Tag: discipline

We are in Hebrews 12:4-11 this morning, wrapping up our author’s instructions on how to benefit from God’s discipline in our lives.

We have seen that our author wants us to (1) recognize God’s purpose in our discipline, which could be to correct us, protect us or perfect us; (2) but also to remember God’s encouraging word that we are His sons (Heb. 12:5); (3) then to realize God’s everlasting love (Heb. 12:6); but also to (4) regard with both seriousness and steadfastness God’s rod of discipline (Heb. 12:5); then to (5) respect God’s holy purpose in our discipline (Heb. 12:7-11); and finally, we will get to (6) reach out and help others (Heb. 12:12-13) in this race.

Verse 10 in Hebrews 12 says…

10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

And here we see that another benefit of submitting to God’s discipline is that it produces “holiness.”  At the end of verse 10 is says that we “share in his holiness.”  God “wants to make his sons like himself.  He has a specific aim that they may share his holiness.  While the earthly father’s action is essentially short-term, the heavenly father is concerned with our eternal welfare.  Sharing his holiness is the antithesis of a short-term benefit” (Donald Guthrie, Tyndale NT Commentaries: Hebrews, p. 255).

William Bates wrote, “The devil usually tempts men in a paradise of delights, to precipitate them into tell; God tries them in the furnace of afflictions, to purify and prepare them for heaven” (Puritan Sermons, Vol. II, p. 597).

Later our writer of Hebrews tells us that without sanctification, or holiness, we will not see the Lord.  God is holy and to have fellowship with Him we must be holy.  But here we are being assured that it is through discipline God so works “that we may share his holiness.”  So that’s a good thing, right?

The most holy of us are those who have properly endured the most discipline.  What a gift, then, discipline is!  Jonathan Edwards says of such people:

They are holy by being made partakers of God’s holiness, Heb. xii. 10. The saints are beautiful and blessed by a communication of God’s holiness and joy, as the moon and planets are bright by the sun’s light. The saint hath spiritual joy and pleasure by a kind of effusion of God on the soul. (John H. Gerstner, The Rational Biblical Theology of Jonathan Edwards , vol. 1 (Powhatan, VA: Berea Publications, 1991), p. 423, quoting from Works (Worcester reprint), IV, p. 174).

What more could we wish in this life?

It ”is only through suffering that we do come to holiness.  And why does He want us holy?  Because He is holy.  The future fellowship He has planned for us is also holy.  He has to get us ready for it.  That’s why the established path is ‘suffering first and the glory which follows.’  For God to let us go through this life unchanged and unholy is unthinkable.  The more holy we become, the more suited we are for a place near Him in the eternal fellowship” (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Hebrews, p. 302).

If only we could remember, when we are going through the pain and trials of discipline, that it really is for our best good, our eternal best good.

God’s willingness to take the time and trouble to discipline us shows that He is more concerned about our sanctification than we often are.  “We care about success; He cares about holiness.  We care about temporary pleasures; He cares about eternal consequences” (Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace, p. 177).  “God puts our regard for him at risk rather than allowing us to continue in courses that would damage us spiritually” (Bryan Chapell, Holiness by Grace, pp. 177-178).

If we want to see God; if we want to live with Him throughout eternity, then we must strive after holiness.  Though we will “hit the wall” many times, we are called to “tough it out,” realizing that the hardships we endure are disciplines that enable us to share in God’s holiness (cf. vv. 4-11).  (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, vol. 2, 178)

God wants us to live in blessed fellowship throughout eternity and that is why He disciplines us—to produce holiness in us.

Then, in verse 11, he says,

11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

He admits that discipline is not pleasant, but painful.  I think we can all agree with that.  Discipline is painful, not pleasant.  Sometimes it really is quite painful, other times we exaggerate the pain beyond what it really is.  But our author admits that discipline is painful.  It is not punishment, but it is painful.  But as the cliché goes, “no pain, no gain.”

It would be weird to be disciplined by your father and to come out laughing.  We can only rejoice from what results from discipline, not the discipline itself.  And it’s okay to acknowledge that pain and even to cry out to God to relieve it, or to ask God to help you persevere in it. 

