Heb 12:6-11 | JFB | STEP | 6. ( .) and — Greek, "yea and," "and moreover"; bringing out an additional circumstance. scourgeth —which draws forth "blood" ( ). receiveth —accepts. Takes to Himself as a son "in whom He delighteth " ( ).

Hebrews 12:6-11

and—Greek, "yea and," "and moreover"; bringing out an additional circumstance.

scourgeth—which draws forth "blood" (Heb 12:4).

receiveth—accepts. Takes to Himself as a son "in whom He delighteth" (Pr 3:12).

7. In Heb 12:7, 8 the need of "chastening" or "discipline" is inculcated; in Heb 12:9, the duty of those to whom it is administered.

If—The oldest manuscripts read, "With a view to chastening (that is, since God's chastisement is with a view to your chastening, that is, disciplinary amelioration) endure patiently"; so Vulgate. ALFORD translates it as indicative, not so well, "It is for chastisement that ye are enduring."

dealeth with you—"beareth Himself toward you" in the very act of chastening.

what son is he—"What son is there" even in ordinary life? Much more God as to His sons (Isa 48:10; Ac 14:22). The most eminent of God's saints were the most afflicted. God leads them by a way they know not (Isa 42:16). We too much look at each trial by itself, instead of taking it in connection with the whole plan of our salvation, as if a traveller were to complain of the steepness and roughness of one turn in the path, without considering that it led him into green pastures, on the direct road to the city of habitation. The New Testament alone uses the Greek term for education (paideia), to express "discipline" or correction, as of a child by a wise father.

8. if ye be without—excluded from participation in chastisement, and wishing to be so.

all—all sons: all the worthies enumerated in the eleventh chapter: all the witnesses (Heb 12:1).

are—Greek, "have been made."

then are ye bastards—of whom their fathers take no care whether they are educated or not; whereas every right-minded father is concerned for the moral well-being of his legitimate son. "Since then not to be chastised is a mark of bastardy, we ought [not to refuse, but] rejoice in chastisement, as a mark of our genuine sonship" [CHRYSOSTOM].

9. fathers . . . which corrected us—rather as Greek, "We had the fathers of our flesh as correctors."

subjection—See the punishment of insubordination, De 21:18.

Father of spirits—contrasted with "the fathers of our flesh." "Generation by men is carnal, by God is spiritual" [BENGEL]. As "Father of spirits," He is both the Originator, and the Providential and Gracious Sustainer, at once of animal and spiritual life. Compare "and LIVE," namely, spiritually; also Heb 12:10, "that we might be partakers of His holiness" (2Pe 1:4). God is a spirit Himself, and the Creator of spirits like Himself, in contrast to men who are flesh, and the progenitors of flesh (Joh 3:6). Jesus our pattern "learned obedience" experimentally by suffering (Heb 5:8).

and live—and so, thereby live spiritually and eternally.

10. Showing wherein the chastisement of our heavenly Father is preferable to that of earthly fathers.

for a few days—that is, with a view to our well-being in the few days of our earthly life: so the Greek.

after their own pleasure—Greek, "according to what seemed fit to themselves." Their rule of chastening is what may seem fit to their own often erring judgment, temper, or caprice. The two defects of human education are: (1) the prevalence in it of a view to the interests of our short earthly term of days; (2) the absence in parents of the unerring wisdom of our heavenly Father. "They err much at one time in severity, at another in indulgence [1Sa 3:13; Eph 6:4], and do not so much chasten as THINK they chasten" [BENGEL].

that we might be partakers of his holiness—becoming holy as He is holy (Joh 15:2). To become holy like God is tantamount to being educated for passing eternity with God (Heb 12:14; 2Pe 1:4). So this "partaking of God's holiness" stands in contrast to the "few days" of this life, with a view to which earthly fathers generally educate their sons.

11. joyous . . . grievous—Greek, "matter of joy . . . matter of grief." The objection that chastening is grievous is here anticipated and answered. It only seems so to those being chastened, whose judgments are confused by the present pain. Its ultimate fruit amply compensates for any temporary pam. The real object of the fathers in chastening is not that they find pleasure in the children's pain. Gratified wishes, our Father knows, would often be our real curses.

fruit of righteousness—righteousness (in practice, springing from faith) is the fruit which chastening, the tree yields (Php 1:11). "Peaceable" (compare Isa 32:17): in contrast to the ordeal of conflict by which it has been won. "Fruit of righteousness to be enjoyed in peace after the conflict" [THOLUCK]. As the olive garland, the emblem of peace as well as victory, was put on the victor's brow in the games.

exercised thereby—as athletes exercised in training for a contest. Chastisement is the exercise to give experience, and make the spiritual combatant irresistibly victorious (Ro 5:3). "Oh, happy the servant for whose improvement his Lord is earnest, with whom he deigns to be angry, whom He does not deceive by dissembling admonition" (withholding admonition, and so leading the man to think he needs it not)! [TERTULLIAN, Patience, 11]. Observe the "afterwards"; that is the time often when God works.