3Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. 4After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin. 5And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, “My child, don’t make light of the LORD’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. 6For the LORD disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” 7As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? 8If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. 9Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? 10For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 11No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.
Hebrews 12:3-11
How are we to understand this next section? By reading it in the context in which it was written. From the examples shared in the previous chapter the author has continued the challenge to his readers to prove themselves to be in the same category as the earlier heroes of faith. His readers appear to have not been willing to suffer because they have forgotten that the Father of their Souls disciplines them in order to bring forth their faith as tested like gold. Thus the writer seeks to recalibrate their thinking to be more in line with their Heavenly Father’s purpose. Thus they are to consider Jesus as their prime example and think of His willingness to endure hostility and suffering as the bench mark for them to emulate. Understanding that they have not yet given their lives to the point of being willing to shed their own blood to follow in the example of Christ. In order to focus their attention, the writer has clipped a quote from the Wisdom literature, the Writings.
My child, don’t reject the LORD’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.
Proverbs 3:11-12
Allow me to explain the nature of their forgetting and what the writer is doing here. Let’s investigate the word for ‘forget’. The word used in Greek is the word [ἐκλανθάνομαι – eklanthanomai]. The sense of this word is “to forget entirely” or “to be utterly oblivious of that which we once knew”, “to have utterly forgotten to the point where not a vestige of something we once knew remains”. Now that is a sad state to be in. It equates and perhaps results from the sense of “drifting” we encountered in Chapter 2, which I explained for you in Gem 2045 – The Danger of Drifting and Gem 2046 – Spiritual Drifting.
Hence the writer has picked up this quote from Proverbs to remind them that God’s discipline and correction is designed to bring them back to their senses and to mature them into His spiritual children. Those who become fully mature by discipline and correction are those in whom He can form the image of Christ because He loves them so much. Being disciplined is a good thing. Hasn’t this writer taken the time to instruct them in this process by recounting the stories of the God’s discipline meted out to the Israelites in the wilderness so that they would reach the Promised Land and the Life of the Age to Come? Do you recall we spent some time on that lesson from Hebrews 3:7 to 4:13? Or have you too forgotten so quickly, perhaps even so thoroughly as these ones mentioned above? I hope not! I believe you are starting to see how this letter is not a series of random unconnected pericope, but in actual fact they form a carefully constructed letter to lead the Jewish Christians to emulate the ancient ones who learned their lesson.
He tells these Jewish Christians in the time of writing not to “faint” [ἐκλύω – ekluō] in verse 12:3. The idea is to not become weary or exhausted to the point where you grow fainthearted or ‘faint in your minds’ (KJV). I wonder whether the author of Hebrews has in mind the persecution of the Roman arena and these Christians facing the gladiators or the wild beasts and their hearts failing them. It certainly seems to fit that kind of scenario. These are people who we have read have faced this persecution before.
Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. Sometimes you were exposed to public ridicule and were beaten, and sometimes you helped others who were suffering the same things. You suffered along with those who were thrown into jail, and when all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.
Hebrews 10:32-36
Don’t throw it all away now because you have lost heart or grown faint and are on the verge of giving up! Remember what you have forgotten. And what is that? The persecution and suffering is not a result of God punishing you for evil things you have done. It is a sign that you are indeed His child because He uses these circumstances you find yourselves in to train you to be willing to become like those the author of Hebrews told us about in verses 11:35-38. Remember your Heavenly Father is considering you worthy of giving your life for His sake by faith. What a privilege! If you have forgotten “those others“, at least remember the example of your Lord and Saviour Jesus. You have not yet given up your lives to the point of shedding your own blood like Jesus. But if you should encounter such a moment consider yourself to be among those of whom the world is not worthy.
The writer has used the analogy of earthly fathers disciplining their children in order to correct them and give them the right perspective on life. Not to punish them for punishment’s sake. How much more should we be willing to submit to God’s chastening or discipline, believing that He has our best interests at heart. How can that be possible when He allows us to be put in situations where we may die? How is that for our benefit? God Himself knows the fact that this world is against you because you are His. He knows satan, the enemy of our souls wants to see you forsake Christ and miss out on eternal life. If earthly fathers discipline their children in order to protect them from the things that might harm them, how much more would our Heavenly Father do the same in order to bring you through to the Life of the Age to Come?
The way the author has connected these two ideas links faith and discipline / suffering as a test of trust in God that He indeed knows what He is doing. Just as a child must learn that when his earthly father may smack him for trying to put his finger in the light socket, so too God uses unpleasant experiences to train us to heed His instructions. After all He knows the Truth of what we can’t see with earthly eyes. Trials are not the evidence of God’s displeasure but of His love. In the same way your earthly father’s smack is to protect you from what will harm you.
Those heroes the writer used as examples in Hebrews 11 showed how they held on to their faith despite the disparate outcomes of their experience. Some were successful, others seemingly were failures and suffered. But hang on, don’t miss the little word [μέτοχοι] in verse 3:1 and in 12:8.
And so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are partners with those called to heaven, think carefully about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s messenger and High Priest.
Hebrews 3:1
Now if you are without any discipline, in which all sons share, then you are illegitimate and not God’s sons.
Hebrews 12:8
Those of us who are truly God’s children are sharers or partners [μέτοχοι] in the group experience of being children of God. Some of us will be called to suffer and some of us will evade suffering. But all of us share in the suffering together as part of the testimony of the saints of God. That is why the writer can say “we together with them are being perfected”. [12:40] Some in the days of Nero’s persecution escaped the sword and being tortured, others were put to death in horrific ways. But whether you suffered or you escaped suffering, you were still a partner in the collective story of being a child of God. The same thing is true today. Many living in New Zealand have told me “this idea of persecution is a thing of the past. Christians are not persecuted in that way anymore.” Really, that’s what you think? It might surprise you to know that according to Open Doors statistics at least 360 million Christians experienced “high levels of persecution and discrimination in 2022.” This was 20 million higher than in 2021. The number of Christians killed for their faith rose to 5,898 in 2022, up from 4,761 in 2021. I read recently Patrick Sookhdeo’s book (Barnabas Fund) Hated Without Reason in which Patrick looks at the remarkable story of Christian persecution over the centuries. It is just not true that persecution of God’s children is a thing of the past. It is just as prevalent in this day and age as it ever has been. Whether you experienced persecution because you refuse to recant your faith and trust in Jesus or not, you are still a partner or sharer in others’ suffering to the same extent that the Jewish Christians in Nero’s time were.
Don’t lose perspective and grow faint hearted in your commitment to Christ. Don’t forget that persecution could well happen to you too as a sharer in the common experience of those who are God’s children.
Trust and belief in Jesus is very personal. It is not something that occurs in a group. Every soul must work through their faith and decide for themselves whether they can trust Jesus or not.
Ian
Trust and belief in Jesus is also a group thing. We stand in solidarity with those who are being persecuted. Let the experience of Dominggus Kenjam convince you that by naming Christ as your Saviour could get you killed.
Ian
Great faith is the product of great fights… Great triumphs can only come out of great trials.
Smith Wigglesworth
The more weight your faith has to carry, the bigger your faith is going to get!
T D Jakes