Even Jesus did that.  In the Garden of Gethsemane he acknowledged the pain of taking our burden of sin.  He was not being punished for His own sins, but for ours.  And was an unendurable burden He was taking on.

He, according to Hebrews 5:7, “offering up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears.”  He submitted to God’s will and did bear the penalty for our sins on the cross.  By the way, notice that our author does not mention Jesus in this passage about discipline.  Although He is our example in how to navigate suffering and trials, He never experienced the discipline of the Father.

Notice, this verse gives us two encouragements to endure God’s discipline and not lose heart.

First, it is “for the moment,” only for a limited time.  Unfortunately, that limited time may be far longer than we would like.  God is always “on time,” just not always on our time!  Compared to the “eternal weight of glory” we will receive it ultimately will seem short and insignificant, but not while we’re going through it.  When Paul is comparing today’s sufferings with eternity’s glory he says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”  In other words, if you do the math, the pain we are going through now will seem like nothing compared to the glory we will experience throughout eternity.  Not only is the glory greater than the pain, but eternity is much longer than “the moment.”

It may not seem like it, but the discipline will eventually be over.  And when we step into eternity, the reward for going through that will be multiplied many times over.  When I was a hospice chaplain I illustrated that by saying, “Take our sun, an extremely large object, but when you compare it to Canus Majoris (which means “big dog”), if our sun were the size of a golf ball, then Canus Majoris would be the size of Mount Everest.  You wouldn’t be able to see a golf ball from the top of Rich Mountain, much less Mount Everest.  It just wouldn’t be visible.  It wouldn’t register.

Secondly, it “later yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness,” but only to those “who have been trained by it.”  As with trials, we have to persevere to receive the full benefits of either trials or God’s hand of discipline.

As we endure and learn our lessons from God’s discipline—whether it is to correct us from some path of sin, or to protect us from some greater sin or to perfect us—it will produce a “peaceful fruit” in our lives.

“The peaceful fruit of righteousness” comes to believers who endure under discipline—not just the objective, imputed righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21), but a subjective, day-to-day righteous life.  To the eyes of onlookers the believer’s righteous life becomes apparent—as he more and more shows the character of God.  But that is just half of the crop, the other half being a harvest of peace— shalom.  As Isaiah wrote, “The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever” (Isaiah 32:17).  Peace— shalom —means not only quietness of soul but wholeness.  As Richard John Neuhaus says: “It means the bringing together of what was separated, the picking up of the pieces, the healing of wounds, the fulfillment of the incomplete, the overcoming of the forces of fragmentation. . . .” (Richard John Neuhaus, Freedom for Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1979), p. 72).

“The righteousness produced by discipline is that perfect righteousness, which, imputed in justification and striven for in the Christian race, is fully imparted when at last the victor stands before his exalted Lord face to face (1 John 3:2); of it is indeed nothing other than the unblemished righteousness of Christ himself” (Philip Edgecombe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 533).

The result of our submission to the discipline process is that God produces a spirit of conformity in our hearts and a new desire to live up to God’s standards…and that leads to true holiness.  As Christians we need to submit to God’s discipline in our lives, “painful” as it may be, because it will result in fullness of life (v. 9), greater holiness (v. 10), and righteousness along with peace (“the peaceful fruit of righteousness”) when we “have been trained by it.”

The word “fruit” in this image “peaceful fruit of righteousness,” reminds us that neither righteousness nor peace are reached quickly.  Spurgeon reminds us, “Many believers are deeply grieved, because they do not at once feel that they have been profited by their afflictions.  Well, you do not expect to see apples or plums on a tree which you have planted but a week.  Only little children put their seeds into their flower-garden, and then expect to see them grow into plants in an hour.”

This, of course, is God’s overall purpose in our lives, to “conform us to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:28-29), using both the good and the bad circumstances in our lives, the trials and the discipline of God, to produce a good result, to become more like Jesus Christ.

Coach Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys is reputed to have said, “The job of a coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do, in order to become what they’ve always wanted to be.”  God also has a good purpose in mind for your life and He is committed to working on us to produce that holy character.

