern is not the same.
Besides the motivation of love, discipline is given because of obligation. Since our children are our special responsibility, and since discipline is for their good, we are obligated to discipline them as we are not obligated to discipline other peoples’ children. God has a covenant relationship with His people, and has obligated Himself to redeem, protect, and bless them. “ ‘For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,’ says the LORD who has compassion on you” (Isa. 54:10).
We can know we are God’s children by His leading us (Rom. 8:14) and by the witness of His Spirit to our spirits (8:15-16). We know from the fact that we have trusted in Jesus Christ that we are God’s children. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). We also know from our discipline that we are His children, because He scourges every son whom He receives. An undisciplined child is an unloved child and a miserable child. God’s love will not allow Him not to discipline us, and His punishment is another of the many proofs of His love and of our sonship.
The other side, the tragic side, of this truth is that those who are not disciplined by God are not His children. He scourges every son is inclusive. Not a single one of His children will miss out on His loving discipline. Whom He receives, however, is exclusive. Only those He receives through their faith in His Son are His children.
Scourges (mastigo
) refers to flogging with a whip, and was a common Jewish practice (Matt. 10:17; 23:34). It was a severe and extremely painful beating. The point of Hebrews 12:6b, and of Proverbs 3:12 (from which it is quoted), is that God’s discipline can sometimes be severe. When our disobedience is great or our apathy is great, His punishment will be great.
Parents often become discouraged when discipline seems to have no effect. Sometimes we just do not want to go through the trouble for ourselves, even though we know our child needs discipline for his own good. But if we love our children, we will discipline and continue to discipline them as long as they are under our care. “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently” (Prov. 13:24; cf. 23:13-14). Our juvenile courts are constant testimonies to the truth that “a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother” (Prov. 29:15)—as well as to his whole family and community. We can be certain that because God will always love us, He will always discipline us while we are in this life.
So, discipline in the Christian life is not in spite of sonship, but because of sonship. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? A truly loving father is absolutely committed to helping his child conform to the highest standards. How much more is our heavenly Father committed to our conforming to His standards, and to inflicting the pain to make such conformity a reality.
When we look at how well many unbelievers are doing and then at how much trouble we are having, we should take this as evidence that we belong to God and they do not. If they are without discipline, they are illegitimate children and not sons. We should pity, not envy, the prosperous, healthy, popular, and attractive person who does not know God. We should not wish on them our trials or suffering, but we should want to say to them, as did Paul to Agrippa, “I would to God, that whether in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains” (Acts 26:29).
Jerome said a paradoxical thing that fits the point of this passage of Hebrews. “The greatest anger of all is when God is no longer angry with us.” The supreme affliction is to be unteachable and unreachable by God. When the Lord disciplines us, we should say, “Thank you, Lord. You have just proved again that You love me and that I am Your child.”
PRODUCTS OF DISCIPLINE
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (12:9-11)
The two products of discipline mentioned in these verses are closely related to the three purposes of discipline suggested above. God’s discipline produces life and produces holiness.
It is the disciplined child who respects his parents. The surest way for a parent to lose, or never gain, his child’s respect is never to correct or punish him, no matter how terrible the child’s behavior. Even while they are growing up, children instinctively know that a parent who disciplines fairly is a parent who loves and cares. They also realize that a parent who always lets them have their own way is a parent who does not care. We had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them, because of what that discipline proved and produced.
LIFE
Since we respected our earthly fathers even while they were disciplining us, shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? Our response to God’s discipline should not be resentful resignation, but willing and grateful submission. We should want to benefit as much from our heavenly Father’s discipline as we possibly can.
Under the Old Covenant, a son who was totally rebellious to his parents, who would not be corrected or disciplined, was to be stoned to death (Deut. 21:18-21). This punishment was severe in the extreme, but shows us how seriously God takes a child’s obedience to his parents. I believe that Hebrews 12:9 suggests the same severity. A Christian’s persistent rebellion against God’s discipline can cost him his life. Paul speaks of believers’ ”sleeping,” that is dying, because of partaking of the Lord’s Supper unworthily (1 Cor. 11:30). John tells us of sin “leading to death” (1 John 5:16). James implies the same sort of death resulting directly from sin: “Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). A Christian who continually rejects God’s discipline, who refuses to profit from divine correction, can lose his life because of his stubbornness.
More than this, however, I believe the teaching here may include the idea that when we are subject to the Father of spirits, we will have a richer, more abundant life. You do not know what victory is until you have fought a battle. You do not know the meaning of freedom until you have been imprisoned. You do not know the joy of relief until you have suffered, or of healing until you have been sick. You do not know what living is all about until you have experienced some problems and hardships.
I once asked a missionary to Indochina how he liked living there. The gist of his reply was, “I don’t think I could ever come back to the boring existence of the United States. We have seen God work so many wonderful miracles over there. Why would we want to come back here to this humdrum routine?” He had been through war, famine, disease, political and military upheavals, and countless other experiences that most of us would do almost anything to avoid. Yet he knew he was really living in the fullness of God’s presence.
“Those who love Thy law have great peace, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Ps. 119:165). No one lives so well as the believer who loves God’s law and will, who receives everything from his Father’s hand willingly and joyously.
HOLINESS
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. (12:10)
To live for the Lord is to live in holiness. God’s primary desire for us is that we be holy as He is holy (1 Pet. 1:16), that we may share in His holiness.
Because God is perfect, His discipline is always perfect. Human parents discipline as seems best to them, but our best is often mistaken and is always imperfect. Sometimes we punish more out of anger than love, and sometimes we punish more severely than the offense calls for. Sometimes we even mistakenly punish a child for something he did not do. I will never forget spanking one of my boys strongly for something I was sure he had done. When he kept crying longer than usual, I ask what the matter was. He said, “Dad, I didn’t do it.” I was crushed, and tears came to my own eyes. But the Lord never makes such mistakes with His children. His discipline is always proper, always at the right time, of the right sort, and in the right degree. It is always perfectly for our good, that we may share His holiness.
There is only one kind of holiness, God’s holiness. He is both the source and the measure of holiness—which is separation from sin. His greatest desire for His children is to share His holiness with us, that we “may be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19). The only way we can be separated from sin, and thereby partake of His holiness and be filled up with His fullness, is “to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29)—which requires that we accept His discipline as a son. Positionally we already are holy, because we are justified. But practically our holiness is just beginning, which is the work of sanctification—making us holy.
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. (12:11)
Discipline itself is not meant to be pleasant. If it were pleasant, it would have little corrective power. By its very nature, discipline is unpleasant to administer and to endure. Medicine, surgery, physical therapy, and other such treatments that we willingly endure are very often painful, uncomfortable, and inconvenient. We endure them for the sake of the end result—better health.
How much more should we be willing to endure the Lord’s treatment of our spiritual needs, which afterwards . . . yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness? We should consider our troubles as spiritual treatment, which builds our character and our faith, our love and our righteousness. It will never look like it from the natural perspective, but from the perspective of faith, we see that discipline is one of God’s richest and most rewarding blessings on His children.
Someone has written, “And so what do I say? I say let the rains of disappointment come, if they water the plants of spiritual grace. Let the winds of adversity blow, if they serve to root more securely the trees that God has planted. I say, let the sun of prosperity be eclipsed, if that brings me closer to the true light of life. Welcome, sweet discipline, discipline designed for my joy, discipline designed to make me what God wants me to be.”