The Lord disciplines the one He loves

Article for August 24, 2025

Hebrews 12:3–4  ³ Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Do you think about what it would take to be put to death in a painful and embarrassing way for something you are not guilty of?  Do you think about Jesus being put to death in a most humiliating way for those He loves?  Do you think about taking the punishment for others as Jesus did even though you did not deserve this torturous means of being crucified?  What does this verse say?  Consider Him who endured.  Consider all that Jesus endured for you before you consider what you are enduring now or have endured.

In our life’s struggle we have not resisted as much as we should and certainly not to the point of shedding our own blood.  Unless you consider a woman giving birth.  Think of how Jesus endured the humility, pain, and the means of His death on a criminal’s cross.  Then think of looking down on people who once listened to you and now out of ignorance and sin despise you and scream for you to be crucified.  Jesus endured the pain, humiliation, and death, even death on a humiliating cross meant for the criminal, adulterer, thief, murderer, liar, and deceiver.

Hebrews 12:5–6  5And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?  “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

We may whine and cry about those things we feel are working against us or holding us back.  We may give-up or quit because we feel life is too tough and to change is too hard.  We look at being disciplined as failure instead of seeing the love of God who is trying to teach us the good ways, the godly ways. 

We have an opportunity when disciplined.  The opportunity is that we can learn from our mistakes and our sins.  Learning instead of sulking helps us to become better sons and daughters, better people, representatives of our Father in heaven.  When we bring God joy, God brings us joy, so it is good to endure and learn.

Think of discipline in this way; God loves us so much that He treats us as His children.  God is bringing us up to be mature Christians and true believers who will live forever.  What parent, who loves their children, would not discipline their children and bring them up to be godly children, polite, giving, helpful, responsible, and enduring in all things. 

This is what our heavenly Father is doing for us when He disciplines us.  God is preparing us for our eternal life with Him.  Know this, there is no eternal life without our Lord and Savior.  Our Father in heaven is showing us His love for He wants to keep us as His children, His people in this life and in the next life.  So, endure and learn, feel God’s love for you, and thank Him gracefully for His disciplinary love for you.

Hebrews 12:7–8 7It 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? 8If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Life is tough at times, and we are the ones who make it tough, not God just us.  Many want to blame it on others or even God, but the truth is we make our own bad choices.  I know, some of you still think your bad luck is someone else’s fault, but truth be told don’t live blaming others, but live by the very word of God. 

Life may always show its difficulties but endure and God will help you endure.  Learn and God will help you learn.  Remember God gets you through your troubles, He does not put you through your troubles unless He is disciplining you, then learn from it all.  After all God is our Father and we are His children, and God wants you to have joy in your life here, but especially joy in your eternal life.

Hebrews 12:12–14 12Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Many people are walking around today with drooping and sad faces.  These people have been lied to, given false hopes, and feel their happiness has been stolen and now is everyone else’s responsibility.  We have many people who we let lead us, who gives us false hopes and adds to our troubled thinking so that they can exploit our problems to feed their own advantage and means.  We need to listen to actions instead of listening to beautiful sounding words.  We need to listen to the actions of our Lord Jesus Christ whose actions speaks loudly of true salvation.

Hebrews 12:22–24 22But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

The “sprinkled blood that speaks”.  Jesus shed His blood for all of us as He endured the death on the criminal’s cross.  His action on the cross was and is the forgiveness for all sins past, present, and future.  This forgiveness is for all, but for those who believe Jesus was resurrected to everlasting life.  If Jesus endured the cross for us, we surely are able to endure the discipline which is the love of God for us.  Now we have been given the gift of eternal life but remember this is an eternal relationship with our Creator and our Savior.  What better life could one have but to have life with our Lord Jesus Christ forever. 

Amen.

Written by Pastor Curtis A. May