The need is that we allow ourselves to be “trained by it,” to submit to the process and stick to it until God is finished with us.

The word training is gymnazo, from which we get the word “gym,” but literally means “to strip naked.”  This may be because runners ran naked, stripping off every needless weight or encumbrance.

But it also speaks to the image of a trainer looking over an athlete’s naked body, identifying which particular muscles needed a work-out in order to achieve maximum effectiveness in a race or in a match.

God’s trials and discipline are designed to identify and work on those very areas of our lives would trip us up or keep us from achieving God’s purpose in our lives.  “Enduring the trial and standing the test of disciplinary affliction is precisely the ‘training’ of which our author is speaking here.  It is the perspective of  faith which explains the ‘unutterable and exalted joy’ of the Christian athlete as, willingly enduring all things, he fixes his gaze on the glorious Person of him who is the object of his faith and his love (v. 2 above; 1 Pet. 3:8)” (Philip Edgecombe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 533).

God’s training is measured, meaning that He submits us to lesser trials before we encounter the really difficult ones.  Athletes work out on lesser weights or run shorter distances in preparation for lifting heavier weights or running greater distances.

God trained David for Goliath by sending a bear and a lion first.  He trained Abraham for offering up Isaac by gradually weaning him away from leaning upon other surrogates like Lot, Eliezer or Ishmael.  Thus, Genesis 22 begins, “After all these things…”  The really painful trial came after a series of less painful trials.

My question to you this morning is:

• Do you really want to live?
• Do you really want to grow in holiness and righteousness?
• Do you want to experience genuine peace in your life?

I imagine all of us would say, “Yes! I definitely want those things in my life.”

But are we willing to submit to the training process?

That isn’t easy for any of us to do.  And that is why our last response leads us to helping one another and depending upon the Christian community for support and aid.

Finally, we need to reach out and help others.

The final verse in our passage says…

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Our author well understands the tendency we all have to reject well-intentioned advice to submit to this painful training process and just waddle through the mud hole of our own misery.

We derive a kind of perverse pleasure from doing so.  But verses 12-13 give us two specific actions.  The telltale signs of flagging energy are drooping arms, flopping hands, and wobbling knees that reduce the runner’s stride to a halting gait. 

First, strengthen your own feeble arms and weak knees.  Deal with yourself first.  Get your own heart right toward your troubles.

Now, the plural imperative implies a joint effort by many.  We can help each other draw upon the resources of Christ by offering encouraging words and mutual prayers, sharing our experiences and sometimes simply being with a person who is going through a trial.

Second, make straight paths for your feet.  In other words, watch your influence on others.  Take care that you are not a stumbling block to those who travel with you, whose faith may be much weaker than yours.

These two exhortations look back to Isaiah 35:4 where the prophet exhorts:

Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.  He will come and save you.”

This is not only an exhortation to wait patiently for the coming of Christ, but also to expect God to “come” in some sovereign action of deliverance in response to His people’s prayers.  Acts 12 records just such a deliverance.  As the people prayed, an angel released Peter from prison.

The point is, every consideration should be made to help everyone finish the race. 

It reminds me of a race in which, when the gun went off, all the runners began their race.  Those watching, however, knew that this was not a normal race, it was a Special Olympics race. 

As the runners sped down the track as fast as their arms and legs could carry them, at about 25 meters into the race, one of the runners fell, sprawling headlong across the track.  The rest of the contestants continued on down the course a few meters further.

But then, a most amazing thing happened.  All of a sudden, without anyone speaking to anyone else, they ALL stopped dead in their tracks, turned around, and came back to their fallen friend.  Together, they picked her up, dusted her off, and then they ran arm-in-arm to the finish line together.

Really and truly we are all disabled, and the only way we will finish the race is, of course with God’s help, but also the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Elisabeth Elliot lost her first husband, Jim Elliot, to Auca Indian spears.  She lost her second husband, Addison Leitch, to cancer.  In an address to the Urbana Missions Conference (December, 1976), she told of being in Wales and watching a shepherd and his dog.  The dog would herd the sheep up a ramp and into a tank of antiseptic where they had to be bathed.  The sheep would struggle to climb out, but the dog would snarl and snap in their faces to force them back in.  Just as they were about to come up out of the tank, the shepherd used a wooden implement to grab the rams by the horns, fling them back into the tank, and hold them under the antiseptic again for a few seconds.

