Hebrews 12:4-7

Hebrews 12:4-7. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

Here is a little variation in the subject. First we had the trials which come from the world, these we are to endure looking to Christ for grace to enable us to overcome them. Now we have the trials which come from God, and here nature becomes an assistant to grace. We are reminded that children have to be chastened, and therefore, if we are the children of God we must expect to be chastened by him. Note in the fifth verse, the two evils of which we are in danger,-either of deepening God’s chastenings or else of fainting under them; either of thinking too little or too much of them. HAPPY is the Christian who ever takes the middle course, and never despises the chastenings of the Lord, nor ever faints under them. Note, in the sixth verse, that we are to expect sharp blows from God’s chastening hand. That word "encourageth" is a wrong word: "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." The scourge was ever a most severe form of punishment. God will not spare his children when they need to be chastened; they shall have some blows as hard as he can well lay them on, that is to say, as hard as such a loving heart as his will permit him to give. They shall have such blows that each one of them shall have to cry out, "I am broken in sunder, my heart is smitten and withered like grass." And this is to be the treatment for every son whom God receives; not for some of them, but for all. "He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."