Hebrews 12:4–13
“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,
My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.
Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”
When life is difficult
If your idea of a life of faith is less problems, less challenges, God answering every prayer in the way and time you want, this passage is going to make you uncomfortable.
How do you cope when life is difficult? How do you process the reality of suffering? How do you make sense of life when things come at you that seem to make no sense or have no purpose?
People respond to difficulty and suffering in one of these ways:
· Some people resign themselves to it and accept it.
· Some people are crushed by it.
· Some grow by it.
If you choose a posture of growth, it may not ease the suffering or stop the pain, but it will mean a move from being victimized by suffering to deriving value out of the suffering.
Suffering because of others
This passage is mostly about this suffering because of the actions of others. In verse 3, speaking of Jesus, he writes, “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners…” For the original audience so much of what they were enduring was the result of the actions of people who were hostile and hurtful.
Suffering because of the fall
When our first human parents sinned, the world changed. Paradise was ruined. The world as God intended it as a place of human flourishing became a place of struggle. All of us experience suffering because the world is out of alignment with God’s perfect design.
Suffering because of ourselves
My behavior has consequences. A person commits adultery and loses a marriage. A person steals and goes to jail. A person cheats and loses their job. All sin can be forgiven. All sin can be covered by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. However, in this life we experience the consequences of our own mistakes and sins.
How we process suffering
Regardless of whether you are a Christian or not, all of humanity experiences difficulties and suffering from these three sources. The difference is that for people who have embraced the Biblical faith we’ve been studying in Hebrews 11; we process suffering with an understanding and a perspective that turns it from something that works against us to something that works for our benefit.
For the believers who received this letter he writes in verses 5 that they had forgotten that for the Christian, hardships can be purposeful. If you forget that, it’s easy to grow weary and eventually to despair.
A godly perspective
As this passage unfolds the writer uses three metaphors to give us a godly perspective on suffering:
· God as Father (verses 5–10)
· God as Coach (verse 11)
· God as Gardener (verse 11)
God as Father (verses 5–10)
The writer takes the reader back to the wisdom of Solomon in Proverbs 3 to remind them that the heart of God is the heart of a loving father.
The word that is translated as “discipline” in these verses carries the idea of the whole training and education of a child and relates to the cultivation and development of the child’s mind and morals and character.
It’s the actions of a loving parent who uses commands and admonition employed to form a child into a person of virtue and goodness and godly character. The concern and the goal of discipline is that the child flourishes. It’s never payback or retribution. It’s always for building them up.
Good, loving parents will do what they think is best. However, they are not omniscient. They don’t know all the facts. They are limited in their understanding of what is of ultimate good for their child. With Father God he is a perfect father who knows me and knows precisely what is needed for me to become who He designed me to be.
Understanding that when hardship comes it informs my response. No longer is it “Why me?” but rather, “How can I cooperate with all that God wants to do in me?”
When I know that a loving Father is watching over me, trouble and suffering have an entirely different meaning. Certainly, in our pain, it may seem like God is silent or absent. But the truth of God’s word assures me that God is very present and anything but indifferent.
God as Coach (verse 11)
Chapter 12 starts with the idea that the Christian life is a race. It’s the picture of a well-trained athlete who has trained and continues to condition and stay in shape for the race.
God is working in your life like an athletic coach. The way that an athlete becomes better and stronger is by way of training. The way you grow a muscle is by breaking it down. After you break it down what your body rebuilds is stronger.
For most of us the dilemma is that we want to have the body of an athlete but the price of getting there is too high. It hurts too much. Breaking down the muscle by pushing your physical limits is necessary but uncomfortable.
It’s only after you’ve persisted and persevered and pushed through the pain that you see the benefits of what you put your body through.
Right now, you may be going through some things, and they don’t make sense and it seems like your prayers that God deliver you are falling on deaf ears—trust the coach. He’s working all things for your good. You’re being torn down not as a way to destroy you but as the only way to build strength and character and virtue in you.
God has a way of building your life through everything that comes into your life. Even the things that are done to you by people with evil intent—God won’t let that go to waste in your life. When He chooses not to heal or not to intervene, He’s still at work in ways that we may not understand amid of our discomfort.
God as Gardener (verse 11)
There’s a mixing of metaphors in verse 11. There’s the metaphor of an athlete. But there’s also the reference to “harvest.” Of course, a tree doesn’t experience pain like we do but there is physical damage, but there is some trauma to the tree. The cutting away is done for one reason: fruitfulness.
A fruit tree that’s never pruned eventually grows lots of leaves but not fruit. The gardener is looking for fruit.
3 thoughts on discipline
Tough times are not God’s punishment
Discipline is not punitive. As a follower of Jesus, your sins were dealt with when Jesus went to the cross. He paid the penalty in full. God doesn’t come back for more payment by inflicting pain on you. Paul says it so well in Romans 8:1 “…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
As a believer, God is not paying you back for your sin in the hardships of life. You are no longer living under that curse. Jesus fully absorbed the curse for you.
Don’t waste tough times
Of course, we don’t wish for or welcome pain on ourselves or for others. But when it comes, realize that it’s not there to destroy you. God is at work through it to refine you and to polish off the rough edges and to form you more and more into the image of Jesus.
You are being trained. Lean into the growth.
Learn from Joseph
In Genesis chapters 37 through 50 we track Joseph’s life from age 17 to his death about 90 years later. At 17, hated by his brothers, he’s sold into slavery. He’s purchased by an Egyptian official and ends up in jail on false charges.
Through a miracle he is released from prison and goes on to a high position in the Egyptian government. Years later his brothers come looking to buy food because of famine. They don’t recognize Joseph, but he inquires and finds out about his father and younger brother.
When he finally reveals his identity to his brothers, they are sure that he will use his position to punish them. Instead, he says this in Gen 50:20, “You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
There is never a moment where God is absent. There is never a moment when God has abandoned you. There is never a moment when God is indifferent. In and through all of the things you experience He is working all things for your good.
— Notes from Pastor Marvin Wojda’s sermon on July 18th, 2021
CLICK HERE to watch the Hebrews 12 (part 2) sermon on YouTube.