Mrs. Elliot asked the shepherd’s wife if the sheep understood what was happening.  She replied, “They haven’t got a clue.”  Mrs. Elliot then said, “I’ve had some experiences in my life that have made me feel very sympathetic to those poor rams—I couldn’t figure out any reason for the treatment I was getting from the Shepherd I trusted.  And He didn’t give a hint of explanation.”  But, she pointed out, we still must trust our Shepherd and obey Him, knowing that He has our best interests at heart.

It’s like the lyrics of Babbie Mason’s song Trust His Heart

God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don’t understand
When don’t see His plan
When you can’t trace His hand
Trust His Heart
Trust His Heart

So we may not always know the exact reason we are going through God’s hand of discipline, but we can still trust that He is wise and good.

As we’ve gone through Hebrews 12 so far, we have seen that we are to (1) regard with seriousness and steadfastness God’s rod of discipline so that we get the most out of it; (2) then we are to remember God’s encouraging word that we are His Sons.

Third, then, we are to realize God’s everlasting love.

This love is expressed more explicitly in verse 6, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”  God’s “discipline is the mark not of a harsh and heartless father but of a father who is deeply and lovingly concerned for the well-being of his son” (Philip Hughes, 528).  Discipline is the divinely ordained path to a deepening relationship between God and His children.  To refuse discipline (v. 7) is to turn our back on His love.

He disciplines us not because He is mad at us, not because He hates us, but because He loves us and accepts us.  In fact, Scripture tells us that it is the one who “spares the rod” that “hates their children” (Proverbs 13:24).

The ancient world found it incomprehensible that a father could possibly love his child and not punish him.  In fact, a real son would draw more discipline than, say, an illegitimate child for the precise reason that greater honor and responsibility were to be his.  The ultimate example of this is, of course, Jesus who as the supreme Son “learned obedience through what he suffered.  And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (5:8, 9).  There is no doubt about it—the hardships and disciplines we endure are signs of our legitimacy and ought to be embraced as telltale signs of grace. (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: Volume 2, p. 173).

Do you want to experience God’s love and acceptance?  Sometimes it comes by way of painful discipline.

What is the most common question we ask when we go through hard times?  Does God love me?  Does God care?  Here we are assured that He does love us; He does accept us.  Instead of saying “If I am God’s child, why does he allow me to suffer?” I need to appreciate that it is because I am His child that I am near and dear to His heart and that He is using these trials and sufferings to make me better, to help me to flourish, to become all He has made me to be.

Malcolm Muggeridge went so far as to say that virtually everything that truly enhanced and enlightened his existence came during times of affliction.  He believed that “if it were possible to eliminate affliction from our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo-jumbo, as Aldous Huxley envisaged in Brave New World, the result would not be to make life delectable, but to make it too banal and trivial to be endured” (A Twentieth Century Testimony [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1978], p. 35).

The Greek word for discipline is paideuo, from which we get the nouns paideia, “discipline,” and paideutes, “one who disciplines.”  These all come from the combination of the word for child, pais, and the word deuo, which means coming together with.  So discipline is not merely correcting through some physical pain, but also teaching and training a child as we get together with them and spend time with them.

Discipline will be painful, but again it is redemptive.  It is not mere punishment.  It is a teaching and training mechanism.

While discipline does not necessarily remove the consequences of our sin—we still reap what we sow—God often tempers it with grace if we repent.  If we do not repent, His discipline can become very severe (“scourging”—means, not motive), even to the point of physical death (cf. 1 Cor. 11:29-31).

