To these Hebrew Christians for whom the letter was purposed, Paul had urged them to “lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us (unbelief, as the context shows) and, laying aside these things they were to run with patience (steadfastness) the race set before them. They were urged to look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith, who, for the joy set before him (the joy of bringing many sons to glory, Hebrews 2:10) endured the cross, despising the shame, and He hath set down on the right hand of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
The apostle reminded them that they had not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin, and had forgotten the exhortation which reasoned with them as sons: “My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art reproved of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:4-6).
These Hebrews were suffering trials and problems but they had not yet been martyred as the consequence of their striving against sin. These, in their suffering for Christ were experiencing a measure of the chastening of the Lord. To many, the word “chasten” involves a degree of failure on the part of him who is chastened, and our present day use of the word may imply such but we are not to conclude that suffering for “striving against sin” on the part of these early Christians signaled a failure on their part in serving Christ. While chastening does sometimes include reproof for neglect or failure on our part, chastening also includes training and preparation for us to be able to thwart Satan when he thrusts trials and temptations upon us.
Chastening is a part of our training in “sonship”. Because we are sons of God, chastening by God is a part of helping us to grow into the kind of sons we ought to be and He wants us to be. Tasks given us by our parents can be burdensome and tiring. But while they are, that does not means our fathers were inflicting punishment on us. They are just preparing us for the realities of life. A loving father knows that we are certain to face trials, burdens, and cares in our lives, and he seeks to prepare us for the certainty of that so that when those trials do come we will have developed strength, courage, and character to stand when that “hour of trial” does come.
“Scourging” does imply punishment. Paul underwent many “scourgings” at the hand of opposing Jews. While the Jewish authorities felt Paul deserved punishment and so inflicted them several times on him, they were just a part of his training in following Christ. Of those times he was so punished he wrote to the Corinthians “in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five time received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned;…” (2 Corinthians 11:23-25a). These “scourgings” Paul endured were not regarded by God as punishment, but they were so regarded by Jewish authorities.
Yet, God’s children can expect to suffer “chastisement” — “punishment” as the consequence of sins we commit. We may obtain God’s forgiveness for some wrong we have done but His forgiveness does not mean that we will not suffer consequences for the wrong we did. Hurting others may mean the loss of a treasured friendship; it can also involve financial loss we must suffer from the foolish sin we committed. But, even the suffering punishment (chastisement) for sin we committed is part of our training as God’s children. Parents who fail to correct their children when they err fail their children. Paul wrote, “All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11).
Therefore these Hebrews were urged to recognize the trials they underwent for what they were: chastening for their profit. There might be greater and more severe trials which lay ahead of them and their present trials would help them to prepare for greater, more severe ones, if such was to be their lot. Thus he concludes: “Wherefore, lift up the hands that hang down (get busy and stay busy) and the palsied knees (put your faith in God and rise about your fears) and make straight paths for your feet (don’t turn to the left or right but press onward in the midst of your adversities).”
Paul wasn’t giving advice to others as to the proper behavior in trials that he had not himself already experienced. He knew whereof he spoke. And he knew he had overcome, and as he had borne those chastening and scourging and had overcome, then so could they — and so can we!
Jim McDonald