John Piper points out the importance of understanding and believing that discipline does not mean that God has ceased to love us, but rather understanding and believing that He especially loves us.  He says…

In other words, in your pain, you are not being treated as a slave or as an enemy.  You are being treated as a loved child of God.  The issue is: will you believe this?  Will you let the Word of God settle the issue for you, so that when the suffering comes, you don’t turn on God and put him on the dock and prosecute him with accusations?  He probably will not tell you why it is your turn, or why it is happening now, or why there is so much pain, or why it lasts this long.  But he has told you what you need to know: it is the love of an all-wise Father to a child.  Will you trust Him?

Verse 6, then, the fact that discipline proves that He loves us and receives us (doesn’t reject us) is what makes the attitudes of verse 5 avoidable—of either regarding lightly the discipline of the Lord or becoming weary.

The fourth way to benefit from God’s discipline is to respect God’s holy purpose.

We find God’s purpose in discipline in verse 9, surrounded by verses which tell us why we should submit to and respect God’s discipline.  I know, most of us have an allergic reaction to that word “submit” and would just “rather not, thank you.”

A “Frank & Ernest” cartoon expressed it well.  The two bunglers are standing at the Pearly Gates.  St. Peter has a scowl on his face.  Frank whispers to Ernie, “If I were you, I’d change my shirt, Ernie.”  Ernie’s shirt reads, “Question Authority.”

God is the Ultimate Authority!  Whether you like His program for your life or not, it is not wise to rebel against it.  As verse 9 tells us, if we submit to the Father of our spirits, we will live.  Bishop Westcott (The Epistle to the Hebrews [Eerdmans], p. 402) puts it, “True life comes from complete self-surrender.” 

It is important that we have the proper attitude towards God’s discipline.  Just as earthly parents look for a repentant and submissive spirit and grow concerned when they see hardness and resistance in their children, so does God our Father.

Our text gives us several reasons to respect God’s discipling process.

We’ve already seen that it proves that we really are God’s children.  Verses 7-8 reinforce this.

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure.  God is treating you as sons.  For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

This is a command here.  It is more literally translated, “Endure as discipline.”  Jesus “endured” (v. 2), and it is imperative that we also “endure.”  The reason is that “God is treating you as sons.”

To be disciplined is NOT evidence that we are unbelievers whom God is punishing.  It is the exact opposite.  Discipline proves that we really are God’s children.  He is doing this for our good.  It reveals to us that we really belong in this loving relationship with our heavenly Father.

Far more precarious is the person who sins and gets away with it without any discipline.

What does that show—no discipline in our lives?  According to our author it means we are “illegitimate children and not sons.”  You see, the mark of the unregenerate is that God will let them have their own way, ultimately leading to destruction (Romans 1).

The approved “sons” in view (those “whom He accepts,” v. 6), here in Hebrews, are evidently those who persevere through discipline to the end of their lives, whereas the illegitimate children do not stay the course but apostatize.

Remember that our sins are paid for and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).  Discipline is not punishment for our sins; it is proof of God’s love for us.  Judicially, all our sins were paid for at the cross.  God as our judge declared us “not guilty” on the basis of our faith in Jesus Christ.  But then He adopted us into His family as His children and as His children he disciplines us for our good.

Theodore Laetsch, the Old Testament scholar, makes a most perceptive comment regarding this:

His plans concerning his people are always thoughts of good, of blessing.  Even if he is obliged to use the rod, it is the rod not of wrath, but the Father’s rod of chastisement for their temporal and eternal welfare.  There is not a single item of evil in his plans for his people, neither in their motive, nor in their conception, nor in their revelation, nor in their consummation (Theodore Laetsch, Bible Commentary Jeremiah (St. Louis: Concordia, 1965), pp. 234, 235).

David received a stiff corrective from God.  Having committed adultery with Bathsheba and having her husband murdered to cover it up, David’s child by that illicit union died.  But David did learn from it.  Just read Psalm 51, and also the chastened wisdom of Psalm 119:

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. . . .

It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. (Psalm 119:67, 71)

In the New Testament Paul told the Corinthian church that some of them were suffering illness and even premature death because they were profaning the Lord’s Supper through their greedy, self-centered indulgence.  Again, a harsh corrective, but it came from the heart of their heavenly Father, as Paul explained, “When we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32).

Or consider Paul, it wasn’t his sin, but the gracious purpose of God that humbled him through a “thorn in the flesh.”  Paul prayed for it to be removed but later thanked God as he realized how his thorn had protected him.  We might consider this preventative discipline.

This same realization enabled D. D. Matheson to pray: “Thou Divine Love, whose human path has been perfected by sufferings, teach me the value of any thorn . . . and then shall I know that my tears have been made a rainbow, and I shall be able to say, ‘It was good for me that I have been afflicted.’”  Preventative discipline, properly understood, is seen as a substantial grace.

From here the writer goes on to provide more reasons for the intelligent embrace of and endurance in affliction.

Second, in vv. 9-10, our author argues from the lesser to the greater, God showing that discipline does greatly benefit us.  If discipline from our earthly father benefits us, then how much more God’s discipline will benefit us.

9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.  Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

Here our author is using the qal wahomer argument, a Hebraism of arguing from the lesser to the greater.  In Latin it is called an a fortiori argument.  In this case our author is saying that human fathers (weak in comparison to God’s divine power and limited in comparison to God’s divine wisdom) still discipline us for our good, but God (greater in every way) provides even better discipline.

Respect and submission characterized ancients in regard to their natural fathers—and it developed a disciplined productive life in the child.  But how much more should we submit to our supernatural Father and live a life that is life indeed!  Submission to the discipline of our temporal fathers brought good things, but how much more will come through submission to the discipline of our eternal Father.

Not all of us have known by experience what a model father is, but I think most of us do know by intuition what a good father is.  God is even greater; He is that perfect Father and has planted that intuition in us of what a perfect Father is like.

Earthly fathers have limited wisdom and patience.  Sometimes they get it right and sometimes they discipline too harshly or too hard or in anger.  Sometimes we fathers showed favoritism. Sometimes we punished the wrong child. When we grow into adulthood we often realize “they did the best they could.”

God, however, is always perfect in His discipline.  He has never made a mistake.  He never misses the mark.  He always has our highest good in mind, knows exactly how much discipline we need and how to use it to correct, protect and perfect us.

Nothing is wasted in God’s disciplining training.  Nothing goes too far.  It also achieves its purpose and is always for our best.

Imagine where you would be in life right now without any parental discipline!  Without that restraining and training hand of discipline, all manner of rebellion would have fomented in your heart and life and you would surely have headed towards disaster.

If you doubt this, just take a look at the prison rolls; most of them are evidence of men and women who for the most part lacked parental discipline.

The Bible actually says that parents who will not discipline “hate” their children.  This is because children without discipline have inadequate guidance to keep them from danger.  Thus, God’s willingness to discipline confirms that we are children for whom he cares.

If our earthly parents discipline us “for our good,” then God the Father is able to do this more better than any earthly parent.

Submitting to God’s discipline is not easy.  But faith eventually arrives at saying, as A. W. Pink put it (An Exposition of Hebrews), “The trial was not as severe as it could have been.  It was not as severe as I deserve.  And, my Savior suffered far worse for me.”  And so faith submits to the Father’s discipline, trusting that He administers it perfectly for His eternal purpose and for my eternal good.”

When we submit ourselves to the Father’s discipline, we “live” (at the end of v. 9).  We will experience the fullness of eternal life and flourish in this life.  “The result of this submission is an abundant life (12:9).  Though our lives will never be perfect and without pain and suffering, staying on the path of faithful obedience will enhance and enrich our lives (Prv 6:23; 10:16-17; 29:15).  It will save us from many avoidable hardships and much pain that comes through sin and disobedience.  And it will give us peace and joy even in the midst of our suffering”  (Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary–Hebrews, 198).

“Those who live life to the fullest are those who do not buck God’s discipline but rather knowingly embrace it. If your spiritual life is static and unfulfilling, it may be because you are consciously or unconsciously resisting God’s discipline. If so, God’s Word to you is, submit to him and begin to truly live!” (R. Kent Hughes, Hebrews: Volume 2, p. 173).

Human fathers, even with the best of intention, can only chasten imperfectly because they lack perfect knowledge.  The all-knowing God can chasten us perfectly, with better and more lasting results than even the best earthly father.